April 19, 2026

Please carefully read the following proposal. On Sunday, April 26, 2026, we will present a summary during the worship gatherings and invite you to give feedback through a congregation-wide survey.

Vision and Proposed Plan for Grace Snellville Campus Expansion, 2026-2028

Overview:

The last six years have changed our world in ways that aren’t going back. Through one of the most challenging seasons in our church’s history, the Lord has been faithful; the renewed strength and stability we see in our congregation today are evidence of that. We remain deeply committed to our mission: equipping one another to follow Jesus well into the neighborhoods, nations, and next generation. And now, we sense God calling us to grow in four key areas so that we can accomplish the same mission in a changing world.

• Young people who grow up in today’s modern, secular culture need deeper discipleship than our existing student programs and spaces are capable of providing. What can we do to strengthen both families and ministries so that the next generation might not fall away after high school but continue in their faith for a lifetime?
• Gwinnett County is regularly ranked among the top ten most ethnically diverse in the United States; the census tells us that one out of four residents was born in another country. Clearly, God has opened new opportunities to make disciples “of all nations” right in our own backyard. How can our evangelism reach beyond our own families and children and into the neighborhoods?
• Our main strategy for adult groups on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights has reached its capacity, serving around 150-200 adults. This means that hundreds of other adults in our congregation have little opportunity to discover the deep, life-giving friendships that, according to Scripture, are the foundation of healthy church life. As leaders, we often hear this feedback from parents: “My kids love Grace, but we’ve had a hard time getting connected.” How can we equip adults to lead and multiply healthy communities where families and individuals flourish?
• We’ve always gone above and beyond to get the most from our buildings, but in the last few years, the shortcomings of our campus have become a hindrance. We lack sufficient space for discipleship and teaching; our facilities are not welcoming for people with special needs or mobility challenges; and our present layout must become safer and more secure in light of current realities in churches and schools. What if our buildings could better serve our vision for discipleship and outreach?

Through much prayer and discernment over the last year and a half, the elders and staff have developed a two-part plan.

Part One is developing house churches as a key part of our strategy. Over the next 3-5 years, we believe equipping leaders and harnessing our homes in this way will allow us to (1) live out our faith in community alongside our families, (2) welcome not-yet believers into homes, (3) develop life-giving friendships among adults, and (4) multiply leaders and communities. We know the term “house church” can evoke a wide range of experiences and preconceptions, and we look forward to opening the Scriptures and growing into ever more faithful ways of “being the church” together.

Part Two is to design and build a new wing alongside our main building that will allow us to (1) improve the quality of our student discipleship, (2) better equip our adult leaders, and (3) create increased security/hospitality for everyone, especially our children.

The focus of the rest of this document is to provide a snapshot of what the new building addition could look like so that you can prayerfully consider your own response. Then, on Sunday, April 26, 2026, we will present a summary during the worship gatherings and invite you to give feedback through a congregation-wide survey so that we can find out if we have sufficient buy-in and financial capacity to build this building. So please read this document carefully, knowing that we greatly value your input during the discernment process in the weeks ahead.

The New Wing Proposal: A two-story, 31,000 sq. ft. addition adjacent to the outer wall of the current High School/Middle School Room

• Upstairs Features (18,000-19,000 sq. ft.)
  • Build a new Student Room (6,000 sq. ft.) with direct access to student restrooms.
  • Refit the current High School Room to become a Multi-Purpose Adult Training Room (4,400 sq. ft.)
  • Build 11 new discipleship rooms for students or adults with additional meeting areas for D-groups and LUG groups. 
  • Expand the foyer across the front of the existing and new building to connect the spaces and make room for more of the connections and conversations we love. This will also create a new front facade for the church, with structural awnings to provide additional shade and shelter from the rain. 
  • Other proposed improvements include: a new, centralized coffee/hospitality serving area and a nursing mothers’ room with direct line of sight into the auditorium. 

• Downstairs Features (12,000-13,000 sq. ft.)
  • Build new large rooms and supporting small group rooms for 2nd/3rd and 4th-5th graders. This will allow these age groups to move from our existing Trail and Treehouse locations into the security of the main building. It will also roughly double the amount of space available to them. This would bring all of our kids’ ministries under one roof.
  • Enhance security by creating one, central hallway downstairs, ensuring only approved adults are inside children’s spaces; also, our plans would add direct restroom access within each group’s area.
  • Create a generous Special Needs Area with dedicated rooms and spaces. Statistics suggest around one in six children has some kind of disability (mental, physical, behavioral, etc.), and for the vast majority of those Christian families, going to church is extremely challenging. We’d like to change that at Grace, but our current space limits us to being able to serve only a handful of special needs young people at a time.
  • Build fun, safe play areas and shaded spaces next to the new wing: basketball goals, playground, four-square space, etc.
  • Other proposed improvements include: an elevator to serve people with mobility challenges, a working kitchen, and a covered drop-off area in the back of the building for carpool.

 

Financial Goals:

• Initial estimates put the cost of construction between $7.5 million and $8.5 million.
• After analyzing our cash flow, we believe we can afford a loan of $3-$4 million. Grace’s total debt right now is less than $200,000, and our leadership will only take on debt that we are confident we can service.
• We can proceed with construction if our congregation would contribute $4.5 million over three years to help fund the project.

 

Construction, Timing, and Other Questions:

• When would construction begin and end? If we run a campaign to meet these goals in Fall 2026, construction could begin as early as January 2027. With an 18-month construction window, we could finish by the mid-2028.
• What will happen to our existing ministries and spaces during the construction? Because the New Wing would be added around the outside of the existing building, we believe much of the construction can proceed without excessive disruption to existing rhythms.
• What about the Treehouse and Learning Cottages? We will certainly need them during construction; once the new building is completed, we can hopefully redeploy them to serve the ministry needs that are emerging at that time.
• What is the role of the charter school lease to The Meliora School in all of this? It’s important to note that we had decided to pursue both house churches and new construction before the conversation began with the charter school, and we believe this vision stands regardless of the lease. While they will offer only 6th-7th grade classes in Fall 2026, their long-term plan is to become a 6th-12th grade school with around 700 students altogether. If they remain at Grace Snellville until that point and beyond, the revenue from the lease would cover a large portion of the mortgage, if not all of it. That said, the elders agree that we will not pursue a building project that is dependent on lease revenue, even though it could help significantly.

 

Conclusion:

One of our faithful HS D-Group leaders recently shared how he and his group of boys have been assigned the stairwell for their group meeting space. Their time is already limited on Sunday morning; to make matters worse, the movement of the congregation up and down the stairs interrupts the final 15 minutes of their group time every week. He shared this without a hint of complaint but more than a hint of hope that one day we might have space that better serves our discipleship needs. Our high school ministry usually has 16 D-Groups during the school year (2 boys and 2 girls groups in each grade), and the new building would create devoted space for each of them.

Not long ago, a faithful member had a serious leg surgery and didn’t come to Grace on a Sunday for months until he was healed enough to make it up the stairs (or the front hill). When I welcomed him back, he said he had wanted to return sooner but it was too difficult to navigate our building. Having an elevator would change the equation for folks who want to attend church but are unable to access our worship or kids’ spaces because they are not as accessible as needed.

This spring, a new family visited Grace. Their children are in high school, middle school, and fourth grade. Our hospitality volunteers are amazing and the parents were very understanding, but walking from the foyer to HS Room to the MS Room to the Treehouse to drop off each child is no small trek, not to mention the lingering concern about maintaining safety across so many spaces. With the new addition, not only would the new foyer make the welcoming process less chaotic, but dropoff would be as simple as walking down one main hallway.

We have no devoted adult training spaces on the main campus. As we move toward house churches, we will need to equip and support higher quality leaders than ever in useful, accessible spaces.

Can Grace Snellville move forward and even grow without this construction project? Of course! Since 1983, we have rested on our belief that all things are possible with God. But many of us have seen the way our spaces struggle to meet our current ministry needs, not to mention the increased discipleship, training, and outreach we feel called to pursue in our community. This project would lay the groundwork for another 40 years of being a faithful, local church in Snellville that equips one another to follow Jesus well into the neighborhoods, nations, and next generation. We are eager to hear your feedback in the weeks ahead.