After years of hosting services in the Waunakee Community Center, North Ridge Church and Pastor Brent Bickel are ready to take the next step: a home of their own.
The Wesleyan-affiliated church recently received approval from the Waunakee Village Board on Monday, July 15 to allow for institutional uses at 1071 Uniek Drive, a commercial property they are looking to purchase.
The approval came via a unanimous, 7-0 vote by the village board to approve the conditional use.
Prior to the vote, the village held a public hearing which was attended by several North Ridge Church goers who vouched for the organization's positive impact on the community.
Many spoke anecdotally about different charitable initiatives that North Ridge has spearheaded in Waunakee such as gathering school supplies for kids in need and planning random acts of kindness.
"North Ridge Church has a core purpose that is to live full of life and through that purpose strives to serve the community generously and intentionally," said North Ridge Church member Jim Hankwitz on July 15.
Pastor Bickel sat down with the Tribune to talk about his family's story, what's next and what it meant to see that support for the church.
"It shows that people in the community and in our church are on board with and excited about what we're trying to accomplish," Bickel said.
North Ridge began its presence in Waunakee back in 2011, when Bickel and his wife Laura moved to the village.
The couple came into the move knowing that they wanted to start up their own community congregation through what Bickel refers to as a "parachute drop."
The term describes churches that get their start without the support of sister or brother churches.
Bickel said that this approach, in addition to beginning their community work without ever holding a service is integral to North Ridge's DNA.
Instead of setting a launch date for their first Sunday service, the two-person team of Bickels set about getting involved with Waunakee. Within their first few months in the village, they volunteered through WaunaFest, Waunakee Neighborhood Connection and food drives.
The somewhat unorthodox approach to starting a congregation didn't stop there.
Once the Bickels were ready to begin holding services, they chose to start small with a Wednesday night children's ministry. Without a building to call home, the small church rented out a room within the Waunakee Village Center.
"What happened is that people start asking, 'Are you guys going to do something normal, like a meeting on a Sunday morning and have a service?' and we said that we would love to if people would want to come," Bickel said.
So, the small congregation began hosting monthly Sunday services in January 2012 at the village center. By September of that year, attendance had grown enough for North Ridge to begin hosting weekly services.
The congregation has continued this model, and its rental of Village Center space, since that day up until now.
With a church that continues to grow, Bickel and North Ridge staff are now ready to inhabit their own space and move out of the village center.
"It's an amazing building. To be honest, it'd be great to just stay there. But, it's not our space and at some point we've outgrown that. We look forward to being in this community long term, and the only way to do that is to have our own facility," Bickel said.
The hunt for that space began years ago. Bickel said that the church has been looking at different buildings to take up or even land to construct an entirely new facility. Every option they entertained included the goal of staying in Waunakee.
In 2021, Bickel came across the 1071 Uniek Drive property within the Waunakee Business Park after its former tenant, Tormach Inc., moved out of the building.
Bickel said that the church lacked the finances to make an offer at the time, but that had changed by the time it came back on the market earlier this year.
North Ridge began financially planning for a future move in 2021 and conducted a capital campaign to shore up their resources.
"Our church responded with massive generosity. We were able to raise enough money not only through the capital campaign but also through an increase in generosity in the community, to go after this building," Bickel said.
Much like North Ridge's sermons, some may think that the facility is an unusual choice for a church. However, Bickel thinks it's perfect.
The North Ridge team has plans to renovate the space, keep it open and leave room within the worship space for a musical stage and digital displays.
Bickel's team pride themselves on leading energetic services which include music, videos and personal stories. He said that an open-concept, industrial building may not work for other types of congregations but is just right for theirs.
"I'm not saying that's bad, but it's just not our style. Our focus as a church is to be as relevant as possible; it is to bring God and faith into the modern context as much as possible without compromising God's word," Bickel said.
On top of renovating the worship space, North Ridge also hopes to create a large community room with the possibility of a café, a large lobby, youth ministry space and outdoor patio.
Though for the time being, North Ridge Church goers will still be comfortable in the community center.
Bickel stated that if all goes according to plan, they hope to close on the property in the fall of this year and to move into the new building sometime in 2025.
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