By Quinn Andersen, staff intern

A small church in Albert Lea is going through some big changes.

“Everyone notices the little white church on the corner,” said the Rev. Dennis Seiler of Faith Baptist Church.

Seiler was starting to think that everyone noticing the 47-year-old church wasn’t such a good thing.

“You have all seen it,” Seiler said. “Everyone drives by and thinks ‘Yuck, who wants to go to church there?’”

So Seiler decided to tap into the church’s construction fund that has been growing for the last nine years.

A congregation member at Faith Baptist helped create the remodeling plans. Seiler later brought them to Freeborn Lumber, and staff there helped get the plans approved by the city. The church also purchased a majority of the construction materials there.

The remodel’s main purpose was to create more classroom and office space. The worship hall was given a partial second floor where two new classrooms were added and a new office was created next to the pastor’s study.

The project went on to include new siding, paint, cabinets, windows and doors along with electric work done by Klocek Electric.

“It needed a facelift,” Seiler said.

Congregation members helped paint install doors and hang cabinets. The rest of the work was done professionally with Tom Sime as the general contractor for the project.

The project started in February and according to Seiler is “pretty close to being done.”

Seiler has been pastor at Faith Baptist Church for 12 years and said this was not the first church where he took part in construction work. He helped to build a church from the ground up as part of his first pastor job.

There will be a dedication service to celebrate the work done at 2 p.m. Sept. 8. A morning service and 12:30 p.m. luncheon will be prior to the dedication service. The public is invited to the see the church’s remodel. The church is located at 905 Fairlane Terrace; it has a congregation of around 65 members.