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Daily-News Record
June 16, 2009

‘Smallest Big Church' Gets Bigger With ‘Gathering Area
Muhlenberg Lutheran Improvements Nearing Their Completion

By Tom Mitchell

HARRISONBURG - Any talk about a recently enlarged Muhlenberg Lutheran Church is likely to make its pastor, the Rev. Dave Nelson, promote the facility's cozier characteristics.

"I think we have the smallest ‘big' church around," Nelson said.
The smallest big church in town just got bigger. A new building, referred to simply as the "gathering area," will serve as a meeting site at Muhlenberg Lutheran, and not just for members.
For all the expansion that's taken place at Muhlenberg Lutheran through the years, it's what Nelson calls the "warm and welcoming" climate of his church that he prefers to discuss.
"From a ministry standpoint, we always considered this new space driven by hospitality," he said. "It was designed for our congregation and, even more so, our neighbors."
The yearlong, $2.2 million construction marks the final phase of a three-part capital-improvements drive begun six years ago. The venture featured a $1.6 million activity center built in 2003 and $250,000 in renovations soon after, which increased parking by 25 percent.
The activity center, said Nelson, serves as many, if not more, outside groups as it does Muhlenberg ministries.
The current undertaking is expected to be finished near the end of this month, said Mark Byerly, a construction engineer and building chairman for the project. The addition will add 9,000 square feet to the existing 22,500-square-foot stone building, built in 1952.
Nielsen Builders Inc. also was involved in all three phases.

A Challenge To Build

A need for a gathering area arose from the original church building's lack of space, said Byerly, who called the last leg of the larger enterprise "a challenge" for the construction team.
"We needed to build an addition that didn't look like an addition," he said. "We wanted the stone in it to match that of the original building."
A simpler part of the project was getting funding.
Muhlenberg's congregation has paid, or is paying, for all improvements done at the church since 2003, Nelson said.
John Sease, owner-architect for Sease and Associates, an architectural-services firm in Harrisonburg, said that the gathering area's numerous handicap-accessible entrances further boost its value.
The new building boasts a large lobby, new restrooms and an elevator. A partial-glass roof lets in enough sunlight to brighten the interior of the building, Sease added.
The church also is contemplating a new sanctuary down the road, said Sease, "but, right now, that's just in the discussion stage."
Muhlenberg Lutheran, which has three Sunday-morning worship services and a smaller service in the evening, will have little trouble putting the new facility to use. In the past six years, the church membership has doubled to 1,200.
More important to its leaders is what those members want to do with their church.

"They tell us they want to be part of a church community that reaches beyond itself," Nelson said.
Contact Tom Mitchell at 574-6275 or mitchell@dnronline.com
Jeff Berger (left) and Jim Ketterman, with a Nielsen Builders division called Legacy Cabinet and Millwork, work on making wood hand railings on Monday in Muhlenberg Lutheran Church's new addition in downtown Harrisonburg.
Nielsen Builders workers Jose Garcia (left) and Jose Luis Cruz take down plastic on the undercroft section of the sanctuary while working on the new addition at Muhlenberg Lutheran Church on Monday.