HISTORY
Brookings Wesleyan Church held it’s first worship service July 2, 1950, with a small core of people who believed that the Kingdom of God needed a Wesleyan Church in Brookings. The church began with only 6 charter members and met in a small building at the corner of 8th Street and 5th Avenue.
Growth began immediately, leading to the building of an addition to the church building in 1959. As the church continued to touch the lives of people and grow, we soon outgrew that facility, which led to the purchase of the land on Orchard Drive.
Construction at the Orchard Drive site began in 1973 and the new building was dedicated in 1974.
In May of 1993 construction began on a 7,000 square foot Christian education and office wing. The new addition was dedicated, debt-free, on January 30, 1994.
In July of 2002, construction began on a new sanctuary seating approximately 900, along with further expansion of Christian education facilities. We moved into our new Worship Center in November, 2003. In 2005, our old sanctuary was remodeled into a gymnasium/activities center, which is now ministry space for our youth and college-aged young adults and fellowship events.
Over its 50+ years of ministry, BWC has grown from that handful of visionaries to an average worship attendance of approximately 1000. Our size gives us the resources to offer ministry to people of all ages and walks of life. At the same time, we’ve discovered that we don’t have to sacrifice the relational closeness that you can experience in a smaller church. Our people can develop those same kinds of close relationships with other believers through our classes and Growth Groups.
