The building had its official open day on Saturday and held its first ever Sunday services yesterday.

From 10am to 4pm on Saturday the doors were thrown open and families were invited to come in and have a sticky beak. There were loads of activities for the kids with a jumping castle and face painting to keep them entertained. Parents were kept happy with devonshire tea, a barbecue lunch and displays.

Pastor Steven Blackwell said around 400 people wandered through the church on Saturday and everyone was impressed with the new building.

Church-goer Stephanie Stocks said the weekend had been tagged a ‘weekend of celebration’ and was all about building connections in the community.

“Everyone’s excited and they’ve all worked really, really hard to make it all happen,” she said.

Guest speakers spoke at the official opening ceremony at 6pm on Saturday night and the first Sunday services were held at 10am and 6pm yesterday.

“But we’re not a Sunday service church. Nearly every weekday there’s something going on. We have lots of fellowship and eating ... everything seems to revolve around food,” she laughed.

She said she was excited to think about the future of the church.

“It’s God’s house but I think we’re going to impact Kelso. We have lots of great outreach and ideas,” she said.

“The building will be used to do God’s work. That doesn’t mean preaching at people but filling needs.”

Pastor Rob Hefren said earlier this year the huge church was built to house more than the 200 who currently worship at the church because future growth was expected.

“Obviously it’s much more noticeable now and we’re in the middle of the growth area of Bathurst,” he said.

“There’s no use in building the church for what we need now. If we did that we wouldn’t have moved.”