Church of the Highlands

The Church of the Highlands is a nondenominational megachurch, founded in 2001 with 34 charter members and currently attracting more than 18,000 worshipers each week. The organization is affiliated with the Association of Related Churches, which it helped to establish. Its senior pastor is Chris Hodges, with associate pastor Layne Schranz.

Hodges launched the church with a mass mailing and drew 300 visitors to its first service on February 4 of that year. During its first six years the church met at Mountain Brook High School's 1,000-seat auditorium. As the congregation grew, additional morning services were added to the schedule and branch locations were opened in Riverchase, Greystone, Tuscaloosa, Auburn and Montgomery, equipped with video projectors to simulcast Hodges' Sunday sermons.

In 2005 the church purchased a 125-acre site at Grants Mill Road and Overton Road for $7 million and began planning a new $15 million campus with a 2,400 seat high-tech sanctuary. The new building, designed by Garrison Barrett Group, opened on June 24, 2007 and includes an 1,000-seat youth auditorium, offices, child care facilities, 1,700 parking spaces, and a coffee shop. Instead of holding Sunday school on campus, the church organizes small groups that meet in homes, parks and restaurants.

Cameras in the main sanctuary provide a video feed which is transmitted to the adjoining youth auditorium, and by satellite to the Auburn, Riverchase, and Tuscaloosa branches.

In 2008 the church finalized plans to purchase and renovate the Eastern Health Center and the historic Birmingham Fire Station No. 12 from the Jefferson County Health Department in order to create "the Dream Center", a clinic and mission outreach facility in Woodlawn. The church also provides prison ministries in numerous correctional facilities in the state.

In December 2008, Outreach magazine named Church of the Highlands the fastest growing church in the nation. In a one-year period ending in spring 2008, attendance had jumped 72% to 8,168. At the time the article was published Pastor Hodges stated that attendance at the 4 locations had grown by another 2,500 members since the magazine completed its research.

Highlands added Woodlawn High School as one of its campuses. In 2012 it renovated an office building to create a new 780-seat building for its Greystone campus and also launched a new campus at Tarrant High School. By December 2013 as it was preparing to open its first Huntsville campus, the church claimed weekly attendance of around 18,600 at nine locations.

References

• Garrison, Greg (June 24, 2007) "5,000-member church moves to new campus." The Birmingham News
• Garrison, Greg (December 7, 2008) "Birmingham's Church of the Highlands named fastest-growing church in U.S." The Birmingham News
• Garrison, Greg (February 5, 2011) "Birmingham-area Church of the Highlands grows to megachurch status with high-energy worship, low-pressure finances." The Birmingham News
• Anderson, John (December 7, 2012) "Church of the Highlands to open new Greystone campus this Sunday." The Birmingham News
• Campbell, Kay (December 20, 2013) "Birmingham's Church of the Highlands to launch Huntsville campus." The Birmingham News

External links

• Church of the Highlands website