In his capital campaign letter to his congregation, Pastor Tim Hayse described Jesus’ parable of the feast in Luke 14: “The kingdom of God is like . . . a banquet where people go out and make room for others to join the feast.” From its planting in 1997, Christ Community Church has been strategically, thoughtfully, and faithfully making room for others in Gainesville, Florida.
Christ Community has grown with the population and landscape of now-suburban west Gainesville. The fledgling congregation first met in a house in what was then a rural area. As the church grew, attendees worshiped weekly in a school and then built their own campus in 2010. By the fall 2026, they will be gathering in a new sanctuary with double the capacity of the current meeting space, accommodating the church’s most recent growth spurt.
“From where we were three years ago, we’ve close to doubled in size,” Hayse says. The church now has over 600 in attendance each week.
In addition to serving the rapidly-developing west Gainesville area, the church also reaches the University of Florida community, hosting 150-200 college students every Sunday during the school year. Leaders of UF campus ministries like Reformed University Fellowship, RUF International, and Fellowship of Christian Athletes, as well as UF faculty, call Christ Community their church home.
The church’s session and leadership team saw in 2022 that the church needed to expand its facilities, with Sunday morning crowds spilling over to the back patio. As they considered together their logistical challenges, Hayse also turned to his pastoral cohort, a community of 11 PCA pastors serving across the country who regularly text, pray together, and meet twice a year.
“There’s no class in seminary on how to do a capital campaign,” Hayse explains. “But almost all these guys have had some kind of building project. It is such a big deal to say, ‘Hey, what did you guys learn? How did you do this? What was the process?’ It has helped me a ton.”
The cohort recommended Incipio Consulting for the firm’s ability to help churches align their ministry needs and goals with their facilities and financial means. The firm also guides church leaders through the process — from vision-casting and fundraising to hiring the right personnel to execute building plans. With Incipio’s help, Christ Community leaders realized they needed to expand not only their sanctuary but also the supporting infrastructure, like nursery space, offices, and parking.
Defining Moments
After strategic planning in the fall 2023, the leadership team launched the Defining Moments campaign in March 2024. The two-year capital campaign included telling the story of God’s work in the life of the church, revisiting the milestones of his faithfulness, and inviting members to share their own defining moments within the life of the church.
“At Christ Community, the gospel of Jesus is central to what we do and say in such a way that people understand how their life and their story and their work are integral to our witness and our mission,” says Christ Community’s creative director, Chris Hiatt.
He and Managing Director Rachel Bacheldor created a page on the church’s website to share video testimonies, architectural plans, project updates, and a 30-page digital booklet with a six-week Scripture discussion guide.
The goal of the campaign wasn’t just to finance a building.
“This is a chance to renew our hearts, our longing for people that don’t know Jesus. . . . Spiritual renewal and financial things — we never separated those things out. We saw them as the same thing. If we are going to live cruciform-shaped lives for our neighbors, it involves the heart and our resources,” Hayse says.
The impact was immediate: The congregation met its financial goal months ahead of schedule, and Sunday attendance continued to increase rapidly.
“By the time we were moving forward . . . it was super obvious that the growth was continuing, and there was no doubt we were doing the right thing,” says Ruling Elder Mike Marshall.
While the congregation grew in numbers, they also grew in generosity, from teens giving babysitting money to a single donor pledging $1 million.
“We’ve just been absolutely blown away by people’s generosity,” says Bacheldor. “There’s so many hearts and lives being changed by God in our midst, and we get to be the recipient of a lot of that grace.”
Community Moments
A key aspect of the Defining Moments campaign has been including the community in the defining moments of the project, beginning with Celebration Sunday, March 10, 2024, when church members presented their pledges. On August 11, 2024, Christ Community held a church-wide groundbreaking ceremony, where even toddlers donned hard hats and shovels. The topping out ceremony to celebrate the roof’s installation took place on October 19, 2025, and the congregation signed the floors, walls, and beams with Bible verses, blessings, and the names of people they were praying to know Christ.
“It was truly a special day of celebrating the work God is doing amongst us,” Bacheldor says.
Because of the community’s generosity, raising $4.25 million to date, Christ Community could meet the rising construction costs that exceeded their original $6.7 million estimate.
The congregation’s graciousness extended as the building schedule did too. Six months past the original completion date, members have remained eager yet patient.
Says Bacheldor, “People want to make space so that they can invite their neighbors to our church and have more people be a part of this community that we all love. So, both in the lack of grumbling about having a tight sanctuary right now, and lack of grumbling with delays in construction, people are just excited to get in there, and they’re excited that we’ll be able to use our space in new ways.”
Those new ways include adding an adult education hour on Sunday mornings and holding conferences and large-group Bible studies in the new fellowship hall. They will also be able to continue hosting and expanding community outreach programs like The MomCo, summer art camp for girls, and vacation Bible school.
The larger gathering area will provide ample room and seating for hosting the entire congregation for coffee and tea on Sunday mornings between the two worship services.
“They might go to the first service and stay for an hour and interact with somebody that they wouldn’t have necessarily met and be able to love each other and love Jesus in a way that wouldn’t happen with our current space,” says Bacheldor.
The church will also be able to continue its monthly tradition called Firstfruits, when on the first Sunday of each month, the congregation feasts together on sweet treats like doughnuts, yogurt parfaits, or ice cream sundaes.
Thus, with this building expansion, Christ Community aims to maintain the gospel focus and commitment to community that the church was founded on, faithfully making room at the table today, in the future, and for the eternal feast that awaits.