To people driving past it, the vacant, dirt-covered patch of land near the corner of Dewey and Colby streets does not appear to be much.

For members of Dowagiac’s Liberty Chapel, though, the unoccupied lot represents — figuratively and literally — the foundation of their church’s future hopes and dreams.

Last week, the Pentecostal church celebrated the groundbreaking of the site where it plans to build a new, expanded chapel. The lot is located just several yards away from the current chapel on Dewey Street.

The groundbreaking comes a little more than a year after members of the church began discussing plans for a larger chapel to accommodate its growing membership, said Pastor Mark Saylor. The new facility will be 40-by-96 feet (compared to the 29-by-71 feet footprint of the current chapel), with a lobby, pastor’s office, nursery and chapel that should seat around 120 people.

“It [the new church] should make a beautiful addition to the community,” Saylor said. “It will be a very pleasing sight for the neighborhood.”

On top of the expanded floor space, the church will also offer more modern amenities to parishioners, including new sound and video equipment and ADA compliant ramps, Saylor said. The facility will also be “greener” than the current chapel, using LED lighting and an energy efficient heating/cooling system.

The new facility will be the third church Liberty has occupied since its founding 14 years ago. The chapel was initially located on Mill Street before moving to its present location on Dewey Street around nine years ago, Saylor said.

While church leaders had looked into possibly building a new chapel somewhere outside of town, Saylor said they instead committed to purchasing and developing the lot next to the church, in spite of more complex zoning requirements.

“That [moving outside the city] wasn’t where my heart was at,” Saylor said. “If we are going to be a church that serves the community, we want to be in the community.”

Leading the construction project is Joe Moore, with Dowagiac’s Moore Brothers Buildings, under the supervision of Liberty Chapel member Mike Townsend, who is overseeing the project. The church leadership is committed to spending as much of the estimated $150,000 construction cost locally as possible — in addition to hiring Moore, the church also paid architect Scott Winchester with Seven Generations Architecture + Engineering to handle design work for the new facility, Townsend said.

The church has more than 100 members at the moment, and is continuing to grow — in particular among youth, Saylor said.

The new facility is intended to serve more than just the church’s existing base, however.

The new facility will continue to host court-ordered drug, alcohol and other counseling services, as it has for the past several years at Liberty’s current chapel, Saylor said. Housing these and other support groups allows the church to keep its doors open throughout the week, fighting the common perception that churches only serve a purpose on Sunday mornings, Saylor said.

“With people using the facility throughout the week, the church is a relevant and useful tool for the entire community,” he said.

Saylor is also hoping to begin hosting additional Sunday services in the new building, he said.

Church leaders are hoping to have construction of the new facility wrapped up in September, possibly by Labor Day, Townsend said.