The McKnight Group has designed and built churches for 50 years, but its impact will perhaps be timeless.
The company, which commemorated its anniversary milestone in September, has worked on more than 500 projects across 39 states. Homer McKnight, CEO, co-owner and company founder, is handing the reins to his son, David McKnight, the company’s current president.
Though the titles are changing, the mission will remain the same as it was when the company first started.
“In the ’90s, I remember having a meeting and my father said we’re just going to focus on churches,” David McKnight says. “I really took hold of that.”
The McKnights wanted to make sure the team was the expert on designing and constructing churches. They attended seminars and meetings to explore how churches function so they could build them to meet the individual needs of each congregation.
“When we partner with churches, we want to help them with a facility that is going to be able to be a tool so they can minister to their communities better and reach people for Christ,” McKnight says.
McKnight Group’s first project was building the Grove City Church of the Nazarene. 50 years later, it’s one of the largest Nazarene churches in the country with attendance averaging 2,000, prior to the pandemic, McKnight says.
The Grove City Church of the Nazarene has expanded with help from the McKnight Group. McKnight’s favorite project thus far was the preschool building.
“We didn’t just build a building to put kids in classrooms,” he says, “but we built buildings so families with preschoolers can come together and feel comfortable.”
The church buildings are used as a tool to continuously engage with the community and reach out to others. There’s a coffee shop, for instance, in the preschool building that gives parents a communal space to get to know each other before picking up their kids from school.
The church is one example of how the McKnight Group met its mission to create buildings as effective tools for ministries.
The company continues to impact communities across the country, and it hopes to keep getting better at providing the best spaces for churches to minister to their congregations and spread good will, McKnight says.
“We want to be more efficient in helping the churches that God brings our way,” he says.
Maddie Gehring is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
