Souls Harbor Church progressing toward move to new building

Two Shelbyville churches are growing in size.

Souls Harbor Church, 105 N. Vine Street, will move to the former Family Services and Prevention Programs building at 2021 S. Riley Highway (photo) and expand its daycare service. To do so, the church needs to rezone the Riley Highway property from RI (Single Family Residential) to IS (Institutional).

On Monday at City Hall, the rezone was given a favorable recommendation by the Plan Commission which will be forwarded to the Shelbyville Common Council for final approval.

Souls Harbor pastor Jonathan Stephenson believes it is time to move to a building with much easier access for church members.

“What spurred this is we have some elderly folks in our congregation and our church that we are currently in is not very handicap accessible,” said Stephenson after the commission meeting Monday. “We had someone fall down the front steps of the church and break a hip about three months ago. That’s when I decided I needed to do something about this. And what is so wonderful about the new building is there are no steps anywhere. That is a wonderful thing and there is more parking.”

Stephenson said the church’s daycare currently has 20 youth enrolled and he sees that growing at the larger facility that used to be a church.

“We are currently right at 20 kids and we are hoping to go around 50,” said Stephenson (photo), who has been the pastor at Souls Harbor for nine years now. “That building can handle that as we have to meet the state codes. That would provide a good service for the community.”

The church is attempting to make the move as minimally disruptive as possible. There is some work to do inside the building which was converted from a church to an office setting.

“They didn’t hurt it at all,” said Stephenson. “The sanctuary is where they built cubicles but they didn’t touch the walls or the ceiling. It’s just a matter of taking them out and putting down new carpet. We are trying to do the minimal but as far as structurally, it’s all there.”

The timeline, according to Stephenson, is to close on the property on July 3 with the first potential church service taking place Oct. 1.

Crossroads Community Church (photo), located at 475 E. Progress Parkway since 2008, is adding a Fellowship Hall on site.

The site development plan for the 10,500 square foot hall was given a favorable recommendation Monday and will move to the common council for final approval.

The hall will serve as space for wedding receptions, birthday parties and youth activities as well as recreational space for church patrons. The structure also will include a conference room, offices and classrooms.

A third site development plan for a convenience store and filling station attached to the Shelbyville Marketplace project was given a favorable recommendation Monday. Located at 2235 Marketplace Boulevard, the filling station will be built along with a hotel and retail development project that has already been approved along Progress Parkway near Shelbyville Fire Station No. 2.

The convenience store will be 3,200 square feet and have 12 fueling pumps.

The Shelby County Post is a digital newspaper producing news, sports, obituaries and more without a pay wall or subscription needed. Get the most recent Shelby County Post headlines delivered to your email by visiting shelbycountypost.com and click on the free daily email signup link at the top of the page.