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Cornelius News

LIFE Fellowship church will open in Cornelius this fall

LIFE Fellowship church will open in Cornelius this fall

Aug. 25. By Donald White. A Lake Norman church has found a more prominent home in Cornelius, one it hopes will be a beacon of hope to the community when the facility opens this fall. The first service in the new sanctuary will be in late October.

LIFE Fellowship is in the process of relocating from its old campus in Davidson to a new home on Chartown Road in Cornelius, adjacent to Interstate 77, says Dan Burrell, the church’s executive pastor. The 17-acre plot on one of the few remaining areas of undeveloped land in Cornelius — part of the old Blakely farm on two sections of multiple plats — will house the 30,000-square-foot first phase of the church’s new location. Burrell says four additional phases are planned.

A dedication service is planned later in the fall. Burrell says the church also plans to schedule an open house event.

Burrell says the first phase of the church’s relocation will feature a large worship center, office space, a StudentLIFE wing for teens, classrooms for LIFE University and a large KidLIFE wing for preschool and elementary students. A five-day-a-week preschool and early education center is planned for next year.

Bobby Conway, LIFE’s lead pastor, says the church intends to make the Cornelius campus its “home base.”

“It is the intention of the church to become deeply involved in local community support in the towns of the Lake Norman region, beginning with Cornelius,” Conway says.

That active community involvement is likely to take many forms, Burrell says.

“They are myriad and include continuation of our current support for local homeless shelters, athletic leagues, community food banks/serving centers, Crisis Pregnancy Centers and so on, and conversations are being conducted to discuss opportunities for service like transitional work and living programs, at-risk tutoring and support of local police and fire personnel,” Burrell says.

LIFE, which has been in the Lake Norman area for a dozen years, has been the largest church in the Charlotte region without a permanent facility, Conway says. Services at its rented facility at the Community School of Davidson regularly attract people from Statesville to South Charlotte and from the Concord/Kannapolis area to Iron Station and Denver. Burrell says regular weekend attendance at the Davidson location averages about 1,000.

The move to Cornelius makes a lot of sense in terms of logistics and visibility, Conway says.

“Our location right on I-77 at Exit 28 puts our new campus in an ideal and convenient spot for all who are part of the Lake Norman region and even beyond,” he says. “We love the fact that people will be able to see our campus from I-77.”

Burrell also sees LIFE’s new location as an opportunity for expansion and growth for the church community.

“We are anticipating rapid growth now that we have our own facility and should be able to reach weekend attendance of approximately 1,800 before we will begin adding additional service options and the eventual construction of a 2,000-seat worship center,” Burrell says.

At the outset, LIFE’s new location will offer two Sunday services at 9 and 10:45 a.m., with other training and serving opportunities scheduled throughout the week, Burrell says. The Cornelius campus will be supported by approximately 15 full- and part-time staff members.

LIFE’s move brings the opportunity for the church to spread a positive message and serve the community more effectively, Conway says.

“We hope that our facilities will represent hope, active community involvement and the finest of genuine Christian principles and values in the region,” he says. “We look forward to putting roots down and investing in our communities in spiritual and practical ways.”