Charleston’s Vineyard Church has moved from its current location on 1505 7th St. to 917 Woodlawn Drive to accommodate larger audiences.

Pastor Sam Wheeler said the move was an important step for their church due to the new building having a larger auditorium for gatherings as well as a bigger basement.

The previous building held around 80 chairs, but Wheeler estimated the new building might hold about 30 more.

Much like their old building, which they opened September 2012, and was being rented; the church’s new home is also being rented out.

The new church’s basement will be used for Sunday school and will include a nursery where parents can drop their kids off to be watched by volunteers while enjoying their Sunday services. The nursery will also have a hand painted mural of trees and various animals.

“It’s part of the way we do church,” Wheeler said.

The organization heard the current property on Woodlawn was up for rent. He said it seemed like a good step to grow their church.

Wheeler said their church sees many types of people from students, married couples, retirees and others from the community, young and old.

“We pride ourselves on being a multi-generational church,” Wheeler said.

Vineyard’s mission is to continue the ministry as Jesus would whether it be loving, praying, and serving others as he would, Wheeler said.

The church also gets a good amount of support from others as they just received cabinets donated to them from the friend of another friend; volunteers did most of the renovations on the new church as well.

There were, at one point, around 20 volunteers working on the church, Wheeler said.

Aside from the cabinets, Wheeler said the Salisbury Church donated the Woodlawn scaffolding.

Wheeler said their church still meets at the other building until the one on Woodlawn is finished, which will open September 14th.

Roberto Hodge can be reached at 581-2812 or rlhodge@eiu.edu.