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Church Design Lauded
Body Building
A recent Ministry Today article named Parkway Christian Church (Surprise, Arizona) one of the seven most innovative church buildings in America. The building, phase one of Parkway’s campus plan, includes a worship center, classrooms, and offices and features a “fire, water, and rock” theme. Future plans include more than a dozen other buildings and a garden for outdoor weddings.
Parkway launched as a church plant of Christ’s Church of the Valley in nearby Peoria, Arizona, 10 years ago.
Both the Ministry Today article and a recent feature in Sun City’s Daily News-Sun highlighted the facilities’ unusual exposed beams and their use as a spiritual metaphor. “All of us are unfinished products,” said lead pastor Trent Renner in the News-Sun article. “We all will grow and change, and have work to be done.”
www.parkwaychristianchurch.com
Degrees of Success
This fall Hope International Univers-ity (Fullerton, California) will partner with the University Center of North Puget Sound in Everett, Washington, to offer new degrees in human development (with an education or counseling concentration) and management to students in Washington state. The programs are offered through HIU’s School of Professional Studies (SPS).
Like all SPS programs, these degrees are designed for the working adult, offering convenient schedules that enable students to maintain full-time employment while achieving a degree. Courses will be offered online in five-week modules, with one Saturday seminar every 10 weeks.
Both programs are aimed at students who have already completed the first two years of their college education. Everett Community College and Hope International University have signed an agreement giving students with an associate degree the ability to transfer in with two years of college credit.
www.hiu.edu/washington
New ‘School’
Although many churches held traditional weeklong VBS programs this summer, several experimented with ways to reinvent this favorite activity. Life Christian Fellowship (Chino, California) hosted “Superhero Train-ing School,” a four-week evening program for kids ages 5-11. Each session (held every Monday through Thursday from 5 to 7 pm) focused on one of four Bible heroes—David, Ruth, Daniel, or Esther—and included videos, age-appropriate curriculum and worksheets, fun activities, and snacks. At the conclusion, each child successfully passing a test on the biblical teaching received a “diploma” from senior pastor Alex Herrera plus an all-expenses-paid trip to the local Raging Waters water park the following week.
Heritage Christian Church (Fay-etteville, Georgia) extended the fun with a “Vacation Bible Summer.” Sunday school teachers used VBS materials for children’s class time during each Saturday night and Sunday morning service throughout the summer. Grandview Christian Church (Johnson City, Tennessee) took a similar approach with “Summer Sunday School,” a VBS-style program that replaced graded Sunday school and kid’s worship in June and July.
Crossroads Christian Church (New Smyrna Beach, Florida) teamed up with other nearby congregations—including Port Orange Christian Church and South Daytona Christian Church—to offer a one-week Teen VBS. Each church hosted the 7 to 10 pm “Rollin’ with God” program, focusing on the Lord’s Prayer, at least one evening during the week, and the teens enjoyed a beach trip on Wednesday night.
www.lifechristianfellowship.com
www.heritagechristian.org
www.grandviewchristian.org
www.crossroadsnsb.org
Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD's contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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