Omega Baptist Church in Ohio Seeks $5.5M to Expand, Build Community Center
Omega Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio is launching a major 15-year project that will cost millions of dollars in its efforts to turn a former Methodist seminary into a park and community center for the public.
"A church ought to make a difference where you are," said the Rev. Dr. Daryl Ward about the church's request to the City Plan Board on Tuesday. "We had outgrown our space and were looking elsewhere. But we made a commitment. We weren't going to the suburbs."
The first stage of the development project alone is expected to cost around $5.5 million to complete, although the sum for the entire project is difficult to estimate. The 32,555-square foot multipurpose center, as part of the first phase, will provide a daycare and 215 new parking spaces, and will include a kitchen, administrative offices, classrooms and an indoor track.
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Omega Baptist first bought United Theological Seminary in 2005 for $1.35 million, but only now have administrators decided that they have grown large enough to require new facilities and more space for their congregation.
"This is not a church," said Ervin Matthews, executive director of the Omega Community Development Corp. as reported by the Dayton Daily News. "This a community center that has a church in it. Think of it as a 30-acre park for the city that Omega will maintain … We are building it for the community."
Omega Baptist Church's congregation currently numbers 4,000 members, which it hopes will help significantly in raising the $5.5 million needed for the first phase of the expansion project.
"We are hoping that others in the community will partner with us," the Rev. Ward added. "We are going to charge forward with this, hoping that others will come along. The church sanctuary will be built from money from the congregation."
Omega belongs both to the American Baptist Churches, USA (ABC-USA), and the Progressive National Baptist USA (PNB) Associations. Under Ward's leadership, the church has grown from 100 members in May 1988 to over 4,000 today. Besides the community development corporation, the church also has over 30 active ministries, including a prison ministry and a full service bookstore.
