Kevin Holland got so excited that work was about to start at Covington Christian Fellowship he gave the go ahead to rip out carpet inside the building.

That was two years ago.

“If anyone’s visited here in the past two years, we were pretty excited that we were getting (construction) permits, so, I let them tear the carpet out,” Holland said.

So, maybe the church’s senior pastor got a little ahead of himself, Holland admitted.

But, now the staff and the congregation at the church can get excited, as they celebrated the ground breaking Oct. 24 on the first phase of a master plan to improve and update the church.

“We started master planning for our site about four years ago,” Holland said. “The first phase of our development is basically a remodel, addition and all around upgrade of our current facility which was originally built in 1974.”

Holland noted that when the architect the church hired to work on the master plan first toured the church, he said, “I want to compliment you for completely using your building.”

Holland joined the church staff in 1972, a year after it was started, before the church even had a building. He was still in college and was dating his future wife, Meg, and the couple helped build the church early on — literally and figuratively, helping with the construction including putting on the roof.

“We did it then for people who weren’t here yet,” Holland said. “And we’re doing it again for people who aren’t here yet.”

With work crews on the church property during the holiday season, though, Holland said there will be some changes to the usual way the church celebrates Christmas with the community.

“Meg has picked out a theme for us this year called ‘Christmas Under Construction,’” Holland said. “We’re not going to be able to do our live nativity that we’ve done for 18 years. Instead, we are doing a comedy improv night with Taproot Theater Company on Dec. 19. It will be a way of getting the community back and doing something special for Christmas.”

A banner will be hung on the manger that can be seen from Wax Road declaring “Christmas Under Construction,” Holland added, so that everyone knows the live nativity will be on hiatus this holiday season.

This first phase will include a significant focus on space for children’s and youth programs, with the addition of a 100 seat auditorium planned, nursing space and a day care.

Holland said there will also be an espresso bar with an area where people can sit and chat or just hang out.

Planning first began about 10 years ago, Holland explained, as the church tried to find money first to develop another property it owned in Covington.

“Our church never seems to have a lot of money, but, we had that piece of property,” Holland said. “Our goal was to develop that property. We were actually going to build over there and then we decided we’ve got plenty of property over here.”

Instead, the church spent five or six years preparing the other chunk of land for sale, and Ashton Development purchased it so it would eventually be the site of Covington Esplanade which is where Home Depot — which opened in 2008 — is located along with Red Robin, a Verizon Wireless store, Mizu Japanese Steakhouse, and more recently the International House of Pancakes, among other businesses.

Thanks to the sale of that property, Holland said, “we were blessed that we only had to raise about 20 percent of our budget.”

“We’re doing it mostly for cash, then we’re going to raise the rest inside the congregation,” he said. “We did scale (the project) down a bit o fit within the cast we had.”

Holland added he was appreciative of the efforts of the city of Covington’s Community Development department.

“We’ve had a great process with the city in the whole permitting process,” he said. “There’s been twists and turns but they’ve done their best to make it as easy as possible.”

It is important, Holland said, that the church have a good working relationship with the city because the church wants to do more than just provide for its own members.

“The whole purpose of this construction is not to make this place better for ourselves, but, for the community,” he said. “C.S. Lewis, the author of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ said, ‘The church is the only institution that exists for the benefit of its non-members.’ So, that helps filter everything. It helps us remember why we’re here.”

Over the years, the church has been particularly involved in the annual Covington Days Festival, and has hosted a barbecue and fireworks to kick off the festival in July. In addition, it hosts The Storehouse’s annual Back To School Barbecue, and supports a number of other community organizations.

Work on the first phase should wrap up in April or May, though Holland hopes it is in time for Easter Sunday, which is set for April 24, 2011.

The grand re-opening will also coincide with the church’s 40th anniversary with the plan to “invite the community in” to celebrate with the congregation.

But, right now, there’s still a fair amount of excitement about putting in new carpet.

“There’s must have been a lot of angst to use that carpet,” Holland said. “Because that was out, about 3,000 square feet of carpet, in about 45 minutes.”