By EMILY REED / Special to the Advertiser

CLANTON – New Life Community Church in Clanton recently purchased the former Chilton Medical Center property on Lay Dam Road to build a new church facility.

“We are very excited about this purchase and what this means for our congregation,” said New Life Community Church Senior Pastor Chad Keeteman. “We originally approached the owners of the property two years ago, we made an offer and that didn’t go forward. We have always had our eye on the property and believed that that was where we were going to go, and we were happy to finally be able to seize the opportunity, after we put another offer down.”

The property, located at 1010 Lay Dam Road, was the site of the former Chilton Medical Center, which closed in 2012.

Keeteman said the church finalized the purchase of the property in June, and the current goal is to tear the existing building down and rebuild a church building/multi-use facility.

“Right now we have an aggressive goal ahead of us in terms of paying the property off, tearing down the existing property, and rebuilding,” Keeteman said.

Keeteman estimates construction on the new church facility could begin late 2018 or early 2019.

New Life Community Church currently meets in a building located next to Baugh Ford in Clanton off of Seventh St. N.

The church has been meeting in that location since 2007, and Keeteman said recently has experienced an influx of new members.

“We had to go to two services beginning with Easter of this year to accommodate the growth and the new families that are coming to our church,” Keeteman said. “Our children’s ministry is exploding. We are literally bursting at the seams. Our current weekend attendance is somewhere in the 500 range, and any given weekend we will have about 150 to 180 of those individuals being children.”

Keeteman said Tommy Baugh with Baugh Ford has been “gracious” in allowing church members to drive through the parking lot of the business each week.

“It seems like more and more young families are coming to the area, and it is our ultimate goal to reach this community,” Keeteman said. “We want to bring Gospel-centered change into the culture of Chilton County, and we believe that our calling is to not only preach salvation, but we also believe that the Gospel changes people’s lives and that we can be a part of a transforming culture.”

Keeteman said there is excitement throughout the congregation regarding the recent land acquisition, and church members are eager to see construction begin on the new property.

“There was immediate excitement within the church body, and we are looking forward to seeing how things unfold,” Keeteman said.

For more information about the church including service times, visit clantonnewlife.com.