More than 2,500 people call the Minooka Bible Church home each week. Soon, those same congregants will have a second shelter from which to worship.

Plans are now underway to open a campus of the popular church in Morris. Connections Pastor Brent Molskness said plans are for the church to begin services in the fall of 2020, with events planned for the summer prior.

A site has not yet been chosen for the new campus, but Erik Swanson, a pastor at Lakeland Community Church in Lake Geneva, has already been hired as minister for the new campus. Swanson grew up in Morris.

“We’ve been looking at doing another campus probably for the last three to five years,” Molskness said. “We’re calling it, ‘One church, two locations.’ What we’re trying to do is to replicate ourselves in what seems to be working here, and hopefully we’ll have the same results in Morris.”

Molskness said they chose Morris for their first branch because many of the church’s members live in the city, and drive the distance every week for services and events.

Mike and Cindy Harrington of Morris will be among MBC’s members who plan to attend services at the Morris campus. Mike, one of the church’s deacons, said Minooka Bible Church has continued to grow over the years. The church now has four services each week – three on Sunday mornings and one on Saturday evening.

“The church has been growing,” Harrington said, “and we are pretty much busting at the seams.”

Leaders explored options for the growth and also considered building options for the original structure.

“In the end, we decided that instead of concentrating in one area, we would duplicate the DNA in another campus," he said.

Harrington said the principles and personality of the church will carry through to the Morris branch.

“We try to be a very welcoming church,” he said. “You can show up in shorts, or you can show up in a suit and tie.”

Harrington said plans are for the Morris campus to be a vital part of the community, especially with outreach. Minooka Bible Church just wrapped up its five-day Spy Kids, which is like an all-day vacation Bible school for kids.

Approximately 600 elementary-age children attended, with 75 junior high and 115 high school helpers, in addition to the more than 100 adult helpers. The church also sends mission groups to Guatemala and has several local community service groups.

Pastor Molskness said a core group of MBC members will launch the Morris campus, and they are hoping other Morris area residents will discover all the good things about worshiping with and joining the community at MBC.

“There are a lot of good Bible-based churches around that are teaching God’s word in amazing ways,” Molskness said. “I think what sets us apart is that our mission is to be real with God, real with each other and real with the world. That has been our great guiding tool that people seem to gravitate to. They’ve seen so many fake things in church.”

Molskness added that reaching people who don’t know God is one of the church’s main goals.

“To reach more people that we’re not reaching now is our goal as a church,” he said. “To be reaching more and more people for Jesus Christ . . . We’re all made in the image of God, and when God isn’t a focal point in our life, we’re going to wander and not be able to sense our purpose of who God wants us to be. There’s a need to fill our spirit with the God who made us.”

Minooka Bible Church's current location is 412 North Wabena Ave. in Minooka.The church began as a small group back in 1979, meeting in Minooka Junior High, and broke ground on its first worship center in 1984.