A 10,000-square-foot building at 530 Tracy Road, which used to be home to the Clark Pleasant branch of the Johnson County Public Library, will soon host Breaking Bread Apostolic Church.
ANDY BELL-BALTACI | DAILY JOURNAL
A local church will soon open in the former Clark Pleasant library branch.
Johnson County Public Library officials opened a new 17,200-square-foot, $8.8 million Clark Pleasant library branch in March 2022 at 350 Clearwater Boulevard, Whiteland. That left the former library building vacant and JCPL took proposals from companies and organizations interested in purchasing the building.
Breaking Bread Apostolic Church, currently located on Tracy Road east of Interstate 65, church leaders bought the building at 530 Tracy Road, New Whiteland for $850,000. Church leaders plan to open for services by the end of April, after they move the congregation west along Tracy Road, said John Biddle, pastor.
Breaking Bread Apostolic Church started in 2017 in a rented building on U.S. 31 that now houses Indiana Kachin Baptist Church in Whiteland. Two years later, church leaders had the chance to host a congregation in their own building, this one in a more rural location east of I-65. With the move to a more visible location in the former library building, church leaders hope to reach more people, Biddle said.
“Buildings are hard to come by in the area. This one opened up and was the size we were looking to go to,” he said. “It gets us back to U.S. 31 and is a little bit more exposure. Out in the country, we didn’t have a lot of exposure.”
All the renovation work was done inside the confines of the building, decreasing costs by not performing demolition or adding on to the exterior. The church also got help with donations from Greenwood-based contractor Bell Plumbing, Interior Construction Services of Greenfield, which did the drywall and finishing, Robert’s Glass and Service, an Indianapolis company that built a glass wall for the church’s sanctuary and Greenwood contractor Vick’s Painting, which colored interior surfaces. With much of the work donated, Biddle said he was unsure of the total cost of the renovations.
Jim Lowry, who has about 60 years of experience in the architecture field, agreed to take on the design work despite being retired.
“I love to design churches and that’s what I do in my retirement,” Lowry said. “Churches come in all sizes and designs these days; that’s part of what makes it interesting. Some churches have high ceilings and stained glass and some churches are sleek and modern. This church fits their needs really well.”
Breaking Bread’s current building hosts about 115 people during an average service, but in the new location, Biddle estimates that number could grow to 170. When it opens, the building will have Sunday School classrooms, a fellowship hall and will have space for a small daycare, called Children’s Ministry, but that will likely open later on in the year, Biddle said.
“In our current location, we use a barn as our fellowship hall,” he said. “In this location, we won’t have stairs, which is nicer for the older patrons, and our fellowship hall will be right central in the building.”
When the new building opens, the church will also be able to reach a wider variety of people, Biddle said.
“I hope for the new church to get more exposure to the community and develop more outreach and hopefully diversify a little bit,” he said. “I know the area is evolving into a much more diverse area, and I know there are a lot of Sikhs. We’re hoping to reach out to other communities, also.”
