Norman MacEwen once said, “Happiness is not so much in having as in sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” In this spirit of sharing, The Peoples Church has been conducting services in the campus gym while their sanctuary undergoes a remodeling project.
Since August, the church has used the campus gym on Sundays for their morning services. In order to better facilitate this use, The Peoples Church has made some enhancements to the campus gym.
A new $50,000 sound system and a $75,000 heating and cooling system were added during the last month. They were installed to meet the needs of the church’s morning worship service and in turn a thank you to the school.
“I think that it is very cool how we can share the gym with Peoples Church,” Lindsey Martens, ’05, said. “The setting up and taking down of the chairs has not affected our sports schedule and the set up or take down has not really been noticed by students.”
Sharing has mostly affected church members as they have to set up the gym for each service. Every Saturday night a group of volunteers sets up rows hundreds of chairs for the next day’s worship. Later another group takes them down so that the set-up will not interfere with weekly school activities.
“Fresno Christian Schools has enjoyed a long, healthy relationship with Peoples Church,” Gary Warkentin, business administrator, said. “We are honored to partner with Peoples Church in this way during this time of transition. When we built our gym, we never dreamed God would use it in this way.”
The volleyball team practices twice times a week after school and play home games once a week. They have had little trouble playing around the renovation schedule.
“The church has been really good about working around us,” Sara Wiens, ’04, said. “Once though, when they were putting skylights in the gym, we had to practice with a lot of noise and dust but we adjusted. Other than that there have been no problems.”
The church sanctuary is being completely restored. The interior was completely gutted, so that Peoples can expand the balcony and stage. This will create room for more attendees. Also, a new music center was built, which the school will be allowed to use on an as needed basis.
“I think that this opportunity to share our gym with Peoples Church is amazing,” Principal Gary Schultz said. “For over 20 years, we have shared their gym facilities, and now we have a chance, if even a small one, to give back all they have shared with us. Our relationship with Peoples has always been good, and I am happy for the opportunity to share; it has been great.”
For more information on the remodeling of The Peoples Church sanctuary, contact Warkentin at [email protected].
