Dubbo Baptist Church to launch bold expansion plan
Dubbo’s Baptist Church has outgrown its current site and lodge a $1 million proposal to attract more families and children, partly funded by its parishoners.
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Dubbo’s Baptist Church will soon undergo a $1 million transformation if an expansion plan is approved.
A growing number of parishioners has meant the church has outgrown its Cobra Street site and needs more space.
The church is seeking Dubbo Regional Council approval to expand the existing building where services are held and build new spaces for storage and for hosting kids activities.
A new 22-space carpark is also proposed.
Dubbo Baptist Church secretary Carolyn Brown said the expansion plan had been in the pipeline for about three years.
“We’ve run out of room for our Sunday morning service, we’ve seen it grow with more young families and parents bringing their children along,” she said.
“We just don’t have the room to accommodate the children of a Sunday, nor do we have the room to accommodate the youth that attend here of a Friday afternoon for the youth group.
“A committee formed about three years ago to discuss our options.”
Ms Brown said in June last year, the church community agreed on what the expansion would look like.
To fund the estimated $1 million expansion, she said the church would look to tap into existing cash reserves and ask for donations from parishioners.
“A lot of that money is in the change of the roof structure, it’s certainly more than what the church was hoping.
“We called on the church to make pledges or donations ... some people have set-up a monthly offering to go towards the payment, other people have given one off generous donations.
“I don’t think we’re 100 per cent at the point of where we can proceed but we’re still just moving along and just having the faith that the money will come.”
Despite a COVID-19 fuelled decline in parishioner numbers, Ms Brown said she was hopeful numbers would pick up in the future when the pandemic ends and gathering restrictions were eased further.
Dubbo Regional Council is currently assessing the church’s development application.