DALLAS (ABP) — The storied pulpit that launched the careers of legendary Baptist pastors George W. Truett and W.A. Criswell may be moving into a new building.
The current pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Robert Jeffress, has proposed building a new sanctuary on the historic church's downtown campus, which takes up parts of several city blocks. According to the Dallas Morning News, he showed architectural proposals for a contemporary-style sanctuary building to worshipers during morning services Jan. 6.
Jeffress, who took the reins of the 10,000-member congregation last August, said he wants the church to be in the middle of the city's latest building boom.
“The finest facility in the heart of downtown Dallas ought to be a worship center dedicated to almighty God,” Jeffress, 51, said.
But while the new facility would replace a group of educational buildings owned by the church, it would not require demolishing the church's historic sanctuary.
The modified Gothic-style auditorium was completed in 1891, but has been remodeled and expanded several times since then. It has seen the church through its halcyon days under Truett and Criswell — whose tenures there took up nearly the entire 20th century.
In more recent years, as members moved to Dallas' sprawling suburbs and joined churches more convenient to their homes, First Baptist's congregation has declined significantly. Nonetheless, the 2,000-seat sanctuary is still too small to hold First Baptist's average Sunday-morning attendance of around 3,000. The church currently hosts three Sunday-morning worship services.
Jeffress also said a new worship center is necessary because the historic building is not technologically advanced enough to host a 21st-century worship ministry.
“It is not a sanctuary that will help us reach a new generation,” he said.
First Baptist made a commitment to its downtown location during an era when many similar historically white churches followed their members to the suburbs. But, since the late 1990s, downtown Dallas has experienced a residential and cultural boom. In 2006, the church opened the Criswell Center, a community-oriented facility, on its campus. It still owes $9 million on the $49 million building, and Jeffress said the church would have to address that debt before raising funds for the new building.
Church leaders have formed a planning committee that will make a recommendation on a new worship center at the end of 2008, the Morning News reported. Jeffress said the historic sanctuary will be used mostly for weddings and funerals after the new facility is completed.
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