Photo by Jon Anderson.
A 2,000-square-foot addition is proposed on this side of the A2 Church at 6 Greenhill Parkway in Hoover.
The Hoover City Council on July 13 is scheduled to consider a request from the A2 Church off U.S. 280 near Inverness to build a 2,000-square-foot addition.
The addition would be on the southeast side of the existing church building, which is more than 12,000 square feet — not far from the old Superior Grill location. The new space would primarily be used for the church’s youth and children’s ministries, lead Pastor Skot Montgomery said.
The current church building includes a 300-seat sanctuary, a lobby, classrooms for kids and a large room for elementary-age students, Montgomery said.
Rendering of what the addition would look like once completed on the southeast side of the church. Sketch courtesy of A2 Church.
The largest part of the new space would be a dedicated space for middle and high school students on Wednesday nights, and the children’s ministry would spill over into that space on Sunday mornings, he said.
A2 Church, a non-denominational and non-affiliated church, was founded by Chris and Janet Goins in 2008 and had its first service with about 90 people, according to the church website. The church formerly met in the U.S. 31 area in Vestavia Hills but in June 2013 purchased what had been Pike’s Nursery on 14 acres along U.S. 280 in the Inverness area.
The former nursery office and showroom was converted into a space for the church to meet, and the back part of the property is leased to Woerner Landscape, which conducts nursery operations there.
Average weekend attendance at A2 Church grew to more than 400 people, and there were more than 600 active participants at one time. But membership and attendance declined after there was an “unexpected transition of multiple staff” two weeks before Easter in 2022, according to a church profile the church put together after the departure of the founders.
Average Sunday attendance fell to about 100 people, Montgomery said. “It was a pretty tough transition for our church.”
But the church has been rebounding since Montgomery joined as lead pastor in June 2023, growing by about 20% each year the past three years, he said.
The church now has a little over 200 members, plus about 100 children, with an average attendance of about 350 on Sunday mornings and about 500 people on Easter, Montgomery said. There typically are two Sunday morning services during the school year and one service during the summer, he said.
There has been a steady rebuilding of what Chris and Janet Goins established, and the new addition would be the first major change to the building since the church first renovated when moving there, Montgomery said.
“For us, as a church, it’s a very big deal,” he said. “It represents God’s faithfulness — Him saying, ‘You’re still here. There’s still growth, and I’m still blessing you as a church.’”
A2 Church describes itself as “an Acts 2 biblically functioning community.”
“We want to be a church that balances liturgy and [charisma]. We say we are charismatic. We are liturgical, and we are evangelical, and we really try to find a balance of all those things. That model was modeled at Pentecost after Jesus was resurrected and right after his ascension. … We believe you can be Spirit led but also sacrament rich.”
In addition to the expansion of the building footprint, the church also will be stripping some of the paved area behind the building to expand parking and adding more lighting, but in a way so that lighting doesn’t bleed onto adjacent property, City Planner Mac Martin said.
If the City Council approves the addition, Montgomery said the church plans to start construction this fall and hopefully be done in three to six months.
