BUTLER TWP — Community Life Church has been in its new location for three months now and plans Easter to serve as its grand opening.

The nondenominational church hosted its first service on Christmas Eve in the former Clarence Brown Education Center, 1104 Pittsburgh Pike Road.

Amanda Doyle, a church member and administrative assistant to pastors Steve and Mamie Ogle, said Community Life's congregation numbered nearly 80.

Steve Ogle, who started the church with his wife, Mamie, in 2004 after spending 10 years at Victory Family Church in Cranberry Township, said, “We were at Bible college with the intention of coming back to Butler.

“At Victory Family Church it was always the intention that we would start our own church in Butler and that came about in 2004,” he said.

The Ogles spent 14 years conducting services at McQuiston Elementary School, 21 Mechling Drive.

Mamie Ogle said, “For the last nine years we have had a building campaign.”

The church won auction for the former school in July 2016.

The church paid $150,000 for the 16,000-square-foot building and five acres from Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV of Grove City, which staffed the center owned by Karns City, Mars, Moniteau, Seneca Valley and South Butler school districts.

Winning the auction was just the start of it, Steve Ogle said.

“There was a lot of paperwork, lots of hoops to jump through. The process is a lot longer than you would think,” he said.

Doyle said, that after the final sale of the Clarence Brown property went through in late 2017, “We had a contracting team and knock down some walls and turn a central room into a sanctuary.”

Doyle said, “The sanctuary can seat 160 people, but we anticipate a lot more. We have the room to grow.”

Doyle said the church is in the process of decorating the sanctuary.

But the lack of religious imagery isn't a problem for the Ogles.

Steve Ogle said, “We are a nondenominational church. Mamie was raised Catholic and I was brought up Lutheran.

“We find that religious attitudes and religious rituals make a relationship with God a little more difficult. Jesus in the Bible was approachable,” he said.

“We'll have some signage going up and our two (video) screens will have a lot of Scripture on them,” Steve Ogle said.

“Sundays should be a little more relaxed to me. I'm comfortable it doesn't look like a church. It feels a little more homey,” he said.

Ben Ogle is the student ministries pastor and the son of Steve and Mamie Ogle.

Amanda Ogle is his wife and the church's connections director responsible, she said, for helping “people get connected with the church and helping people find a purpose and God's purpose.”

Amanda Ogle said the new location offers the church advantages over its long time home at McQuiston Elementary.

“It was a blessing to use their facilities,” she said of the elementary school. “The main service was in the gymnasium and individual classrooms were rooms for the children.

“We did events in the cafeteria,” she said, noting church members would have to arrive a 8 a.m. to spend 90 minutes to set up the school for a church service.

“We had extremely loyal volunteers, and they had to get it all torn back down by 12:30 p.m.,” said Amanda Ogle.

“But a lot of connections were built during that time, and getting to know what was going on in their lives,” she said of the setup and tear-down crew.

Ben Ogle said the new location is great for Sunday morning services, his youth group and has space for the younger members of the congregation.

“We have a pretty healthy population of kids in the church,” he said and children up to sixth-grade number in the low to mid-40s.

Ben Ogle said, “The congregation is young, and we fell that is what God wants us to do, reach out to families.”

Amanda Ogle said, working with children, “We want the kids to be the ones asking to come back. We want kids to have a blast and find out who God is.”

Ben Ogle said, “The first service was Christmas Eve. That was sort of our soft launch, and we are looking at Easter to be the grand opening.”

He added part of the Easter festivities will be the church's the Eggaventure March 24.

He said people need to register their children for the outdoor and inside activities that day by going to clcbutler. org.

WHAT:Community Life Church is hosting Eggaventure, where families will discover interactive science activities, face painting, a photo booth with the Easter Bunny, prizes and giveaways for children and adults and outdoor egg huntsWHEN: Begining at 10 a.m. March 24WHERE: Community Life Church, 1104 Pittsburgh Pike Road.INFORMATION: Space is limited, so visit the website, clcbutler.org/events for more information and register.