Hundreds of volunteers came from as far away as Louisiana, Iowa and Maine to help North Point Church build its new headquarters on Hancock Ave.

The volunteers started working on a frame at 5 a.m. Friday morning. The local congregation had the concrete work done, the basic framing of the building and the parking lot finished in advance of the weekend effort.

The seven-year-old congregation, an off-shoot of the Cavalry Pentecostal Church in Springdale, had been operating out of a High Street storefront for more than three years, said Pastor Dean Lunsford, but they were limited in their outreach efforts because of the small size of the building.

That began to change when Lunsford went to a conference in 2009 and learned about the Church in a Day program, a mission of the United Pentecostal Church that coordinates an effort to supply the expertise and some of the manpower to raise a church building in a weekend and at great savings to the local congregation.

“It immediately connected with me,” Lunsford said. “It’s been a three-year journey for us, with a whole lot of sacrifice.

“We did two years of fundraising, and we were able to purchase the land (the former site of Buchanan Elementary School) in cash,” he said. “There’s still more to do, but we were able to get it going.”

“We’ve done over 100 of these projects, but this is the first one in Ohio,” said Mike Garber, Ohio coordinator for the mission, Friday morning as a line of people began carrying sheets of drywall inside the building. “We’ll hang the first sheet of drywall by 11 and the roof will be finished by noon. We’ll be worshipping in there on Sunday morning.”

By assembling a multi-state team of volunteers, some skilled tradesmen and some laborers, Garber said the mission can build a $300,000 building for about $100,000.

Organizers expected somewhere between 250 and 300 volunteers on the site for the 24 to 36 hours of work.

The new North Point Church will be 2,800 square feet and seat 120 people with three Sunday school rooms on a 4.5-acre lot.

The local congregation also works in advance to line-up food for the crew.

With its location close to downtown Hamilton and Fairfield Twp., Lunsford said he envisions the church as an outreach center for families and children, and will eventually include a playground and a family life center.

“We want this to be a safe haven where everybody will be welcome,” he said.