GROVES — A growing Groves church is looking to expand onto newly bought acreage.

Encounter Church, 5300 Twin City Hwy., is in the process of getting permits to build a new encounter Church on 15 acres of property behind the existing church.

The next step according to Groves City Manager D. Sosa is to notify residents living within a certain radius of the church and holding public hearings where one can speak for or against the proposed project. There is no timeline as of yet for this to occur.

The Rev. Brent Sparks, a senior pastor at Encounter Church, posted a video announcing the news on May 2.

“Hey Encounter Church, I’m so excited to tell you that we have closed today on our new 15 acres of property behind the church so now we have 20 acres of land to be able to expand the kingdom of God with,” Sparks said. “This has been a two year process for us so we’re so glad that we’re finally at a place where we knew where we’re going and how we’re going to get there and all of those kinds of things.”

This isn’t the first time there has been interest in the property. Earlier this year a group of developers had hoped to get the city’s approval to create a senior housing development for mixed incomes. The proposed resolution to support the proposal died for lack of a motion.