What’s in a church name? Often people not overly familiar with a church will use a descriptor such as the church with the big cross, or the orange roof, or by the hospital. Praise Assembly in Springfield, Missouri, recently hosted a grand opening as it became “officially known” by the community as the church with the park.

Praise Assembly, which opened Northeast Community Park on Sept. 8, isn’t just by a park; it built, owns, and operates the 20-acre park that’s now open to the community.

“We’ve just completed Phase II (of five phases) of the park . . . and we had 1,200 people attend the grand opening,” says Alan Beauchamp, lead pastor of Praise Assembly. “The park currently offers a paved walking trail, a 1/10th-mile paved track, a basketball court, a pair of pickleball courts, a soccer field, a sand volleyball court, and a pavilion with picnic tables.”

THE BEGINNING

Beauchamp, 43, says that Praise had been contemplating how to best use the spare 20 acres for many years.

“Over the years, there have been various visions for that property — from a radio station to a retirement center, but those visions were never developed,” says Beauchamp. “But in 2018, we were contacted by the Springfield-Greene County Health Department about the possibility of opening our small children’s play area for public use as north Springfield is considered a ‘play desert’ for kids.”

Opening the children’s play area would have caused safety issues, so the church declined the request, but the idea of using the 20 undeveloped acres for a park resulted.

“We got in touch with architect and started imaging what a park might look like,” Beauchamp says. “We also did a mailing to the people in our area about what they would like a park to include — and their ideas really helped us.”

Beauchamp then connected with a church in Florida, which also has its own community park, and reached out to the Springfield-Greene County Park Board for advice as well — both proved to offer invaluable insights, which the church incorporated.

PARK BENEFITS

Although initially the park was seen as a way to bless the community, Beauchamp says that unexpected benefits have already started to make themselves known.

“There are people who would never pull into our parking lot much less cross the threshold of our church doors, often because they don’t know anything about us or what to expect,” Beauchamp says. “But now, we’ve come to realize, we can invite people to events through Northeast Community Park, where they’ll feel comfortable attending an event at the park and at the same time, come to know us, and develop relationships.”

Beauchamp says that even though the park only officially opened this month, over the past year, many people who have recently started to attend Praise have responded that they heard about the church because of the park.

In addition, an elementary school has already contacted the church to use the park for its field trip day in May and a pickleball tournament offered at the park was filled within a day of its posting. Beauchamp notes that the park is being developed for young and old alike — offering opportunities for all ages to get out and be active.

“When we started the project, we discussed how owning a community park required a long-term commitment — maintenance of the play areas, groundskeeping, improvements — finances,” Beauchamp recalls. “For me, the church operating a park for the community is placing our money where our mouth is . . . the Bible says that where your treasure is, there your heart is also (Matthew 6:21), so if we really care about our community and want to love our community to Christ, we should place our ‘treasure’ in uplifting the community.”

“The department is thrilled that the efforts of Praise Assembly have come to fruition,” says Anna Kremer, communications and outreach coordinator for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. “Increasing access to public play spaces helps all children live longer, healthier, happier lives.”

FUTURE PLANS

Although the park is now open and the church has received overwhelmingly positive responses to the park, there is still much work to do. Beauchamp says that a softball field and a community garden area have been roughed out, and on Arbor Day, April 25, they’ll be partnering with the Department of Conservation and inviting the community to help plant 100 trees on the park grounds.

However, the park’s next significant addition — and financial commitment — is a fully accessible playground.

“When we started the park project, we knew we would be doing the heavy (financial) lifting,” Beauchamp says. “However, one of our key goals is to make the park fully accessible, which significantly increases the costs . . . the playground cost alone went from $70,000 to $250,000.”

So far, the congregation — whose enthusiasm for the park continues to grow — has invested over $700,000 in the park, with another $140,000 invested through grants. The playground fundraising is currently underway, with Beauchamp hoping for community assistance and/or a grant so the playground can be ready by May and the elementary school’s field trip — though he admits, that would take a miracle.

Vince Crunk, who has attended Praise since 1993, has spent countless hours researching and applying for grants, having sifted through thousands of them since being asked to take on the responsibility in 2019.

“It’s a slow process,” he explains. “Once you find a grant that seems to fit, then you have to read the fine print, which can be up to 30 pages long, to see if we qualify. Many times, although anyone can use the park, the church has hiring restrictions, which disqualifies us from many of the grants.”

Yet looking even further into the future, Beauchamp says they plan to add a community center to the property for local schools and community members to host activities in, such as concerts, plays, and special events.

“Right now, we have a special event already planned at the park for each month of the year,” Beauchamp says. “This year, for Christmas, we’re planning on creating stations along the walking path that tells the Christmas story — from Zechariah and Elizabeth to the visit of the three kings.”

“We see the park as a gift to our community,” Crunk says. “And if people are exposed to the park, maybe they’ll think, Wow, it’s a really cool thing that this church spent all this money for us to have a park, and maybe they’ll reconsider their feelings about our church or any church for that matter — I’d guess you’d call it a non-threatening form of pre-evangelism.”

Of course, Beauchamp adds, Praise is still a strong missions church, and the park is not the only way the church is investing in the community. However, from this point forward, it will likely be commonplace for most people in the area to refer to the church as, “Yeah, that one over there off the highway on North Glenstone. Oh, you know — the church con the park!”

Este artículo fue publicado originalmente por Noticias AG.

Dan Van Veen is news editor of AG News.