Plans Laid for 'Country Club' Church
Reprinted with permission from Ministries Today, [ Novemer/December, 2004 ].
Copyright Strang Communications Co., USA. All rights reserved. http://www.ministriestoday.com
Plans Laid for 'Country Club' Church
An Ohio congregation purchases an operational nine-hole golf course is the site for its new facility.
Many pastors find it difficult to get golfers into church. The elders at First Christian Church (FCC) in Canton, Ohio, decided to take church to the golf course.
In September, FCC broke ground on a new 127,760-square-foot sanctuary, which will be completed in December 2006 at its new location on the Edgewood Golf Club.
So why would the 2,500-strong congregation buy a golf course?
"After walking 18 different parcels of land over many months, God continued to lead the elders of First Christian back to this property," FCC pastor John Hampton told Ministries Today.
"Growing churches seeking to expand their ministries have purchased shopping malls, industrial parks, farms, cinemas and even abandoned strip clubs. In the final analysis, God was saving, 'Why not a golf course?"'
First Christian bought the nine-hole golf course, which covers 114 acres, for $5.1 million in 2002.
"The reason we bought a lot of land is because we want to minister to a lot of people," says Hampton, 42, noting that the church currently owes less than $3 million. The church has agreed to sell its current facility to a local college.
The church's new mega-complex will consist of two buildings and include a 2,000-seat sanctuary, a 1,712-square-foot activity center, a children's worship and indoor play area, bookstore, cafe and a full commercial kitchen with a banquet seating capacity of 375.
Plans also call for a new clubhouse, an upscale driving range, practice greens and a practice bunker.
FCC is leasing the golf course to a separate entity that will oversee golf operations, although the manager of that business is a First Christian member.
Hampton, who has pastored the church for seven years, believes God can use the golf course.
"If God can use a burning bush, a donkey, a floating ax head, a jug of oil and a jar of flour, and five loaves and two fish, which all brought Him glory, then He can use a golf course," he explains.
First Christian is part of a nondenominational network of churches.
Reprinted with permission from Ministries Today, [ Novemer/December, 2004 ].
Copyright Strang Communications Co., USA. All rights reserved. http://www.ministriestoday.com
Plans Laid for 'Country Club' Church
An Ohio congregation purchases an operational nine-hole golf course is the site for its new facility.
Many pastors find it difficult to get golfers into church. The elders at First Christian Church (FCC) in Canton, Ohio, decided to take church to the golf course.
In September, FCC broke ground on a new 127,760-square-foot sanctuary, which will be completed in December 2006 at its new location on the Edgewood Golf Club.
So why would the 2,500-strong congregation buy a golf course?
"After walking 18 different parcels of land over many months, God continued to lead the elders of First Christian back to this property," FCC pastor John Hampton told Ministries Today.
"Growing churches seeking to expand their ministries have purchased shopping malls, industrial parks, farms, cinemas and even abandoned strip clubs. In the final analysis, God was saving, 'Why not a golf course?"'
First Christian bought the nine-hole golf course, which covers 114 acres, for $5.1 million in 2002.
"The reason we bought a lot of land is because we want to minister to a lot of people," says Hampton, 42, noting that the church currently owes less than $3 million. The church has agreed to sell its current facility to a local college.
The church's new mega-complex will consist of two buildings and include a 2,000-seat sanctuary, a 1,712-square-foot activity center, a children's worship and indoor play area, bookstore, cafe and a full commercial kitchen with a banquet seating capacity of 375.
Plans also call for a new clubhouse, an upscale driving range, practice greens and a practice bunker.
FCC is leasing the golf course to a separate entity that will oversee golf operations, although the manager of that business is a First Christian member.
Hampton, who has pastored the church for seven years, believes God can use the golf course.
"If God can use a burning bush, a donkey, a floating ax head, a jug of oil and a jar of flour, and five loaves and two fish, which all brought Him glory, then He can use a golf course," he explains.
First Christian is part of a nondenominational network of churches.
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