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Plano church expands satellite campus
By Bill Conrad, bconrad@starlocalnews.com, @Bill_PlanoStar on Twitter
When Prestonwood Baptist Church opened its first satellite campus six years ago, it was little more than a group of people meeting weekly at Prosper High School.
The "sanctuary" was put up and taken down each week, a process that could last several hours. After two years, a permanent facility was built in southern Prosper, giving the North Campus congregation a place to call their own. Now, after four years, that home is getting much larger.
Sunday morning the congregation will dedicate a new 75,000-square-foot expansion, doubling the church's size and adding 30 classrooms, 21 offices, a new gym and preschool worship area. The yearlong construction project should allow for a better worship experience, said campus pastor Marc Rylander.
The addition will also allow the church to rid itself of the temporary buildings that have been used to house adult Sunday school classes since the 2,000-member congregation outgrew the original building in 2010.
With a total membership of more than 33,000, a large number of members live along the State Highway 380 corridor. As a result, opening a satellite campus closer to these members made sense, Rylander said.
"It has become more and more evident that this campus is already fulfilling the purpose that we set out," Rylander said. "We are seeing high percentages of people that attend our services that live in this 380 corridor of northern McKinney, northern Frisco, Prosper and Little Elm. ... We wanted to build a place that would reach people who would not otherwise be able to come and experience our church, and that has been accomplished."
One of the campus' original attendees was Ben Hangartner, a Celina resident who originally attended services at the main Plano campus after joining the church in 2006. Much of the growth Prestonwood has experienced in the past six years can be attributed to efforts to reach out into outlying communities through the North Campus, Hangartner said.
"It was huge for everyone in the church, but it was biggest for those who hadn't come to our church yet," he said. "A lot of people didn't want to attend a church in a high school, for whatever reason. ... When we finished at the high school we were averaging about 500 adults per Sunday. When we opened our own building we doubled in size overnight."
Sunday services at the North Campus feature everything you would expect at a Baptist church: a choir, scripture readings and a sermon. The only difference is that about 70 percent of the time the sermon is delivered by Pastor Jack Graham at the Plano campus, which is then simulcast to the Dallas and Prosper campuses.
While a church as large as Prestonwood may seem daunting to some people, Frisco resident Sonnya Airhart said there is still a sense of community among the members.
"We try very hard to make our small Bible fellowship groups a time where people get to know each other and do what people do in a smaller church," said Airhart, who grew up in a 200-member church in Plains, Texas. "It is impossible to know everyone as intimately as you might in a small church, but that doesn't mean you don't get to really know people."
Rylander said new addition should easily allow for 3,500 to 4,000 people to attend weekly services, but added the church already has a master plan that could include future expansion on the 130-acre site.
The North Campus is located at 1001 W. Prosper Trail. For information on services, visit www.prestonwood.org.
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