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Jun 27, 2023

An overflow of members has a Davidson County church buiding a larger, $1.2 million sanctuary

MIDWAY — Overflow Church in northern Davidson County has truth in advertising when it comes to the name of the faith house. While many local churches have experienced a decline in attendance since the

MIDWAY — Overflow Church in northern Davidson County has truth in advertising when it comes to the name of the faith house.

While many local churches have experienced a decline in attendance since the pandemic, Overflow has not. It’s ... well ... overflowing with members, so much so that it has embarked on a nearly $1.2 million construction project to build a larger sanctuary next door to its current building.

“We actually grew during COVID,” Pastor Bryan Hullette said. “We shut down for three months and began streaming our service on Facebook. We still do that. When we were able to come back with some restrictions, we did. Some other churches were still closed and not meeting in person. We had many people come whose church was still closed or they did not have a church. We started holding two services to keep spacing (between attendees).”

Overflow is building a sanctuary beside its current church building at 8115 Old Lexington Road. The massive metal building appears to be a barn or warehouse in the beginning stages of its construction. The church will continue to use its current building for Sunday school classes and youth meetings. The current sanctuary will become a multipurpose room/fellowship hall, Hullette said.

Church attendance grew during COVID from about 140 to approximately 180 with 230 on the roll. Many of those members watch church services in an overflow room in the current building, watching the streamed service on a television screen. Others watch from their homes because there is not enough room in the sanctuary, and some just want to attend remotely.

“Nothing breaks a pastor’s heart more than to watch cars pull into the parking lot, see there is nowhere to park and then leave,” Hullette said.

This building project will get everyone back in one sanctuary for church services and allow a foyer area for congregating after services and meetings.

“We have a large number of people who like to stay after our services and meetings for about an hour to fellowship,” he said. “They congregate under the carport area now. This will give us room inside in a larger foyer.”

Overflow Church also has a strong belief in being the church outside of the church walls and sharing their faith with others through testimony and living the faith, he said. That is another reason people continue to come to Overflow, which is part of the Assemblies of God, he said.

The church has an interesting history of its founding 20 members meeting at Friedberg Elementary, then in a storefront on Old Highway 52 in Welcome in the Food Lion shopping center.

“We were looking like crazy for a church,” he said. “We were even looking at places that probably shouldn’t be a church, like an old service department for a (car) dealership. We couldn’t find anything.”

Then in 2018, he asked his church members to set their alarms on their cellphones for 8 p.m. every day, and when the alarm went off, no matter where they were to pray God leads them to the place he wants the church to call home.

“Six months later, ... (Bethlehem UCC) contacted us about joining together,” he said. “They were declining in membership. The average age of their members was 76. They were ... just tired. This was a lot for them.”

The two churches combined in 2018, and eventually Bethlehem dissolved and turned over its Old Lexington Road property to Overflow Church.

“I had a connection with this church (Bethlehem UCC) long before I ever walked in the doors to preach,” he said. “I grew up down the road and passed this church thousands of times. Also, my great-great-grandfather and other relatives are buried in the graveyard over there. My great-great-grandfather helped found this church.”

For Hullette, the transition was like coming home. That word, home, means much more to him as a pastor. He said that is exactly the feeling he and the church’s membership want to create for anyone who comes in the door.

“It has always been our intention to expand the kingdom of God,” he said. “The point of our church is to seek and save the lost. We strive to create an environment where anyone who enters our church feels at home and feels welcomes. We want the sinner and the saint, whether you are a new church-goer or been going your whole life.”

Jill Doss-Raines is The Dispatch trending topics and personality profiles senior reporter and is always looking for tips about businesses and entertainment events, secret and new menu items and interesting people in Davidson County. Contact me at [email protected].