MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL -- Calvary Lutheran Church wants to raise $22 million to fund a major expansion project.

According to the Business Journal of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the church aims to increase its useable space by 80,000 square feet, including a three-story addition, plus a parking ramp for 270 cars.

Calvary, one of the largest Lutheran churches in Minnesota, draws about 2,200 attendees a week. Its plans include a new cafe and bookstore, music auditorium, dining hall, office center, classrooms, youth education space and an atrium.

The church also wants to add an auxiliary chapel seating 600 and from which services could be broadcast simultaneously. The church's sanctuary, which seats about 1,200, will not grow.

Steve Dornbusch, senior pastor at the church, said Calvary is among the 14 percent of churches growing in the state and its renovation will help it keep pace with the parishioners' needs.

"We want to continue to grow and be a vital church," Dornbusch said. The church's attendance has grown by 16 percent in the last two years.

Since the expansion requires the demolition of two homes on the church's nine-acre site, it considered moving to a larger site. But Dornbusch said its Golden Valley location was part of its identity and that a move might sever the church's connections to the inner city, where it does charity work and partners with other ministries.

A challenge for the church is raising money during a down economy. But Dornbusch said troubled times also heighten people's need for a positive and hopeful place such as Calvary.

The church has already asked its parishioners for the money, and on Palm Sunday, April 13, they will come forward with their first pledges. Calvary hopes to raise the money during the next three years.