The throngs won't fill Prestonwood Baptist Church's enormous new home until Sunday
morning, when the church holds its inaugural services there. But the building - or what it
stands for - has already changed lives.
For Kimberly "Kimbo" Pearson, it was more important than a new car.
Her dad had promised her the car if she did well during her freshman year of college.
After Prestonwood called for pledges several years ago, she started praying about her
response.
"It took me a few months to realize that God wanted me to give up my dream
car," she said.
Not only did she have her father give the church the money that would have paid for her
car, but she also added her own contribution. And God took notice, she said.
"He didn't bless me with wealth or material possessions, but with the virtues that
can only come from him," she said.
People driving by the huge new structure on Midway Road in Plano may marvel at its size
and splendor. But church members who, like Ms. Pearson, have sacrificed uncounted hours
and more than $30 million toward its construction say the visible bricks and mortar are
the least important manifestations of a three-year project.
"The thrill has not been in the building," said Bob Hoebeke, chairman of the
relocation committee. "The thrill for all of us has been in the journey."
Members and staffers have put in a lot of hours during the last few weeks to make the
move happen. Sondra Saunders, in charge of the preschool ministry, was positively joyous
as she settled items into her new kiddie empire. After 36 years in children's ministry,
she said, "I'd have to say this is my dream building" - three stories and 93,000
square feet.
"If she was a wide receiver, she'd be spiking the ball in the end zone," said
the Rev. Steve Smith, pastor for ministry development.
About 250 members volunteered in the weeks leading up to the opening. But sacrifice for
others started more than three years ago, when church leaders asked for pledges to prove
the church could afford the new facility.
About 6,000 families pledged to contribute around $36 million over three years.
John Ferguson, owner of a computer software company, made a pledge large enough to
shift his priorities, he said. But the size of individual pledges wasn't the point.
"God's not worried about our money," he said. "He's worried about our
hearts."
Growing pains
A few dozen families created Prestonwood Baptist Church in 1977. In 1980, the church
moved to the seemingly spacious corner of Arapaho and Hillcrest roads in Far North Dallas.
By the early 1990s, it had become a megachurch without room to grow.
With more than 15,000 members, Prestonwood has been more than a little pressed for
space. Worshipers at two Sunday morning services had to park at nearby schools and malls
and be shuttled in by bus. Off-duty police officers helped with traffic. Worshipers parked
deep into the increasingly irritated nearby neighborhood.
Space for kids was at such a premium - too few cribs and rooms - that volunteers had to
hold some babies. Other toddlers were pushed around the church in buggies.
"Everything we were trying to do was overbuilding our neighborhood or
underbuilding our needs," said Dr. Jack Graham, Prestonwood's senior pastor. "Do
you put up a sign and say, 'No vacancy'?"
In 1994, Dr. Graham called together a committee to come up with a solution. Buying
surrounding property - covered by homes and businesses - drew resistance from neighbors.
And members resisted creating satellite churches. The only alternative was to move.
Church leaders looked about 15 minutes northwest, where the population was growing
fastest and where wide-open tracts of land were available. Three years ago, they settled
on 140 acres at Midway Road and West Park Boulevard - the highest spot in that part of the
county and a site more than three times bigger than the property bought by Dallas for a
new downtown arena.
But before construction could begin, the church had to know it could pay for it. The
$36 million pledged represented gifts beyond what members usually give.
This was not a case of a few big donors carrying the load, Dr. Graham said. Only three
pledges were for $1 million, and none was larger.
What is bigger than a megachurch? Prestonwood will start answering that question
Sunday.
Then and now
Material that the old church had to transport filled 110 moving vans. The new church
has room to spare.
The old sanctuary had room for 4,000. The new one seats 7,000.
Dozens of small rooms will be used for small Bible-study groups.
"The larger we get, the smaller we want to feel," Mr. Smith said.
What the church doesn't offer, as least to the casual observer, is much that says
"church." From the outside, it looks as secular as Reunion Arena. But that may
change. Plans to put up a 199-foot bell tower topped by a cross were halted by the Federal
Aviation Administration. A smaller tower will eventually be built, church officials said.
Inside, a series of 70 stained-glass windows seems small, high above the bowling
alley-size atrium. The sanctuary has only one permanent traditional religious image: a
picture in stained glass of a cross and crown above the baptistery behind the pulpit and
choir loft.
The lack of obvious religious imagery is not an attempt to disguise the church's
conservative Baptist theology, Dr. Graham said.
"What we do inside, that is what will make it a church," he said.
Reprinted by permission of The Dallas Morning News,
copyright 1999.