Breaking Ground on New Church Building in Forsyth

Under bright, blue skies, and very warm temperatures, a groundbreaking ceremony was held on July 24, to celebrate construction of a new church building by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The building will be located at 3185 Dahlonega Highway in Cumming, near and .

The new building is expected to be completed in June 2013.

"But that's not realistic because there's always some kind of a delay in construction whether it be for rain or whatever else," said Craig Malmfeldt, stake president representative overseeing construction of the building. "So there's always some slippage, we would imagine we would probably occupy in the late fall of 2013."

Malmfeldt said three congregations, each separated by geographic area, will worship in the new building, including Coal Mountain Ward and Pilgrim Mill Ward. He did not know what the other Ward would be at the time of this writing.

Malmfeldt anticipates each Ward will have about 200 people attending the new building. He also said that they had discussed any potential traffic congestion issues with Pastor Shawn Lovejoy of Mountain Lake Church (the new building is being constructed on land near where MLC sits).

"We made the agreement and we will adjust our meeting time so that we don't conflict with them [MLC] or anybody else," said Malmfeldt.

During the ceremony, Benjamin W. Wood, president of the Sugar Hill Stake, talked about the financing of the land and building.

"Before we bought this land we had all the money we needed to completely pay for this building," he said. "And that's because of the faithful members of the church who pay full tithes – 10 percent of their income for the work of the church."

Wood continued, "We have no one paying to do anything so that means all the monies available, to do the programs of the church, to take care of the poor and needy, and to build buildings."

Many LDS members and their families attended Tuesday’s ceremony. Also in attendance were two county commissioners, Patrick Bell (District 4) and Todd Levent (District 3).