BERLIN – After years of fundraising and searching for the perfect site, SonRise Church is poised to move to the former location of Merial Select in Berlin.
“Our plans are to acquire the property and make it into the new permanent home for SonRise Church,” said Pastor Jerry Wade, the church’s executive pastor.
Wade said this week the 22-acre property was under contract and that church officials were hoping to close on it in early June. While Wade couldn’t say the price the church was set to pay, he said SonRise officials had spent a year in negotiations with the property owner.
According to MLS data, the former industrial site, owned by Select Laboratories Inc., has been on the market for two years and is listed at $2 million.
“We’ve been ardently negotiating,” Wade said. “The contract was ratified in the first week of February.”
SonRise Church, well known in the Berlin area for its generous community contributions, has conducted services for more than a dozen years at Stephen Decatur High School. Though the church has office space on its 11-acre property on Worcester Highway, there’s not room for its growing congregation. Even at the high school, 650 worshippers on any given Sunday force the church to offer three separate services.
“If we were ever to lose our lease at the high school, we’ve be hard pressed to find another place suitable,” Wade said.
He said the church’s search for a new location began in 2012.
“God knocked on the door of our hearts in 2012 and said it’s time,” Wade said, adding that that was when the “Capture the Vision” fundraising campaign began. “Our folks responded tremendously.”
Since the launch of the campaign, the church has collected $900,000, primarily from its members. In the meantime, church officials have been looking for land to purchase. Wade recalls getting excited about several properties, only to have something happen to prevent the church from moving forward.
“God closed the door each time,” Wade said. “We were getting pretty discouraged.”
He realized those doors were closed for a reason though when Realtor David Dypsky, a church member, identified the Merial Select property as a possibility.
“We just rejoiced and felt that God had saved the best for last for us,” Wade said.
Now that a closing date is within sight, the church is in the process of having floor plans drawn up and is working with local banks on financing options. Church leaders have also met with Town of Berlin officials to discuss the rezoning of the property, which is currently zoned for industrial use.
“There are some hoops to jump through that’s for sure,” said Dave Engelhart, the town’s planning director.
Neverthless, SonRise and its congregation are excited. Wade said that if the property purchase goes through, the church will immediately renovate two of the smaller buildings on the site to serve as office and ministry space. To help finance that, the church will sell its existing space on Worcester Highway. There are also plans to subdivide the Merial Select property so that three or four lots — essentially the six acres of the 22-acre property closest to the intersection of routes 113 and 50 — could be sold to commercial interests.
“That six acres is extremely attractive real estate to a user like a restaurant or hotel,” Wade said.
If that occurs, the funding it provides could help pay down the mortgage on the new property and also fund the second phase of renovations. While the church initially just wants to turn two of the site’s buildings into office space, eventually the plan is to convert the large building on the site into a worship hall. When that’s done, the Sunday services at Stephen Decatur could be held at the church’s own property.
“We’re praying for an end solution where we can acquire the property, sell off the attractive front parcels and leave us with 16 acres for church use,” Wade said.
Because that will be more space than the church currently needs, he said leaders were considering building a community center on the land eventually. They’d like to see a safe space for the community to come together for activities such as rock climbing, bowling, laser tag and baseball.
“A place mom and dad can bring the kids in a safe environment and have a good time,” Wade said. “We’d become a mecca for the community. A safe place families can come to recreate and not worry about the safety of their child and at the same time learn about the God we worship.”
While he admits that possibility is a ways down the road, Wade says he’s excited about the church’s more immediate plans for the property.
“It’ll be wonderful to have a permanent home with beautiful offices and worship space,” he said.
Nevertheless, Wade said the church had a wonderful relationship with the school system and would be sorry to leave Stephen Decatur. He says the café style worship the church offers there — attendees gather around tables and eat breakfast during the service — is what has made the church so popular.
“We have such a strong emphasis on ministering to our community,” Wade said. “We don’t want to lose that by moving out of the high school.”
The worship model has proven so effective that SonRise Church is now serving Salisbury with a similar service at James M. Bennett High School. In the fall, the church will set up to offer services in Princess Anne at Washington High School.
“With Princess Anne we’re thinking that’ll bring us to 1,100 members,” Wade said. “For this part of the world, that’s a sizable church. God has blessed us.”
