Zachary Burns wouldn’t say his church’s growth has been quick.
But he would say it’s been steady.
“We’ve been blessed by God and we take that responsibility very seriously,” said Burns, a member of Kyuka Missionary Baptist Church, Attalla, in Etowah Baptist Association.
The rural church may not be big — it runs about 90 in worship attendance — but it is active in missions and outreach, he said.
And because of that it’s making room for more.
“Our new building is going to hold 280 — it’s going to be a lot bigger,” Burns said.
Outgrown its space
Pastor Jeremy Burns said sometimes people come to visit and find the church full and they’re uncomfortable coming in. Not to mention the fact that the current sanctuary — though it’s beautiful — forces folks to cross in front of the pulpit to go to the bathroom, he said.
“I’ve been pastor here for almost five years and even before I was here I feel like the church had almost outgrown the space. We wanted to make the room and we wanted people to feel comfortable coming.”
Kyuka Baptist, Jeremy Burns said, has a heart for ministry and missions and to see their community know Christ.
“We’re not building it for ourselves — we’re building it for God’s kingdom, not man’s kingdom,” he said. “God has grown us not just in numbers but He has grown us spiritually, too, and we just felt like it was time.”
The current church building had been around for 104 years and it’s seen a lot of change, Zachary Burns said.
“There was a wooden building that caught fire before we had the sanctuary we have today,” he said. “We’ve been in this particular building a while.”
But the church split once with part of the congregation moving to start a sister church in the area, Zachary Burns explained.
“They’re a thriving church and they’ve been helping us with our building process,” he said.
It’s because of the healthy outlook of believers in the community that Kyuka has grown, he said.
“We are very active for a small country church. We take home missions and international missions very seriously.”
Jeremy Burns agreed and said he sees God moving them forward to be able to grow their heart for missions even more.
“Two summers ago during a deacons meeting, one of the deacons stood up and made mention that we’ve got to make some room,” he said. “Things got rolling from there and we could tell the Lord was saying it’s time.”
As they talked with contractors, Jeremy Burns and others realized that having help from Carpenters for Christ, Builders on Mission and a few other groups was going to tremendously cut costs for them.
“We visited a few churches in the area that they had built and decided that the size and everything else was right for us, and we were excited,” Jeremy Burns said.
So the church confidently moved forward. But it was going to be summer of 2017 before the groups could get to them.
“One of our deacons said that if the Lord wanted it to, it would all work out,” Jeremy Burns recalled.
A little while later they found out that another church’s plans had changed and they’d been moved up the waiting list to spring 2016.
“That made us get in gear,” Jeremy Burns said.
The church voted on plans, prepared for the construction and a church member “cut down a mountain” on one side of the church to make room for a new parking lot, he said.
Fits like a puzzle
And it just so happened that the church’s fellowship hall — which had been built separately from the sanctuary and was never connected — was in the perfect place to connect it like a puzzle piece to the other two buildings.
“All these things have happened and happened just right,” Jeremy Burns said.
He said he believes God’s hand has been on Kyuka, providing for it through the volunteer time of the builder groups and bringing new believers into the church’s midst.
And he believes that as long as they continue to seek God, God will grow the church.
“I want to see us have a heart for the gospel to be carried to the ends of the earth,” he said.
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