Southwest Church in Indian Wells plans to branch out with $7 million project

One of the biggest churches in the Coachella Valley, Southwest Church is getting a $7 million dollar makeover. News Channel 3’s Caitlin Thropay was out at the church in Indian Wells and brings us details on this new development.

At the corner of Washington Street and Fred Waring Drive, a church that can sometimes be mistaken as an office building will eventually look a lot more like a welcoming church.

Senior Pastor, Ricky Jenkins tells News Channel 3 that this is part of what Southwest Church is calling their “Make Jesus Famous” campaign.

“Biblically, Jesus became famous for his compassion for others,” Jenkins said.

In hopes to be that compassion for others in the valley, they plan to expand their church.

“The families of our valley really deserve a space where they can have some clean, safe, gathering time in connection and we think our church needs to be the church that offers that to the entire valley,” he said.

Part of the renovation will include a cafe open all week.

“Atop the cafe will be a gathering space with glass outsides where people can enjoy the pristine views of our valley,” he said.

Then, there will be an updated patio area with barbecues and playgrounds and the overall exterior of the church will change as well.

“We’re trying to make it look more like a church quite honestly,” he said.

How long will it take before we see these renderings come to life?

“We just presented this to our people. It’ll be a couple of years of telling the story why we want to do this and raising the funds and if all of that goes well, hopefully on the other side of two years we will start breaking ground,” he said.

They’ll need to raise $7 million for this project.

“We will pay for this by the generosity of our people,” he said.

Of that $7 million, the first million will go towards compassion projects for nonprofits here in the valley along with starting a new church in Oakland, California.

The remaining $6 million will renovate the Indian Wells campus.

But this is only phase one of a bigger vision Jenkins says.

“We’re dreaming big and trusting god. We think over the next 15 or 20 years all 43 acres can be built out where families can say southwest is a church where my family can come and have a safe place to gather,” he said.

The centrally located church has over 4,000 people attend every weekend.

“What all this is about is just honoring the fact that we are a church that is in the valley but we always want to be known as a church for the valley,” he said.