GROWING TOGETHER
Property deal to allow Oklahoma Christian School to build new school and Life. Church to expand
EDMOND — A megachurch and private Christian school have co-existed for years near the corner of Interstate 35 and Second Street.
Life.Church and Oklahoma Christian School recently agreed to a property swap of sorts, with their longstanding relationship as neighbors providing an amicable foundation for negotiations.
The recent real estate agreement between the two will allow Oklahoma Christian School to start a $17 million project to build a 72,000-square-foot elementary school and Life.Church to expand its headquarters.
Life.Church will lease six acres of undeveloped land to Oklahoma Christian
School with an option to purchase the property. Al King, the school's headmaster, said OCS plans to purchase one of the six acres immediately to begin building the new elementary school south of Second Street and north of the school's existing buildings.
Also as part of the deal, Life.Church bought three acres of land northeast of Life.Church Edmond that encompasses the school's two current school buildings. King said the school will lease the buildings from Life.Church and continue to meet there until the new elementary school is completed in 2021.
And in solidarity with the school, Life.Church also will donate a matching grant of $1 million toward the school's capital campaign to build the new elementary facility.
The property agreement benefits both the church and the school so well that both King and Bobby Gruenewald, Life. Church pastor-innovation leader, said it seemed to be divinely orchestrated.
“We totally see the providence of God in it,” King said. “It was just a dream. It was prime real estate, it's Second Street and we just didn't think it would be possible.”
Gruenewald expressed similar sentiments. “We kind of had to work out all the mechanics,” he said. “I do think it's sort of God's timing.”
Room to grow
King and Gruenewald said Oklahoma Christian School and Life.Church have been neighbors since 2001, when Life. Church opened Life. Church Edmond. King said the school had coexisted peacefully with MetroChurch before that. (MetroChurch voted in 2001 to merge with Life. Church, and Life.Church moved to MetroChurch's sprawling complex in east Edmond at that time).
Both leaders talked about the longstanding relationship that has existed between the church and the school and the respect that leaders of each entity have had for one another over the years.
King said the school, 4680 E Second St., opened in 1970 and currently offers classes for youths from prekindergarten through 12th grade. He said the school had developed a master plan two years ago and recently began reviewing it for the future. He said OCS has grown steadily over the years, growing from a student body of about 900 students in recent years to an estimated 1,000 expected to enroll for the coming school year.
King said the school's elementary buildings, one of which served as MetroChurch's first sanctuary, had grown outdated and needed extensive remodeling or the school would have to construct a new building because it had outgrown the facilities.
He said school leaders approached Life.Church to consider selling them the property they hoped to use for their new school, and in the negotiations, the two groups were able to work out a deal that allowed Life.Church to consider its own growth needs, as well. He said the school likely will break ground on the new elementary building in the fall.
Gruenewald said the Life.Church's office headquarters are at 4600 E Second St., along with Life.Church Edmond, one of the church's 33 sites in Oklahoma and nine other states. He said the church is developing a master plan with input from current leaders and staff members, as well as an outside group. Gruenewald said the church has been expanding its headquarters and hiring more people to work there, and the acquisition of nearby property seemed to be a way that the church could expand the offices at a future date.
The possibility for expansion was key, but the church has long been an advocate for the neighboring school, he said. “The other side of it is we really believe in the mission of the school,” Gruenewald said.
That goodwill led the church to put up the matching grant with the hope that it will kick-start the school's capital campaign. “It's a bit unusual for us to do a grant that size, but we just felt like that was going to be a key component because they're taking on a really ambitious project,” Gruenewald said.
“We're excited about it. It's one of those feel-good things,” he said.