Cookeville’s Stevens Street Church Project Half-Way Done

Cookeville’s Stevens Street Baptist Church project is over half-way done with only minor delays.

Pastor Scott Parkinson said since breaking ground in January, the only issue construction crews have faced is bad weather in the spring.

“The building is a tool of ministry,” Parkinson said. “Its not so much the brick and the mortar and the space that we’re excited about, as much as we’re excited about the ministry that we’re going to be able to facilitate through this building to preschoolers and to children and to their families.”

Parkinson said congregation members have been supportive during the construction process. The over $7.5 million project should complete by May 2021.

The new facility will include 12 classrooms for preschool ministry and 8 classrooms for the kids ministry area. Preschool capacity will increase by 40 percent and the other by 50 percent. Parkinson said more younger families have placed membership.

“In fact in the past year and a half, we’ve had almost 50 babies that had been born to church members,” Parkinson said. “And then we continue to have people in our community that are looking for a place to worship on Sunday mornings that have families with small children. So this is going to allow us to minister to that ever growing group of people.”

The new foyer will be five times larger than the previous facility’s and will have additional rooms for adult ministry. Parkinson said before the pandemic, over 900 members attended Sunday morning services.