Even with a two-decade presence in Milledgeville, Church Central almost didn’t have a central.
Being a congregation without a home, however, never came to pass. Instead, Church Central now has double the space for its ministry work, going from about 600 square feet on South Wilkinson Street to about 1,200 on the back side of the Milledgeville Mall.
There are now rooms for varying ages of youth groups, a room for adult life groups, storage space for boxes of stuff related to Easter and Christmas, an office for lead pastor Jeff Simmons and even a prize room for children to redeem points earned for learning about the Gospel (looking similar to what you see in an arcade).
Work is still ongoing in this new location, but services began taking place there the first Sunday of July. The grand opening for the new Church Central is Aug. 4 at 10:15 a.m.
“We started the church 22 years ago,” said Simmons. “We met in (Georgia Military College’s) gym for two of those years. We rented that space on Wilkinson Street for a couple of years, then we bought it.”
Now, that building has been sold. It consisted of a lobby, an office, a coffee serving area, one children’s space and a worship area.
Growth in terms of numbers attending services fluctuated, Simmons, stating they grew to about 100 at the time they moved to Wilkinson Street. He said they lost some people who maybe didn’t want to go to the south side of Milledgeville.
“We started a soup kitchen. We started a shelter there,” he said. “We did a lot to help the community.
“We planted out of the Georgia Baptist Convention. It was really just me and my wife at our home. We started a launch team, and then we kicked off a church several months later. I really felt the Lord wanted me to plant a church.”
Simmons grew up in Milledgeville and had previously pastored a church on Deepstep Road going toward Sandersville.
“At the time, there was not another church anything like Church Central,” he said. “As far as music and worship 20 years ago, we were just totally different around here. After we planted it, it took off. We outgrew (Wilkinson) three or four times.”
Church Central suffered a decrease in numbers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Simmons said he knew it would be a matter of time before numbers picked back up. He said they had to rent areas just for parking, such as land on the opposite side of Wilkinson Street.
“We started looking for other opportunities,” said Simmons. “We found land, about 10 acres, out on Highway 49 (West) or the corner of Horace Veal Road for sale. This was a year and a half ago. We bought the land.”
They found limited access to the land on the Horace Veal side and did not want to enter it from Highway 49. That would require creating a deceleration lane.
“After getting plans drawn up, working with (the Georgia Department of Transportation), and trying to find out who owns the land next to us, we had a hard time getting the easem*nt onto our property,” said Simmons. “The size road we needed to build a parking lot … we couldn’t get an easem*nt from DOT to get to the property. Now we have 10 acres we can’t really build on until we can get that problem solved.”
Before all of this wrangling, Church Central received an offer to buy the building on Wilkinson Street and entered into a contract to sell it. Realization soon hit that they had nowhere to go.
“It seemed like we couldn’t get anything accomplished with building on our property,” said Simmons. “Then we heard about this space (behind the mall).”
He said the space was once a medical college, American Professional Institute, in such disciplines as massage therapy and certified nursing assistance, but that school only lasted about three years and the space was vacant for around 10 years. He said there were some logistics to work out such as making a room big enough for worship services. Church members worked to paint over a variety of colors that existed in multiple coats.
“We went ahead and went through the sale of the other property, and the Lord opened this door for us to be here,” said Simmons. “The timeline was kind of crazy. When we finally secured a lease with the mall to rent this space, when we finally got the key, we started doing demo, met with the fire marshal and the city, took down the walls, painted everything.”
When they got the certificate of occupancy, it was 40 days after they started the renovations. They had a dedication service and closed on the Wilkinson building.
“I was a pastor without an office for years,” said Simmons. “We needed the space to seat people. We have a youth room. We have all the children’s rooms from nursery to pre-teen. All of them are decked out.”
There’s another room for fellowship — men’s or ladies’ nights — with a refrigerator and microwave oven. Simmons may be most excited about the parking lot the mall offers, which will enable them to have two Sunday morning services.
Church Central has midweek services such as a monthly Parents’ Night Out (drop the children off and have a date night, and college students and older teenagers are encouraged to help with that), discipleship training and a Fellowship Night.
“I hope we have a full house (Aug. 4),” said Simmons. “Our mission is to bring people in, build them up and send them out. The goal is to bring people in that Sunday and get them connected to the church and what God’s doing here.
“It’s more central, being Church Central. It’s definitely more central in the hub of what’s happening in Baldwin County. We’ve had a couple of people stop in and say, ‘What is Church Central?’”
