Minnesota’s biggest church is getting bigger — with a new church building in Anoka.

Eagle Brook Church has purchased an abandoned Kmart store to remodel it for the church’s sixth permanent location in the metro area. The project cost will be about $18 million.

Pastor Bob Merritt made the announcement in a recorded message to the church on Sunday.

Merritt said the expansion was possible because the church has new financial commitments from 3,300 families.

“Because of your generosity, we are going to be able to do this completely debt-free. I am blown away by this,” said Merritt.

“We are going to keep expenses low, with no large increases of staff.”

Eagle Brook’s building in Anoka is at 1100 West Highway 10. Merritt said the remodeling work would begin in a few weeks. It is expected to open in early 2017.

When the remodeling is completed, said Merritt, the new church will accommodate 1,000 people in each of its four weekly services.

With the building in Anoka, Eagle Brook continues its record of near-miraculous growth.

The church began in a single location in White Bear Lake. In 2005, it opened a $24 million, 2,100-seat church in Lino Lakes. It founded smaller branch churches in Spring Lake Park in 2007 and in Blaine in 2011.

The church continued to grow — televising sermons from the Lino Lakes location and broadcasting them to its satellite churches.

In 2014, Eagle Brook opened a $24 million, 1,500-seat church building in Woodbury. Eagle Brook has also been conducting services in the Coon Rapids High School, but those services are expected to be suspended when the Anoka location opens.

The church has thrived financially, too. Pastor Merritt announced in December that it had received a single gift of $17 million in 2011.

Eagle Brook now attracts about 22,000 people weekly. In 2013, it was the nation’s eighth-largest church, according the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/embed?mid=1UN1HutoQ_DPl1lmFcOeUWMQuaQ8&w=640&h=480]