Berean Christian Chuch has a megaplan -- including a restaurant

Metro Atlanta

Berean Christian Chuch has a megaplan -- including a restaurant

Berean Christian Church in south DeKalb County has an expansion plan that stuns its neighbors: a 5,000-seat sanctuary, a day care center, office space, luxury apartments, a retail shopping plaza and a restaurant.

Berean Christian Church, located in a sleepy residential pocket off Panola Road in south DeKalb, is positioning itself to become the county's next megachurch.

The church plans to build a restaurant, retail shopping plaza, luxury apartments, a new 5,000-seat sanctuary, a day care center and office space.

Plans are for the existing church, which seats 1,400, to become an arts and entertainment center and to house an expansion of Berean's school, with one grade added each year up to eighth grade.

"We want to make the campus a self-sustaining environment where people can eat, live, work, play and worship," said Robert L. Howze Jr., chief financial officer for the 9,000-member church.

Traffic on Young Road in the Hidden Hills neighborhood gets tied up from the three services Berean holds each Sunday. . The Hidden Hills Civic Association supports the church⿿s traffic improvement effort.

The church has asked county officials for a zoning change and is buying adjacent homes and wooded land to double its 20 acres to 40. The rezoning request is expected to go before commissioners in November.

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Berean Christian Church, located in a sleepy residential pocket off Panola Road in south DeKalb, is positioning itself to become the county's next megachurch.

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