CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Coastal Bend church is growing and will be moving into a new state-of-the-art building in Flour Bluff.
Over 70 years, the New Life Church has moved to several locations to gain more space for its growing congregation.
Senior Pastor Michael Fehlauer guided the church in 2012 to its second location off McArdle and then to its third in Flour Bluff. But now he said the new expansion is necessary.
"So, we decided to bring the two campuses together and expand to a larger worship center so we can accommodate everybody and still have room to grow," Fehlauer said.
Kitzya Lebron has been part of the church for eight years, and she said the new worship center will allow both locations to finally reunite again under one roof.
"I am very much looking forward to being back together. They have also grown in the last few years and so there's a lot of church family and community that I don't know," Lebron said.
The $6 million new worship center will not only seat 2,200 people, but it will also be a one-of-a-kind structure that will be able to resist hurricanes.
"This is the only building that I am aware of in America that has been designed not only this size but also to be hurricane-rated," Fehlauer said.
Set to be completed this past spring, Fehlauer confirmed the Mcardle location will be closing.
"We actually sold this building. So everything will be at that location in Flour Bluff," Fehlauer said.
Lebron said several people have expressed their regret the old location will be closing but are excited for the next chapter that awaits the church.
"So I think we have a little bit of mixed emotions about we're excited it's going to be big, but it is going to be much bigger than what we're used to," Lebron said.
The McArdle location will close on June 13 and the weekend after on June 23, the church will hold their first service in the new worship center.
For more information about New Life Church's services, click here.