After eight years of planning, fund raising and preparation, Celebration Lutheran Church will break ground on its new church at Pinecone Road and 15th Street North.

“It’s exciting, but it’s also a great relief because it been coming for so long,” Wright said. “You kind of pinch yourself and say ‘Is this real?’”

The ceremony will be 11:15 a.m. on Sunday after the church’s regular 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. services. Construction will begin Monday.

“It will be very gratifying to finally move some dirt.” said Keith Yapp, co-chair of the relocation team.

The move was born out of necessity: Celebration’s congregation had outgrown its site at 931 Fifth Ave. N. It has added about 100 memebers a year.

“In the last decade it doubled in size,” Wright said. “We regularly have over 1,000 people for Christmas and Easter services.”

The church created an exploratory committee in 1999 to look at options for expanding its space.

“We investigated every possibility to stay where we were,” said Stuart Bailey, co-chair of the church relocation team. It soon became clear that an expansion would be a temporary solution. So with an eye to the future, a relocation team was formed to plan the move.

“We want to provide space to welcome the many people who may wish to join in the coming years,” Wright said.

The new church will be on a 20-acre lot. It is scheduled to be completed by June 2008, in time for the church’s 24th anniversary.

At 29,000 square feet, the one-story building will more than double the church’s current 13,000 square feet. The site plan was approved by the Sartell City Council on Sept. 10 and received congregation approval Sept. 30.

The church has contracted MCL Architects of St. Paul to oversee the project. W. Gohman Construction of St. Joseph will be the general contractors.

The cost of the project is $4.85 million.

“This includes everything the land, the pipe organ, the architects, the assessment, the construction costs – everything,” Wright said.

The first phase of construction will create a worship area that will seat 400, classrooms, offices, a youth room and a multi-purpose family and youth commons. It will include installation of a 40-rank pipe organ that was purchased several years ago and has been in storage awaiting the new church.

A possible second phase would triple the size of the current church, add a worship area for 750, convert the first worship area to a fellowship hall and add a second education wing.

Celebration’s current location is for sale and is zoned for a school or a church. It includes two adjacent properties: a residence and an empty lot.