Embrace opens in new space

 Embrace grand opening held Sunday, Aug. 18

Embrace Church held its first services in its new space on Heritage Parkway on Aug. 18.

Embrace purchased the land about five years ago and had plans to start construction in 2020. The pandemic changed those plans, but campus pastor Travis Waltner said that change was actually a blessing.

“We were really close to building something in 2020 then that got put on the back burner until we build this building. 2020 was actually a blessing because the building we were going to build wasn’t going to be quite as nice or as big (as this one),” Waltner said.

Embrace started a campus in Tea 10 years ago in a rented space across the street from their new location. The old location had been a gym, a liquor store and a casino before they moved in.

At the time, Waltner had lived in Tea for five years and had a Bible study group of about 25 people when they decided to open a church in Tea instead of expanding the original campus in Sioux Falls. 

“Tea is growing a ton and there’s not a ton of churches in Tea and there’s still not a ton of churches in Tea, so we thought about what would it look like if we started a campus of Embrace in Tea. That’s how it got started. We started with a corps of a hundred people that helped us start and then it just kept growing,” he said. 

They started construction on the new building in April 2023. Construction wrapped up at the end of July and they held their first services at 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Aug. 19.

The new building has a sanctuary built for up to 640 people, a big entryway with a coffee and gathering area, a wing with rooms for kids to meet and an activity center. Children from infant through fifth grade meet on Sunday mornings and older youth get together on Wednesday nights.

All three of Embrace’s campuses were designed to be a welcoming space. They have a mother’s room and parent-child room.

“Really we try to have all of our campuses be a really welcoming space, especially for young families,” said Kylee Breems, Embrace creative and communications director.

In addition to in-person services at each of their three campuses - one in Tea and two in Sioux Falls - worshippers can also watch the service from the 57th & Cliff location on the church’s Facebook page, YouTube channel and website.

Embrace got its name from the story about the prodigal son in the Bible when the father runs out to embrace his son who was coming home after going out and living a wild lifestyle.

“For people who are far away from God or maybe want to reconnect with God, but haven’t for a while, we just hope this place embraces them and loves them and helps them find Jesus,” Waltner said. “We just really want to be a place that welcomes people.”