The Church of the Highlands, a Birmingham-based congregation with dozens of branch locations in Alabama and Georgia, will open its new 800-seat Opelika worship center on Sunday, April 13.

“The Opelika area is growing, and we’re honored to grow along with it,” said the Rev. Mark Pettus, who took over as lead pastor of The Church of the Highlands on Feb. 2. “We can’t wait to serve more, gather more, worship more and do all that our new campus home allows us to do.”

The Church of the Highlands was founded in 2001 in the fine arts auditorium at Mountain Brook High School and opened its flagship campus in Irondale in 2007.

It has since opened more than 20 branch campuses in Alabama as far north as Florence and Huntsville, as far south as Mobile and Daphne, and in Auburn, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa, along with branch campuses across the state line in Columbus and Newnan, Georgia.

“We are one church that meets in locations across Alabama and Georgia,” said Founding Pastor Chris Hodges, who stepped down as lead pastor this year to focus on his role as chancellor of Highlands College.

The Opelika branch campus of the Church of the Highlands has been meeting for nearly 10 years at a city-owned gymnasium, the Opelika Sportsplex, said Opelika Campus Pastor Kevin Haefner.

It began meeting on Feb. 1, 2015. “We had 413 people show up that first Sunday, 10 years ago,” Haefner said. “This past Sunday we had 1,228 people. That’s just God’s favor and grace.”

The city gym didn’t open until 1 p.m. on Sundays, so the Church of the Highlands set-up team would arrive at 5:30 a.m., set up for services at 8 a.m., 9:45 and 11:30 a.m., then have everything moved out by 1 p.m.

“We’ve had 533 Sundays at the Sportsplex,” Haefner said.

The next will be in the new building on Palm Sunday, just in time for Holy Week, when the Church of the Highlands plans extra services for Easter weekend, April 18-20, with 120 services total at all locations combined, on Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.

Hodges returned to preach April 6, and will also preach on Palm Sunday, April 13, and for the Easter weekend services. “He’s going to preach a lot still,” Haefner said.

All sermons, whether by Pettus, Hodges or another staff member, are livestreamed from the Grants Mill campus to all the other branches.

Each branch has its own praise team with live music, but hears the same sermon.

“The 26 campuses get to have one message, one heartbeat,” said Haefner.

That means campus pastors don’t have to spend time on sermon preparation, which frees up more time for personally meeting and praying with church members, Haefner said.

“It allows me to spend time with my people,” Haefner said. “I meet with people every day.”

He’s already had people stop by his office, that opened Wednesday at the new building, to pray with him.

“My door is always open,” Haefner said. “If they need me, I’m a phone call, a text away.”

When he’s busy, a whole term is ready to meet and pray with those who are in need. “I’ve got a team that is gifted in pastoral leadership, the Dream Teamers, which are volunteers,” Haefner said. “They’re probably better than I am at it.”

Grand opening services at the Opelika campus are Sunday, April 13, at 8 a.m., 9:45 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

For more information on the opening of the Opelika Campus: https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/campuses/opelika.