Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Henderson’s Central Christian Church expanding again

New Central Christian campus

Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Sun

Central Christian has merged with the Orchard Valley Baptist church, located on Treeline Drive near Charleston Boulevard, and plans to expand the congregation’s existing building and open the Central Christian Northeast Campus in the near future.

Henderson megachurch Central Christian is preparing to expand into the northeast part of the valley with its third satellite campus.

Central Christian Church has merged with Orchard Valley Baptist Church, located on Tree Line Drive near Charleston Boulevard, and plans to expand the congregation’s existing building and open the Central Christian Northeast Campus in the near future.

An exact date for the opening has not been determined, said Kurt Ervin, executive pastor of church expansion for Central Christian. He said the campus will offer two Sunday morning services and a Spanish service on Sunday nights.

Ervin said preliminary plans are to renovate the existing building and increase its capacity from 180 to 220 people, bring in modular classrooms for teen and children’s groups and landscape the site.

“It’s a great building,” Ervin said. “It’s not that old, but it needs some paint and some cleaning.”

Orchard Valley Baptist ministers approached Central Christian about the merger earlier this year, Ervin said, and the baptist congregation approved it two weeks ago.

While Central Christian will use its own pastor to oversee the location, Orchard Valley’s ministers will retain an active role with the congregation, he said.

Orchard Valley “wanted access to the experience and resources that Central Christian has to offer to reach out to the surrounding area,” Ervin said.

The support groups and outreach programs that Central Christian operates will be available at the northeast campus, he said.

In addition to its headquarters at U.S. 95 and Russell Road in Henderson, Central Christian operates satellite campuses at high schools in Summerlin and the southwest part of the valley. It also offers an online campus at www.centralchristian.com. The northeast campus marks the first time that Central Christian will expand into a church-owned building.

“It’s an exciting time,” Ervin said.

All of the satellite campuses show recorded teachings given at the main campus, and the plan is the same for the northeast campus, Ervin said.

Ervin said Central Christian shows 4,040 people on its rolls from the 89142 ZIP code, which is where Orchard Valley is located.

Neighbors shouldn’t worry about the site being overwhelmed when it opens, he said, because past experience with the other satellite locations shows that 10 to 15 percent of church members within the surrounding area choose to go to the satellite site, while the rest continue to travel to the main campus in Henderson.

With that in mind, he said, he’s expecting about 500 people to attend the northeast campus’ three services each Sunday.

Growth at the satellite meetings usually comes as church members reach out to non-churchgoing friends and family members, he said.

“If they live in the northeast part of the valley and they’re not plugged into a church and haven’t found a place where they feel comfortable, keep an eye out for us,” Ervin said.

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