Construction is underway on the Church Support Center in Franklin. The new building, which will house the offices of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, is slated to be completed by the middle of April 2017.
Baptist and Reflector
FRANKLIN — The Tennessee Baptist Convention’s new Church Support Center is well on its way to becoming reality.
Construction on the Church Support Center began soon after ground was broken on April 23 for the new facility, located just south of Franklin off I-65 on a former farm owned by the Berry family of Franklin for about 100 years.
Footings have been laid and the steel is going up on the 32,000-square foot building, reported William Maxwell, TBC administrative director.
Maxwell said the Church Support Center is on target for completion by the middle of April 2017. Plans call for TBC offices to move from rented space in Brentwood to the new facility during the first week of May, he added.
While the new facility is indeed an office building, it must not be forgotten that it’s primary business is Kingdom business, said Randy C. Davis, TBC executive director/treasurer.
“The Church Support Center is there to be a support to our churches, our missionaries and specialists in the field, and our associations,” Davis noted.
He said he wants Tennessee Baptists to see the Church Support Center as “a wise investment” and one that churches of all sizes in the state “can be proud of.”
He observed that when the staff left its former home on Franklin Road, the move was called “Operation Abraham” because at that time the location of its new site was not known.
This move is “Operation Inheritance,” Davis said. “This building will be totally paid for because of those who’ve gone before us and made wise investments.”
While the former building was known as the Baptist Center, the name Church Support Center was chosen for the new facility because “the center of all Baptist life is the local church,” Davis said. “The church is the pinnacle of all that we do.”
Davis said the building is being designed in such a way that it can be adjusted in the years ahead if needed. “This (the relocation and construction) will be a process,” he noted.
