The Grace Brethren congregation in Norton, Ohio (Jeff Bogue, pastor) is in the news this weekend for the recent purchase of a church building they intend to renovate and use for expansion. Here is a short excerpt–to read the entire article click here.

The St. Lukes Anglican Church in Fairlawn was purchased by the Grace Brethren Church of Norton. (Ed Suba Jr./Akron Beacon Journal)

Grace, one of the area’s megachurches, plans to renovate the church building on Cleveland-Massillon Road and launch a fourth campus there sometime within the next 18 months. The church, which attracts 4,000 worshippers to its weekend services at its Norton and Bath campuses, is currently putting about $2 million into an old factory off state Route 18 in Medina to house its third campus.

The Medina East location is slated to have a grand opening next spring. The Norton campus, located at 3970 S. Cleveland-Massillon Road, offers services at 8, 9, 10:30 and 11:45 a.m. on Sundays. The Bath campus, at 754 Ghent Road, has services at 5:30 and 7 p.m. on Saturdays and 8:45, 10:15 and 11:45 a.m. on Sundays.

“Our strategy is to take Grace Church of Greater Akron into the community and stay grass roots in order to serve the people who live in the community, while having the resources and reach of a large church,” said Jeff Bogue, Grace’s senior pastor. “The plan is to never have more than 550 people at a time in a service and each of our campuses has a local pastor.”