Lord of Life Lutheran Church finished building a place of worship at Union Mill Road and Twin Lakes Drive in Clifton in April 2008. Previously, some 80 of its members worshiped in Centreville High's auditorium, while another 550 worshiped in Lord of Life's church on Twinbrook Road in Fairfax. This second sanctuary serves people in the Centreville/Clifton area.
The 37,000-square-foot project includes a two-story sanctuary of about 5,000 square feet. Designed by local architect Bill Robson, one story is a below-ground basement for a youth center and educational classrooms.
The main, ground-level floor contains a worship space seating 300, multipurpose fellowship hall, classroom space and administrative offices. The 12 classrooms are used by all ages, and the fellowship hall accommodates a variety of activities. Groundbreaking was in January 2007, and total cost of the entire project was more than $6.5 million.
* Mount Olive Baptist Church: With a committed and growing congregation, Mount Olive Baptist Church, which has served the community for more than 100 years, is building a new, 52,000-square-foot church on Old Centreville Road. The project's first phase entails construction of the sanctuary on the south side of Mount Olive Road.
It also includes a child-care area for 100 students on weekdays, 14 classrooms for Sunday School and other Christian-education activities, a chapel seating 100, a fellowship hall for 300, an administrative wing and 379 parking spaces.
The building will have a traditional, brick exterior, but a contemporary seating design inside. In phase one, the church must dedicate 35 feet of right-of-way along Old Centreville Road and build half of a two-lane section there, including pavement and a right-turn/deceleration lane at the property's entrance.
Phase two consists of the additional seats for 1,500 total, plus more parking spaces — for a total of 555 — on the north side of Mount Olive Road. And at that time, the church would have to make frontage improvements to Mount Olive Road.
* Ahmadiyya Muslim Mosque: In March 2007, ground was broken at Walney Road and Eagle Chase Circle in Chantilly for the facility which will serve the Northern Virginia chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. The site plan has since been approved.
"Our new mosque will provide us a place to congregate in peace and to show our appreciation and love for our God," said Shahid Malik, the chapter president, during the ceremony. "We're a sect of Islam. Our motto is 'Love for all, hatred for none.'”
Ahmadiyya Muslims have two chapters in Virginia and about 6,000 members in the Washington Metropolitan area. Some 400 members of the local chapter live in Chantilly, Centreville and other cities in both Fairfax and Loudoun counties.
* New Mount Zoar Baptist Church: Last year, New Mount Zoar Baptist Church received Fairfax County's blessing to construct a place of worship in Centreville. The 200-member congregation met previously on Braddock Road in Fairfax, but sold its land there so it could build a new church on nearly six acres it had purchased on Ordway Road.
The new facility will be 13,690 square feet and have 350 seats. The congregation currently meets at Union Mill Elementary; construction is expected to start in 2009 and take 10-12 months.
* Capital Worship Center will eventually move from its current meeting place at 11124 Balls Ford Road in Manassas, to a new building of its own. The Center is building a sanctuary, related facilities and a preschool on 11.7 acres at Ordway and Compton roads and Route 28 in Centreville.
The church will construct one building in two phases. Phase one is a multipurpose building to seat 500; it will contain a childcare center operating from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. to avoid peak-traffic hours. Phase two is a 10,000-square-foot addition with 400 more seats for 900 seats total. The entrance and exit will be on Ordway Road.
* Ox Hill Baptist Church received a land rezoning to build a new sanctuary and expand its facilities. It's on 5.7 acres on the east side of Elmwood Street, near Route 50, across from the Sully Plaza Shopping Center in Chantilly. Ox Hill also obtained a special exception for the three activities that will be there — a church, nursery school/child care facility, and health and human services uses.
The four-phase project will span 15-20 years. Phase one will add more parking, install the necessary curb-and-gutter work and take care of stormwater management. Phase two entails construction of a multi-use facility (fellowship hall), plus a kitchen and educational space. Phase three is the building of a third wing with space for administrative offices, and the fourth phase is a new, 950-seat sanctuary.