The Onset Foursquare Church opened its doors in late 1990, and in just over two decades has outgrown one location, is growing too big for its current location, and has opened a New Bedford campus.

"We're building a bigger community," said Onset Foursquare Church Pastor Gerald Fernandes. The Onset native has been attending the 301 Onset Ave. church since about the time it opened and has been pastoring for 11 years. "God's been blessing us," he said. "We're working very hard to keep it all together."

In May, Fernandes along with the church's other pastors (including his wife, Denise) began building a congregation at an existing Foursquare church in New Bedford at the request of the former pastor at that church. The congregation is steadily growing, Fernandes said.

"Instead of calling it two different churches, we're calling it one campus," Fernandes explained. "We're one church, we're just in two locations."

The pastors travel back and forth from Onset to the New Bedford church, located at 651 Orchard Street in suite 304A. Pastors share the same teachings in New Bedford as in Onset.

"It's a small congregation [in New Bedford] right now ... but we're growing there," Fernandes said, estimating that about 25 to 30 people regularly attend the 6 p.m. services on Sunday.

In Onset, services are held at 9:30 a.m, with about 125 people filling the church nearly to capacity. Additionally, approximately 30 children regularly attend Children's Church in an adjacent building.

Fernandes said he and his fellow pastors are currently looking for a bigger location for the expanding community.

"We really need to find some place ... where we can expand the ministry and help it to grow," he said. "We need something more commercial. Bigger."

The Onset Foursquare Church has been housed at its Onset Avenue location since 1993 or 1994 following a move from a home on North Boulevard, Fernandes said.

For the month of September, Fernandes will be speaking about the importance of fathering, a subject he said he hopes will attract even more attendees to the church.

Fernandes has been traveling around the country and the world and has seen a "disconnect" affecting humanity: "Fathers being absent from homes," he said.

Though Fernandes had a relationship with his own father growing up, he said his father was "not there emotionally." Fernandes considers Larry Titus, of Kingdom Global Ministries, his "spiritual father."

"I saw something in [Titus]. ... I saw that 'father figure' in him," Fernandes said. Fernandes credits Titus with helping him find his path to God when he was younger.

Now Fernandes wants to help other young people in the same way.

"People in general are looking for a healthy father-view in their life," Fernandes said. "A father's influence effects how young men and young women view life."

Fernandes said the nation needs to "get back to fathering" and he hopes to reach out to men and women and address the issue.

"You can't be spiritually healthy if you're not emotionally healthy," he said, noting that he hopes to connect with people and help them to "make healthier decisions, not emotional decisions."

To hear Fernandes speak at length about the importance of fathering, visit the Onset Foursquare Church at 301 Onset Ave. on Sundays in September. Services begin at 9:30 a.m.

For more information about the church, visit www.onsetfoursquare.com or call 508-291-1595.