October 2, 2026
TOCCOA, Ga. — Ebenezer Baptist Church of Toccoa has broken ground on a Community Impact Center that it hopes will help the community for years to come.
“Ebenezer loves Toccoa, but more importantly, God loves Toccoa and loves the people of Toccoa. This is our gift to Toccoa,” said Ebenezer Missions Pastor Randy Williams.
A sole ministry of Ebenezer church, the Community Impact Center will be a place where Ebenezer can prepare for mission projects such as packing boxes or backpacks. William said the center "will give us a kind of centralized location to do that.”
The hope is that the center will allow Ebenezer to make connections with people outside the church walls.
It's not intended to be a place for birthday and anniversary parties, but rather a resource for the community. It will have space to seat between 125 to 150 people, and local businesses or organizations will be able to use it for programs, meetings or conferences.
The center will also be the new home of the local Christian Learning Center for a few hours every day beginning in the fall of 2026. Williams said the CLC is not a ministry of Ebenezer, thought it is supported by multiple churches in the area. “We believe in what the Christian Learning Center is doing and wanted to help them because they were running out of space. There’s been an incredible growth for them,” said Williams.
“A lot of times, I think we get kind of tunnel vision and we are going to go do this. And, when we start walking in the direction that God is leading us, sometimes he takes those blinders off of us and shows us this is what I had planned for you," Williams explained. "And it is so much bigger than anything we can imagine. It’s super exciting to be a part of that.”
The church has discussed hosting an after-school program. “I’d hope maybe by the fall of 2026 we might be able to offer that," Williams said, "but I’m not sure that’s our time frame on it. That is something we feel there is a need for in the community.”
Other uses could include hosting the church’s Wednesday night Bible studies, due to its close proximity to the church. But, the church does not want the center to be viewed as just another church building. The hope is for it to be utilized by the community.
Williams said Ebenezer is a church that “believes in missions and does missions and it is not just sending money, but going and sending people.” He added, “Ministries literally all over the world. But, this church has really supported missions and ministries here in Toccoa and Stephens counties.”
Williams and the church staff talked about how to add to their local missions, and the idea of a “mission center” was discussed. Churches across the country were looked at and some of them have dream centers. “This is sort of patterned after that,” he said. “But, we're not in Los Angeles, California, or Birmingham, Alabama, and so it took on that we were in Toccoa and Stephens counties, so how can we better impact our community where we are?” The Community Impact Center came out of that discussion.
Building the impact center on church property was an option, but “as God so often does, as we were talking about that, we had a church member come to us and say ‘I would like to give you some property for this.’”
The one-acre lot is located on Georgia Hwy. 17A (Big A Road) going through Toccoa. “It’s the major thoroughfare," Williams explained. "Maybe not for people who are traveling through Toccoa, but for people who work and play in Toccoa, it is THE major road. It’s an extremely visible piece of property we were gifted.”
The property had a warehouse on it, which the church uses for storage of their construction, lawn care, and disaster relief missions trailers. If a tornado or fire hits, or if someone in the community needs help, these trailers are utilized. “We can mobilize a team pretty quickly to take one of those trailers out and take care of some folks that need some help,” Williams said. Eventually, the warehouse will house supplies for these ministries.
“The sky's the limit,” Williams said of the Community Impact Center. “We have no idea what God has planned for the use of the corner lot. We just know that he gave us that property and gave us the vision to build this building. He’s given us the resources.”
The church hopes to have a grand opening in March or April of 2026.
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