On Sunday, the congregation of Dowagiac’s Michiana Church of Christ celebrated the next major step in their journey toward building a new home for their parishioners.

The church members broke ground on the planned construction site of their new 9,000 square foot facility, located next to their existing building on Prairie Ronde Street. The new church building will offer a number of improvements over their existing facility, being able to hold more people during worship service and having a space to hold dinners and other communal services outside of the chapel area.

With the church’s current congregation outgrowing its current building, forcing clergy to hold two Sunday services, the larger space should serve as massive benefit to members, who will finally be able to celebrate their faith as a whole once more.

While the church leadership says that a number of “miracles” fell into place to make this construction a reality, it will take dedication from them and members to see the project through to completion. Receiving a $750,000 loan to fund the construction, the church no doubt has years of work ahead of them to raise the money for repayment.

Still, we applaud their decision to take the plunge and move ahead with construction.

New buildings of any kind are an exciting thing for a community to witness, especially for one the size of Dowagiac. It’s perhaps the most visible indication of growth, which is something that every resident desires of in hometown.

Churches in particular play a vital role in our society. Besides being a place for people to celebrate and cultivate their spirituality, churches play a number of important nonreligious functions in the community, including serving as meeting places for local organizations and clubs, as a venues for concerts or other live entertainment, and as spaces for food banks and other forms of volunteer work.

A strong church also helps form the identity of the neighborhood it’s located in.

We wish the Michiana Church of Christ the best of luck as they move forward with the next chapter in their 34 year history. We’re excited to check out the new place when it gets done, too.

 

Opinions expressed are those of the editorial board consisting of Publisher Michael Caldwell and editors Ambrosia Neldon, Craig Haupert, Ted Yoakum and Scott Novak.