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By NOAH WORTHAM | Staff Writer

ALABASTER – The Alabaster Campus for the Church of the Highlands is set to debut its new building with church services on Sunday, Aug. 27.

“We are looking forward to having a permanent location to serve the community,” said Layne Schranz, associate pastor of the Church of the Highlands.

The Alabaster Church of the Highlands has met at Thompson Middle School since March of 2015, but now members will be able to worship  for the first time at the church’s new building this Sunday.

“We’re so grateful for the school’s willingness to partner with us to serve the community,” Schranz said.  “And during that, we’ve made investments into the school and improvements even beyond our weekly rental that we were paying them. We’re very grateful for them, it’s been a great relationship with the school.”

Schranz discussed some of the amenities that will be offered at the new location.

“We have a beautiful fun, safe and secure kids’ facilities for our Highlands Kids, our babies through elementary,” Schranz said. “We’ve got a really nice auditorium that seats 850 of the adults for services.”

The Church of the Highlands Alabaster is located at 8495 Highway 119 Alabaster 35007. The grand opening will be on Aug. 27 with normal church service hours of 8 a.m.,  9:45 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Schranz shared that, during the services, the church will be hiring local law enforcement to help with ingress and egress much like the church’s many other locations.

“Our main goal as a church is to help people know God, find freedom (and) discover their purpose, so that they can make a difference,” Schranz said.

Schranz shared that the Church of the Highlands  holds a community outreach ministry of some form on the first Saturday of the month.

The Alabaster Church of the Highlands will also hold an outreach event on Saturday, Aug. 26. The church is partnering with Manna Ministries and Vineyard Family Services to distribute food and lunch for families in need as well as give away backpacks loaded with food for low income families and their kids. Those interested may visit from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.