Salvation Ministries , a Nigerian Church acquires US Mega Church Building. Bishop David Ibiyeomie, Senior Pastor of Salvation Ministries, Nigeria shares on how the Church acquired a MEGA Church property in United States for $10.
The Church property located at Birmingham, Alabama 35217 in United States and Formerly Called Central Baptist Church Now Called Salvation Ministries. Central Baptist church was founded and erected October 1923 in Tarrant, Alabama. It is located at 1225 E. Lake Blvd, Birmingham, Alabama, United States.
The property has been an integral part of the community for decades and comprises of 3 floors, fully equipped with an institutional kitchen that can prepare meals for 1,000 people at a time. It has two sanctuaries; the first ican seat 750 – 900 people (with two floors) and the second sanctuary seats 250 – 350 people.
The property comprises of two massive buildings joined together and both have three floors. The total number of rooms are 27-32. It has an administrative section which has a Pastors office and section for a secretary and offices for staff. It has over 9 lavatories and state of the art indoor gymnasium in the middle of the building which is large enough to seat up to 500 or more people and is furnished to host two basketball teams in a game. It also has changing rooms. Behind the sanctuary, there is a customized area for indoor baptism with views from the sanctuary. It has several rooms for children ministry, game rooms for entertainment, cloak rooms for choir members, a library, multiple storage rooms, a prayer room, over 4 grand pianos (top quality), three external entrances and parking for members, around the church premises.
There is also a plot of land that can be used to erect a live-in quarter in future. The property was insured for a monetary value of 7 million USD. The building itself has a square footage of 51,000 square ft. The previous Mayor of the city of Tarrant, the Honorable Loxcil B. Tuck was the mayor for 16 years (Longest serving female mayor in the history of the state of Alabama) until she retired in 2020. She was one of the trustees of Central Baptist Church in Tarrant.
In 2020, she and the trustees of the church where she has worshipped for over 40 years, decided that the time had come for them to hand the church to a aith and Bible-believing church, that would take it over and use it for the glory to God, to reach out and make great impact in the City of Birmingham and state of Alabama. They unanimously decided to reach out to Billy Graham Ministries, who they have so much respect for, based on the impact of the ministry globally.
When they reached out to Billy Graham Ministries, they were elated and appreciative but surprisingly, after talking amongst themselves, they decided that they would rather hand the building to another ministry that has great integrity and one that preaches and lives by the undiluted Word of God. They decided that the only ministry that fits the description, is no other than Salvation Ministries, under the leadership of Pastor David Ibiyeomie. The only condition given was for Salvation Ministries to make a one-time donation of $1,000 to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
They reached out to Salvation Ministries and the Trustees of Central Baptist Church obliged them and by the favor of God, things moved quickly since October 2021 and on the 22nd of December 2021, the ownership of the property was transferred to Salvation Ministries, with Our Presiding Pastor, Billy Graham ministries and the church trustees in attendance. Salvation Ministries paid only a symbolic token of $10 for the building.