JEFFERSON TWP — On Dec. 19, 2004, Pastor Chris Marshall left his business card in the screen door of the late George Fehring.

On the back he wrote, “I heard you might be selling your property. If you want to invest in the kingdom of God, give me a call.”

Church Elder Frank Relihan, who was with Marshall, asked, “Why put it in the screen door? Why not the mailbox?”

Marshall replied, “Something's telling me to put it in the screen door.'”

It took two weeks for the nephew of Fehring, Dr. Ron Flatt, to find the business card on the 20.3-acre farm.

Flatt called Marshall to arrange a meeting on behalf of his uncle to sell the property. At the end of their meeting, Marshall was asked again, “Why did you put it in the door?” This time by Flatt.

“I said, 'You know, I just felt like I was supposed to, maybe even like God was telling me to.' He said, 'Well that's very interesting, because we never check the mailbox. The mail is all forwarded to our house and if you would of put it in the mailbox, we would have never seen it.'”

Almost 8½ years later, New Life Christian Ministries is ready to begin construction of Phase 1A of its new building.

The church purchased its new property in 2005. The site is located at 127 Knoch Road, Saxonburg, just 1½ miles from the church's current location at the South Butler Primary School.

“It's been a very good relationship. We've actually been worshiping at the elementary school since 2004,” said Marshall.

Church members have been using the land for outdoor worship and events, but have been waiting for the financing and planning to be finalized to actually start construction.

The facility will be built in four phases. Phase 1A will be completed in about six months.

Each of the four phases will come together to build an about 40,000-square-foot facility.

Phase 1A's 11,500 square feet will include a worship hall, classrooms and some offices. Eventually, it will become the youth and community building.

For now, all employees of the church work from their homes, except youth director Mark Lutz who has an office at 320 Main St. in Saxonburg.

New Life rents the building from St. Luke's Lutheran Church for youth events and meetings during the week.

Marshall's office will remain in his home even after Phase 1A's completion, allowing for more classrooms and other office space needs.

“It's a starter building,” Marshall said. “It's going to get us on to the property. It's going to give us a place where we can have access 24/7 instead of just on Sundays.”

The church does not know exactly when Phase 1 will begin, that depends on growth and financing.

“This is the size (building) that we believe that our current congregation is able to handle from a financial standpoint,” said Marshall.

Marshall founded New Life on April 8, 2001.

He started holding services at Bible Church of Ivywood, on less than an acre of land before New Life began renting from the South Butler School District.

Elder of construction, Chuck Matus is excited for New Life to have its own facility.

“New Life isn't just a Sunday church,” Matus said. “It's a 24/7 church.”

New Life offered two services and began offering a third on Saturday evenings in June.

“Last year at this time we were worshiping about 260 people Sunday,” Marshall said. “This year, we're worshiping about 350, so we've grown quite a bit in the last year.”

The worship hall in Phase 1A will hold about 260 people per service comfortably.

The church plans to continue offering three services during Phase 1A.

Phase 1 will seat 600 people, Phase 2 will add two multipurpose rooms and other additional classroom space and Phase 3 will add additional worship space.

“If it continues the way it is now, I would say in two to three years we'll be in the next phase,” Marshall said.

In order to build a facility in the rural area, the church is paying to have city water and sewage extended into the area.

This will allow others in the community to tap into the system, which Matus said will help those in the community with wells and septic tanks.

“It's not only going to be a worship building,” Matus said. ”It's a place for the community that we'll make available for different groups.”

The nondenominational church uses modern music, visuals and relaxed attire to attract people who perhaps haven't gone to church before or haven't been to church in many years.

“The reason that New Life began in the first place was that we wanted to start a church that would basically do two very specific things,” Marshall said.

“One, we would teach right from the Scripture of the Bible and two, we would live out the love of Jesus,” Marshall said. “It sounds simple and it is pretty simple.”