On September 10, the new church of Huaxiang (Flower Lane) Church has been topped out in Fuzhou, Fujian. Ongoing for the past 12 years, the construction will be completed at the end of the year. Rev. Chen Lifu, the senior pastor of the megachurch, counts the grace of the Lord in the past 12 years.
After the ceremony, an auction was held to raise funds for the construction.
The new church will have a construction area of 7,500 square meters with 2 underground floors and include an excellent pipe organ. The construction started in 2015 as part of the 100th founding anniversary of the church.
Its history can be traced back to 1915 when western missionaries appointed by the Methodist Episcopal Church purchased the field the church currently stands on and gave it as a gift to the church. It is the first Methodist church built within the walled city of Fuzhou. The local pastor was tasked to lead the efforts in organizing the church. Eventually, the church was dedicated in the spring of that same year with facilities like a reading room, a library, two kindergartens for boys and girls and the provincial CCC&TSPM branch. In that same year, the first baptism service was held in September.
In September 2003, the church regained control over the kindergartens from the authorities. Statistics in 2015 shows that the congregation reached 2000 and the church owns 11 ministries with 1,000 volunteers aiding the Church for 6,500 Sunday service attendees - which is divided into three services to cater to everyone. There are also fellowships for different ages and occupations.
