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“This is a church I would go to.”
These words came from a single mom named Anna, who had stopped by our construction project on a sales call. After months of commuting past our Sprung building, her sales territory changed and she relocated to our town. We were one of her first sales calls. As often happened through our construction project, a vendor sales call turned into a building tour—and a tour turned into a conversation about Jesus.
As we walked, we shared the story of 34 people who felt called by God to reach the Central Valley for Jesus. Anna asked a lot of questions about our church, our kid’s ministry and why we choose to build such a “unique” building. We shared the story of God consistently bringing new people to our church. People exactly like us, normal people, struggling to figure out life and relationships, some with addictions, some with broken relationships and some hiding their hurts. We talked about God putting lives put back together, restoring hope, speaking forgiveness and grace.
Anna’s story is far from unique. We are blessed to own property next to one of the major roads through central California. Every day 400,000 plus cars pass our campus. The moment the arches of our Sprung building went up, people would just stop by, start taking pictures and asking questions.
As Christians, we look for opportunities to talk about Jesus. During our construction project people literally exited the highway and walked up to us on a daily basis. If you had told me that God could use a dusty construction site to help people connect with Jesus I would have said “no way.”
I remember telling my wife during our interview weekend in June 2015, “There is something unique God is doing here and I would love to be a part of it.” We faced many of the challenges a church growth consultant would tell you to fix. Bad access to the property, poor seating, limited parking and yet people kept coming. We were running four weekend services, had additional onsite video venues and we were totally out of space. These are the type of problems all of us want, and yet the truth is people were leaving our church every weekend because they couldn’t find a seat.
When Jesus returned to heaven, his final challenge was “make disciples.” He didn’t qualify that with any parameters. God called us to reach people and we were seeing cars filled with people drive in and out of our parking lot because we were out of space.
We built our Sprung structure because our church and our leadership were totally committed to making room for people like Anna to connect with Jesus. This is not a theological statement—I know people can connect with Jesus anywhere. But God was bringing people and we need to find a way to help each person have the opportunity to hear about Jesus.
Building in California is expensive. We are a mix of blue-collar and white-collar attendees. We wanted to be good stewards of the resources God had given us. Working with Sprung allowed us to create a unique space that helped people feel comfortable while they connect with Jesus. Every building gives off a “vibe,” and we wanted a vibe that felt like our community, made you comfortable when you drove up, entered the lobby, grabbed a cup of coffee or came into the auditorium. Our Sprung structure captured that vibe in special way. It is different, modern, green and comfortable in a way that makes the curious stop by to check it out.
Since the first weekend in our new facility, we have seen a lot of new faces. We have heard a number of stories, made new friends, reconnected with old ones and seen Jesus speak life into many broken people. This construction project has never been about the building. It is about finding ways to help each person connect deeply with Jesus and closely with others.
Our prayer is that God allows us to connect with many more people like Anna.
Sprung Instant Structures Ltd. is about building relationships with people who value a faster and better way to build: rapid construction, total design flexibility, unrivaled performance and durability and lower overall costs. Learn more at Sprung.com.
