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By MEG HERNDON | Staff Writer

CALERA – Christian Life Fellowship, a Calera-based church, is set to move to a new facility in April. The first service in the new building will take place on Sunday, April 10 at 10 a.m. followed by a building dedication at 2 p.m.

The church, which was originally located at 7374 Hwy 31, will move into a larger facility at 6107 Hwy 31, half a mile from its original building.

“We were growing and needed more space,” said Christian Life Fellowship pastor Mark Davis. “We started a building program and intended to build on the property we had been at. After looking at building prices, we realized that we could just move into this facility cheaper than we could build at our current location. So, it just made sense to us to do that.”

With 18,000 square feet, the new building has three times more property than the church’s previous location which only had 6,400 square feet. The new facility also has more classroom space and a larger seating capacity in the auditorium.

Before the first service in the building on April 10, Christian Life Fellowship will also hold an outdoor concert at the new location on Sunday, April 3 at 10 a.m. featuring guitarist Kim Klaudt. Davis said they will use this event as an opportunity to celebrate the new property and grill hotdogs and hamburgers.

Davis, who planted the church in 2002, said that the growth of the church has been exciting to see.

“It’s been 20 years of steady growth, not explosive growth but steady growth,” Davis said. “We were just at a point where we needed a larger facility to handle the number of kids coming in and the people that the lords sending us. It’s been fun to watch it happen, been a lot of hard work.”

Davis said that Christian Life Fellowship focuses on helping those who typically fall through the cracks or are marginalized such as people in recovery or who struggle with “life-controlling issues.”

“We’ve been able to see tons of people come in and the lord has blessed them and restored their families and careers,” he said. “We just tried to create a church environment where people loved where they were at, and we serve them the best we can. Try to love them back to health again.”

Helping others and running the church is a group effort Davis said.

“It’s not my show, we have a strong team of pastoral leadership here who give sacrificially to make things happen. We have a great group of volunteers who pitch in, and they basically run the ministries,” he said. “It’s a real family environment and all of us pitch in to make it happen.”