Church of the Highlands
The Church of the Highlands is a nondenominational megachurch, founded in February 4, 2001 with 34 charter members and currently attracting more than 11,000 worshippers each week. The senior pastor is Chris Hodges.
For 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, Tuscaloosa and Auburn featuring video recordings of Hodges' 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.
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.
References
- Garrison, Greg (June 24, 2007) "5,000-member church moves to new campus ." Birmingham News
- Garrison, Greg (December 7, 2008) "Birmingham's Church of the Highlands named fastest-growing church in U.S." Birmingham News
External links
- Church of the Highlands website