T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Earth is being moved in St. Clairsville for a new and expanded The Experience Church to make room for a growing congregation.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Experience Church in Bridgeport is expanding to a new location in St. Clairsville, and Pastor Tim Seidler said he and wife/co-pastor Linda Seidler are looking forward to a new facility where they can share their motto: “We are the perfect place for imperfect people.”

“We started our church in 2010, and we’ve grown. Currently we’re in Bridgeport,” Tim Seidler said.

Parishioners come from Wheeling and St. Clairsville, and as far as from Moundsville, Weirton and Washington, Pennsylvania.

“We have people who drive for an hour to get to our church,” he said. “We’re doing three services here already, and we’re run out of parking. We’re full and so we’re building this new facility so we can continue to reach more people with this good news of Jesus.”

Seidler said the church has about 2,000 parishioners who attend at least once a month.

“We’ve outgrown the facility, and a few years back we purchased 50 acres right there off of exit 215 (Interstate 70) with the vision and dream of building a new facility that would create more spaces for new faces,” he said. “We’re in that project.”

They raised funds for the project through the Building Hope project.

“We started moving dirt last month, and our goal, we’d love to be in by Easter of 2023. A lot of that depends on weather and so many things right now and what’s happening now with materials and getting materials,” he said. “It’s been challenging. The cost of materials and everything has gone up, as well as the supply chain, but God has been faithful and people are passionate about the vision of changing the valley.”

The Seidlers envision the church building as a center for community life as well as worship, with resources for families and individual parishioners.

“To build a facility really unlike anything the Ohio Valley’s ever seen before from a church standpoint,” he said. “It’s a 32,000-square-feet facility with an auditorium that will hold 650 people. It’s got an incredible kids area for kids aged nursery to fifth grade in age-appropriate environments for them, as well as an administrative area. The upstairs of the area will be designed specifically for students middle school through high school, and it will also have a full-time cafe in the building and coffee shop will be open Monday through Sunday, where we can reach the public. People can be at the church more days than just on Sunday.”

Aquilla Coffee will be that spot.

“We’re actually putting a drive-through window in like a Starbucks for the coffee shop, so people can have access to that as well. We’ve got some exciting things planned,” Seidler said.

Seidler said he would not consider the planned facility a “megachurch,” and they strive to maintain a small and personable family feeling.

“We’re just reaching many families and we’re passionate about relationships, and creativity is a big deal of what we do at our church. We’re a creative church, and we try to make the messaging come alive,” he said.

One focus is on younger parishioners and families. He said the non-denominational Christian church has a wide reach to minister to all ages, races and political affiliations.

“It’s a church for all people. We’re very diverse at our church,” he said. “We honor age, but we reach youth. We’re very passionate about reaching the next generation.”

Seidler added the church aims to integrate its message with congregants’ daily lives.

“We want to take what we learn inside the church … outside the walls into the world here locally to have a positive impact in our city,” he said. “Our demographic is generally younger people. We have people 80 years old, but we are reaching a lot of younger families, students, and people that were previously unchurched who found something at The Experience Church that’s just different.”

He said they hope the church will help people decide to build a future in the area.

“I grew up in the valley,” he said. “What we generally see is the sharpest, brightest young people, as soon as they graduate, they all leave the valley for something better, and it’s our dream that we can build a community at TE Church that young, sharp, bright people can say, ‘Hey, I want to be part of revitalization of the Valley.’

“We’re very passionate about biblical principles of leadership, and we’re trying to create a culture of young leaders that can impact not just our church but our city,” Seidler said.

Services are held at 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sundays at 55505 National Road, Bridgeport. The website is theexperience.church.