An artist's rendering of the ministry's new headquarters.The 60-year-old international media ministry It Is Written is building a new $8 million headquarters in Collegedale. The move will allow the ministry to grow, and also put it closer to its partner, Southern Adventist University.
The global evangelical ministry has been operating out of rented office space off Highway 58 since 2014, when its former location in Simi Valley, Calif., was sold.
The new, two-story, 40,905-square-foot headquarters is being constructed at 9340 Four Corners Place. Construction is expected to wrap up by the end of next year, according to ministry treasurer Charles Reel.
"We quickly felt right at home in Tennessee, and we are thrilled to continue to share the love of Jesus with the world from our new location," said It Is Written Director John Bradshaw.
The ministry produces a weekly television program viewed in approximately every city in the United States, 700 cities in Canada and 143 countries, according to its website. Hosted by Bradshaw, "It Is Written" deals with issues such as loneliness, fear, low self-esteem and spiritual principles. It was the first religious telecast to air in color, the website states.
The 8.65-acre lot where It Is Written is building its new headquarters borders Four Corners Place to the north, Collegedale Community Church to the west and Greenbriar Cove to the south.A partner of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, It Is Written is a donor-supported ministry. Its website also displays upcoming missions the ministry hopes to complete, along with those already completed thanks to donor funding - water wells in Namibia, "godpods," or solar-powered audio Bibles, in Papua New Guinea, and medical and evangelical missions in Mongolia, for example.
By partnering with professors in SAU's religion department, It Is Written also offers fully accredited evangelical classes for free. Those who complete the course receive certification as a Bible worker and can take on one-year positions in Bible work, foreign missions and evangelism.
The new building will provide a two-story multi-set studio, production editing bays, a warehouse, offices, a resource shop, a mission museum and a fitness center, all under one roof on an 8.65-acre lot purchased from SAU.
"On behalf of the city of Collegedale, I welcome It Is Written organization to our city," Mayor Katie Lamb said at the groundbreaking.
For more information and updates, visit itiswritten.com/newhome.
Email Heather Newlin at hnewlin@timesfreepress.com.