“Sure is big isn’t it?”

-Several years ago in the movie Hoosiers, Gene Hackman played the part of Norman Dale, a former college coach with a tainted past who was hired to coach a rural high school basketball team from Hickory, Indiana. Coach Dale leads the team all the way to the state finals. On the day of the semifinals, the team arrives at Butler Field House, the huge inner-city arena where they’re to play in just a couple of hours. When the players enter the arena; their jaws fall and their eyes open wide. Gawking at the seats, the stand-alone goals, the suspended scoreboard, and the lights, they are awestruck and intimidated.

 Coach Dale instructs one of his players to take a tape measure and determine the distance between the free-throw line and the goal. “What’s the distance?” he asks. “Fifteen feet,” the player says.
The coach then tells the smallest player on the team to climb on the shoulders of the taller player so they can measure the goal. “How high is it?” he asks. “Ten feet,” the player says.
Coach Dale says, “I believe you’ll find these are the exact same measurements as our gym back in Hickory.”

The team members nervously laugh and everybody begins to relax. As they exit the gym, Coach Dale turns to his assistant and whispers, “Sure is big isn’t it!”

I remember the first time I stepped into the pulpit of Lincoln Christian Church. I thought I’d be okay, but I wasn’t. I felt like I could have tossed my cookies I was so nervous. This church is big. The ministry here is big and the building is big.

For many people coming into our ministries, there is an overwhelming experience of this church’s size and influence. Not only are we numerically large; needing three worship services to get everyone in on a Sunday, we are also large in facility. Our building is well over 80,000 square feet.

Due to its size, it takes lots of man hours, several volunteers, and a large budget to keep our facility clean, attractive, repaired, and maintained. And just like any building, anywhere in the world, there is going to be decay. It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s not due to anyone’s negligence. It’s just a fact of life regarding large buildings. They slowly decay. However, what past generations have sacrificed greatly to build for us, we will be responsible for and restore.

Coming this fall, you will begin hearing more and more details about our upcoming Capital Campaign to repair and restore several areas of our buildings, our roofs, and our worship areas. Some of those repairs will cost us a large sum of money. However, when we stop and realize how many times God has used our church to introduce thousands to Jesus; how many souls have been saved and lives have been changed; when we stop and remember how many children and young people are encouraged in their walk with God, it suddenly becomes clear that our building is vitally important to us and our ministries.

Our ministry is not our building; but our building enhances our ministries immeasurably. This is all about God and the people he wants to save and change. It’s about people who don’t even know God yet … it’s all about that.
Our church is big! Our building is big! You can expect some to say of our capital campaign, “Sure is big isn’t it?”

[Ron Otto, Lincoln Christian Church]