CLINTON TWP — New Life Christian Ministries will show off its new home at 139 Knoch Road on Saturday and Sunday.

Lead Pastor Chris Marshall said the grand opening, as he called it, comes seven weeks after New Life had its first worship services in the new building the weekend of July 6 and 7.

The 11,200-square-foot structure contains a worship center that seats 300, a gathering area, office, nursery, restrooms, classrooms and a loft area.

The grand opening publicizes New Life as well as its new building, said Marshall.

“We want the community to see what God is doing at New Life,” he said.

“We want to let you know we're here to offer Jesus' love,” said Marshall.

Marshall said the public is invited to New Life's weekend services: 6:30 p.m. Saturdays and 8:45 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. Sundays.

Marshall said the new building was more than a decade in the making. The nondenominational New Life began in 2001.

“When we first met, it was in the old building of the Bible Church of Ivywood,” said Marshall. “It's about four miles from here. It had been empty for a couple of years.”

New Life had its first service there in April 2001.

In April 2003, New Life moved to the Knoch High School auditorium. Two years later, New Life purchased the 20-acre plot the new building sits on today.

Marshall said the church moved to the multipurpose room of the South Butler Primary School in 2008 when the high school auditorium was undergoing renovation.

Although the congregation returned to the high school in the fall of that year, it went back to the primary school in March 2009.

“When we moved back over to the auditorium, the church was stagnating,” said Marshall, who blamed the 750-seat high school auditorium for swallowing up the 150 members that attended services.

Marshall said after the church moved back to the primary school's cozier multipurpose room, New Life added a second worship service in September 2009 and a third service in June 2012.

“We were growing out of the school. We needed our own identity,” said Marshall.

Marshall said securing financing for the kind of building New Life would need was “a very challenging process.”

After obtaining the nearly $2 million from Farmers Bank of Emlenton in 2012, Marshall said, “Actual construction started on Christmas Eve. We thought that was a little odd.”

Chuck Matus, a church elder and the owner of Matus Construction of Saxonburg, which was the general contractor for the building project, said, “It's a multipurpose building. It will actually be a youth building. It's the first phase of a three-phase plan.”

Matus said Phase II will entail adding more classrooms, a larger worship center and a gym. Phase III will be an expansion of worship space.

Marshall and Matus singled out Matus' son K.C. Matus, the on-site supervisor, and Jeff Penley for praise during construction.

“They practically lived here during the last four months of the project,” said Marshall.

Matus said, “We just felt we were honoring God by participating in a project like this.”

Matus said, “This just isn't a church, we're not keeping this for ourselves. There is no large meeting place in Clinton Township. We can make it available for businesses or schools that might be interested in using it.”

No timetable is set for when the next phase of construction will begin, but Marshall noted the land was paid off in 2008.

Matus said, “We are approved to build. We've put in a retention pond. We are approved for all three phases of construction.”

Which might turn out to be a good thing, the way attendance is increasing at New Life's services.

Marshall said in 2008 average weekly worship attendance was about 178. In 2012, average weekly worship attendance was 375 and since the new building opened, average attendances has been 478.

“We have more attendance than members,” said Marshall.

“It's because we make a pretty big deal about membership,” said Marshall. “We call our members covenanting disciples. And the main thing we ask is that they put Jesus first in their life.”