Series: Imagine

November 2, 2019

Christian Standard

Dying Mall Becoming Marketplace for Church to Serve Community

By Mel McGowan Grand Cities Mall was nearly dead. It’s a typical story in a small city. Online retail has caused local stores to shut down. Even big retailers have left the mall in Grand Forks, North Dakota. But the owner of the mall, Land of Hope—the managing group serving Hope Church in relationship to the Grand Cities Mall—wants to change that story. Hope Church originally rented a storefront space in the mall in 1996. It was supposed to be only temporary because the church owned seven acres on the south side of town where it planned to construct a

October 1, 2019

Christian Standard

No Town Like Hometown (Part 2): Grace City Church

By Mel McGowan In October’s column, I wrote about two churches located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest town of Wenatchee, Washington, population around 34,000. The roots of Sage Hills Church, which I focused on last month, go back to 1908. A hundred years later, in 2008, Grace City Church was planted. The two churches share an outward focus for reaching their hometown for Christ. This month we’ll look at Grace City. A Gift to the Community Grace City Church has been meeting in the Numerica Performing Arts Center, a restored building in Wenatchee’s downtown industrial district, which has allowed plenty

August 22, 2019

Christian Standard

No Town Like Hometown (Part 1): Sage Hills Church

By Mel McGowan If you consider your church to be in competition with the church down the street or across town, you might need a missions lesson. And I know of two homegrown, down-to-earth churches in Wenatchee, Washington, that can help. In 1908, a small group of Wenatchee folks planted Sage Hills Church. One hundred years later, in 2008, another small group decided to open Grace City Church just a couple of miles away. When Mike Wilson, senior pastor of Sage Hills, moved to Wenatchee a few years ago, he met senior pastor Josh McPherson of Grace City. They immediately

July 22, 2019

Christian Standard

Live Life Beyond

By Mel McGowan I once lived the American dream . . . the one with the big house, the big car, and the big mortgage. To afford my slice of the “American pie,” I lived as if I were in the movie Groundhog Day. I pulled out of the driveway at the same time each day. I commuted to work at least an hour each way, barely making it home in time to tuck in my youngest child at night and rarely in time to have dinner with the whole family. Day after day after day. I spoke to my

June 22, 2019

Christian Standard

The Life-Changing Power of Storytelling

By Mel McGowan Story forms who we are, and story has the ability to transform who we can become. Story is at the core of the human condition. From the earliest cavemen to a contemporary campfire, each generation passes on collective and individual meaning through story. Story defines who we are, why we are, where we come from, and where we could go. Without narratives connecting the dots of our experience, we can exist only as schizophrenic creatures reacting to immediate stimuli. In indigenous Australian culture, narrative “songlines” are not just rhymes to entertain children or creation myths for spiritual

May 22, 2019

Christian Standard

A Desert Oasis

By Mel McGowan “We did not come to Las Vegas to reshuffle the deck,” says Mike Breaux, the original lead church planter of Canyon Ridge Christian Church in Las Vegas. The heartbeat of the church remains the same as when it was planted back in 1993. Canyon Ridge doesn’t seek to take from other churches, but instead goes after the unchurched. When major construction was needed on their 40-acre campus, church leaders originally worked with commercial firms rather than hiring an architect. Their intention was to develop a campus devoid of religious symbolism. The resulting unadorned concrete block and tilt-concrete

April 25, 2019

Christian Standard

First Christian Church, Surf City USA

The Vital Role of Setting in a Church’s Master Plan By Mel McGowan Imagine a 2,400-member church that has a rare and beautiful, four-acre setting on the Main Street of Surf City USA, and just down the street from where Huntington Beach Pier juts out over the Pacific Ocean. Not long ago, if you drove by that church—yes, it’s real—all you would have seen was the brick backside and moss-covered roof of a dated A-frame sanctuary. It was so closed off, some area residents thought the century-old church had disbanded. So, when First Christian Church asked for navigational design help

March 25, 2019

Christian Standard

Restoring the Least, the Last, and the Lost

By Mel McGowan Who are the least, the last, or the lost in our society? Most people would say the poor, homeless, or prisoners. Some might even say the sick, elderly, or children. Let me ask another question: What do you think about cafeterias at homeless shelters, prisons, hospitals, nursing homes, and schools? I think most people envision cold, stark, institutional-type places, bad smells, monotonous rows of benchlike seats, and people being herded in an orderly fashion. Given the choice, most probably would avoid eating at that kind of cafeteria on a daily basis. How about you? Restoring Hearts and

February 27, 2019

Christian Standard

Neighborhood Church: Creating Connection

By Mel McGowan Forty years ago, Christian residents in a Visalia, California, neighborhood took notice of the children who cut through their yards on the way to meet up with friends. What caught their neighbors’ attention wasn’t the children’s chosen route, it was their shockingly foul language. That got the neighborhood folks thinking: These kids should be having innocent fun, yet they are swearing like sailors. Maybe these potty-mouthed children need connection. And what better way to connect with kids than to bake cupcakes for them? Soon, the children’s parents began coming around. The neighborhood cupcake outreach eventually transformed into

February 2, 2019

Christian Standard

Eyes on the Community: Bayside Church

By Mel McGowan  We serve a God of purpose and strategy, and we are called by him to be strategic with our resources and the stories we tell the world. The leadership of Bayside Church in Northern California found itself in a property predicament. The church owned three types of land: property that needed developing, property it was leasing, and property it didn’t make sense to sell. These properties all required strategic money management and planning to transform them into spaces that honored God and were inviting to the community. So pastor Ray Johnston created an ambitious master plan designed

January 29, 2019

Christian Standard

Becoming Postmodern Wells

Demonstrating the Wild, Open-Hearted Love of God in Las Vegas   By Mel McGowan  I have been studying a story from the Bible that speaks directly to my heart—the story of the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. She was getting water, doing chores, going about her day. Then Jesus came to her in the midst of her daily activities. It offers a powerful picture of how the people of God should function as the church—loving people right where they are. We must be the well, inviting people who are going about their daily lives, from all different backgrounds, to come

January 3, 2019

Christian Standard

Cloud Church: Space for Diversity, Relationship, and the Kingdom

By Mel McGowan Imagine you’re rearranging your office. You move your desk to one corner, your bookshelf to another. You move the lamps around to get the light just right. You adjust the couch so you can see your guests better. At the end of the day, you look around with satisfaction that all your office furniture, equipment, and supplies are in the right places. Why is this so important to us? Because the furnishings of our offices are tools that facilitate things like ideas, hard work, and skills. It should come as no surprise, then, that your sacred space

December 7, 2018

Christian Standard

New Vintage Church Restores Historic Theater for Church and Community

By Mel McGowan   How’s this for a metaphor? An old movie theater sits abandoned and crumbling on a street corner. It was originally built to bring joy and entertainment to the people of a town. But the years haven’t been kind. Fire and poor upkeep stole its luster. Big cinemas down the street killed its business. For a while, it survived as an adult movie house. Thirty years passed, and apart from the rats, nobody wanted anything to do with The Ritz. Sound familiar? This story could be the illustration for any sinner’s life. Yours? Mine? But it’s also

November 2, 2018

Christian Standard

Poverty Encounter

Immersive Environment Tells Poverty’s True Story   By Mel McGowan This December, the world will have the opportunity to understand poverty in a whole new light. When Children’s Hunger Fund (CHF) first told me about their idea for a walk-through attraction about poverty, I knew it would be a project like no other. Born in the mind of CHF president and founder Dave Phillips years earlier, the project had already taken shape to some degree. He and his team had brought the idea to friends within Walt Disney Imagineering for help conceptualizing the project. Then, they brought those ideas to

August 12, 2018

Christian Standard

StoneBridge Christian Church: Building Bridges to God and the Omaha Community

By Mel McGowan StoneBridge Christian Church in Omaha, Nebraska, strives to serve as a metaphorical bridge to God, one another, and the community. Omaha is a vibrant, thriving community situated between prairies and mountains. StoneBridge’s visionary leadership team wanted to capture Omaha’s uniqueness as part of their story and reflect that energy through their facilities. StoneBridge’s team is dedicated to social compassion, relevance, authenticity, friendliness, and approachability; they desired to bring their facilities into alignment with their philosophy. They wanted to create a space that was inviting, comfortable, and fun. My journey with StoneBridge began in 2009 while I was

August 11, 2018

Christian Standard

A Garden Story

By Mel McGowan Mosaic Church in Winter Garden, Florida, opened their doors in 2003, but the church’s story began taking shape centuries before. In fact, it has the same origin we all do, the Garden of Eden, a paradise handcrafted by God for his beloved creations. Eden began as a perfect oasis that offered humankind everything we could ever need—and then it was broken by sin. And the shattered world that emerged was rescued by Jesus and restored for eternity. The heart of Mosaic’s story is summarized in three words: rescue, identity, and mission. And this story informs and describes

July 8, 2018

Christian Standard

Mountain House

This architectural plan reflects the personality and mission of Summit Christian Church in Sparks, Nevada.   By Mel McGowan Just north of Reno, between the flash of casinos and the vast Nevada wilderness, you’ll find a community where economic booms and busts come with the territory, and people are desperate for a higher view and solid ground. Summit Christian Church of Sparks, Nevada, endeavors to provide these things. Desert Roots Nineteen years ago, a determined group of people in love with Jesus put down roots in the Truckee Meadows. They weathered the region’s economic growth and collapse in the same

May 20, 2018

Christian Standard

Grace City Church: Building a Seven-Day-a-Week Community

By Mel McGowan Imagine if, instead of building a church campus, a church developed the new town center for its community—a place that would serve people both inside and outside the church seven days a week, drawing the community together for generations to come. This is the vision of Grace City Church in Wenatchee, Washington, a church in the heart of an agricultural community more than two hours east of Seattle. Located just east of the majestic Cascade Range, Wenatchee sits on the shore of the Columbia River and is home to a unique, entrepreneurial-minded community. Lead pastor Josh McPherson

May 16, 2018

Christian Standard

Beyond Building Concepts and Renovations

LifePointe Christian Church in Elk Grove, California, develops a new space to reflect what they already have—deep relationships.   By Mel McGowan “Imagine the church being the community of people that it’s supposed to be, where we are choosing to connect in deep, meaningful ways with others through relationship so we can pursue life to the fullest in Jesus,” says Chris Delfs, senior pastor of LifePointe Christian Church in Elk Grove, California. Delfs is talking about something that goes beyond building concepts and renovations. He desires to re-create his congregation’s current space into something that is warm and welcoming—a beautiful

April 11, 2018

Christian Standard

3 Ways ‘Blade Runner’ Predicted the Future of Church and Why We Should Pay Attention

By Mel McGowan A highlight for me during 2017 was the opportunity to revisit the world of my favorite movie of all time—Blade Runner—with the release of an updated installment called Blade Runner 2049. More people likely would have seen the original Blade Runner in 1982 but for its misfortune of coming out the same summer as E.T. But for me, the original was life-changing. It is the movie God used to drive me to study film and architecture and, ultimately, to instill in me a lifelong passion for creating the future. Sci-fi author William Gibson said, “Blade Runner changed

Secret Link