CedarCreek to buy store in South Toledo for 4th site

CedarCreek's church in Perrysburg. The church is planning it's fourth area location in South Toledo. THE BLADE Enlarge | Photo Reprints

CedarCreek Church, one of the fastest growing in the nation, is going through another spurt.

The nondenominational church will add a fourth campus this fall, saying that it has bought the former Farmer Jack grocery store on Byrne Road and Heatherdowns Boulevard.

Lee Powell, senior pastor, said the church had looked into buying the 56,000-square-foot facility two years ago after plans to move into the former South Toledo YMCA fell apart.

YMCA officials said in 2009 that they would close the branch and give it to CedarCreek, but a group of neighbors campaigned unsuccessfully to keep it open. The branch was demolished earlier this year.

After the Y deal fell through, the church looked into the former grocery store.

“We had our hearts set on South Toledo but the building was out of reach for us at the time,” Mr. Powell said.

A recent price cut made it affordable, but Mr. Powell said he could not disclose the sale price until the deal was finalized.

Ed McCauley, CedarCreek’s executive pastor, believes the church had help. “I think it was divine intervention,” he said. “Because we had been looking at that site for quite a while, hoping and praying it would be a site that would be in our reach financially. All of a sudden it came together and we’re able to purchase it.”

The church will have between 700 and 750 seats at the new campus, which is slated to open this fall.

As with CedarCreek’s other campuses in West Toledo and Whitehouse, the South Toledo site will have its own pastor and music team, with sermons streamed live from its Perrysburg campus.

That format has worked for CedarCreek, which averages about 8,500 attendance at five weekend services. Its record attendance was 21,173 last Christmas.

“If you asked me 10 years ago, I’d have said [a sermon by video] was the dumbest idea I’d ever heard,” Mr. Powell said. “But it has become a nonissue. People are so used to video images now. The main concern is the quality of the teaching.”

Last fall, Outreach magazine ranked CedarCreek No. 59 on its list of the 100 fastest-growing churches. The church, which held its first service in 1995, also was 53rd on the list of 100 largest churches.

Ben Snyder of South Toledo will be the pastor of the new campus. His wife, Lauren, a graduate of South Toledo’s Bowsher High School, will run the campus’ children’s program.

CedarCreek also streams its services live on the Internet on what it calls its “iCampus.” Open just a few months, the Internet service available at cedarcreek.tv has been averaging about 1,000 people a weekend, Mr. Powell said.

“The goal was, first of all, to become something of an addition to the current campus. We thought it would help attendance by giving people a chance to check out the church without being intimidated by visiting. And we think it is working.” Viewers have logged in from 30 states and 15 countries, including U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Contact David Yonke at: dyonke@theblade.com or 419-724-6154.