Putnam County’s Lakeside Baptist Church, less than a mile north of Lake Sinclair on the east side of Hwy. 441, is about to double in size.
The church held a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the occasion this past Sunday as part of its weekly service led by Senior Pastor Tim Oliver.
“We’re adding approximately 600 seats in a worship center, plus a staff office suite,” Oliver explained prior to the service. “And a kitchen at the worship center will double as a fellowship space when we need that. So, we’re doubling our footprint. We currently have about 15,000 square feet under roof, and we’re adding 15,000 square feet.”
With a steady flow of traffic streaming past nearby, a large congregation gathered on the lawn outside the church’s existing buildings. Sitting on folding chairs, they were assembled in three sections of rows atop a lawn already marked with paint depicting the new buildings’ footprints.
A large excavator and earth mover stood silent watch behind a temporary flatbed pulpit, and both were about to be pressed into action on Monday once everything else was hauled away.
Oliver said the project will be managed and carried out by Putnam County-based Landmark Construction, led by company owner Brandon Burgess. Landmark has been operating for about eight years in Lake Country, with the last three at its current Sammons Industrial Parkway headquarters.
“My boss has a passion for constructing churches,” Senior Project Manager Terrell Webb said. “He has probably done 85 or 90 church buildings by now.”
Retired Lakeside Church founder Rev. Paul Lewis also attended and recalled starting the ministry in the early 1990s with potential parishioners gathered around a rock he sat on in his Milledgeville garden while outlining his vision. That rock remains today as a prominent feature in the church’s garden.
Lewis explained that the ministry originated in a downtown Milledgeville funeral home and graduated in 1993 to a doublewide trailer hauled 50 miles to the church’s new location.
“It’s still sitting there,” Lewis said, though he deflected any credit for decision making or forward thinking.
“The Lord has done it all. I didn’t do much. I just did whatever He said,” he insisted. “Let him call the shots. That’s the only way I would put it. I wouldn’t have known what to do otherwise.”
The Lakeside project will require about 270 construction days, so a 10-to-12-month window for completion is expected, depending on inclement weather or other unforeseen delays.
“We hope to have our grand opening about this time next year,” Oliver said.