50 Million dollars? For a Church? Are you Serious?

[Road_Rash]

Here’s a church that is so big, it could house a pro basketball team, like the Houston Rockets.

Lakewood Church

[ScoobyTX]

@eleanorigby

Only 28 drinking fountains?

Doesn’t that seem like not so many for 10, 000+ people?

Only 11 are required by the 2000 International Plumbing Code (1 per 1,000 for churches). My jurisdiction is still using the 1997 Uniform Plumbing Code, which would require 23 drinking fountains (1 per 250 for first 750 persons, then 1 for every 500 people over that).

[TVeblen]

@MisterThyristor

I say judge them by their works in the community, not the size of the church.

Remember, you are talking about a church of 20,000 people. This is the equivalent of a $250,000 church for a congregation of 100. I don’t know what real estate prices are like in Chicago, but it seems a reasonable price to me.

Don’t forget, they didn’t move to the suburbs to create this place, they stayed with their congregation in the inner city. Those basketball courts can help keep neighborhood kids off the streets. (bolding added for emphasis–Veb)

I’m not a church-goer, but I have no problem with this either, even from the taxable real estate aspect. (And I’m very skeptical about the increasingly blurry lines between church and overt politics, so there.)

I somehow can’t even muster up decent outrage on the basis of Christian humility, since it sounds like much of this project is pointedly aimed at direct outreach to the community. The upfront price is chump change compared to many flamboyant corporate HQs palaces that don’t do a damned thing for investors. Dollar for dollar, this project sounds very solid to me.

So the church is investing real dollars–though relatively modest ones, for the location and project scale–as a positive, revitalizing force in the neighborhood. Good on 'em. Far from walking away, they’re putting their bucks and efforts right where they live–and have gathered support from others to make it fly.

I hope it works–flies and soars, actually. This is how real change for the good can happen. Pissant grassroots stubborness, hard work and grit took my neighborhood back from crack dealers and hookers. Now it’s back to families–new and old, including the established gay/artist contingent–and now yuppies are our worst (minor) problem. But it took people planting their feet and fighting to take it back.

Sounds like a healthy, hopeful and homegrown solution to me.

[Measure_for_Measure]

I was wondering whether $50 million was too much for a 10,000 seat arena.

Apparently not: Albuquerque is/was considering proposals for a venue of that size:

Link

In the space of a few months, greater Albuquerque has seen three distinct arena proposals:

Rio Rancho: A 6,500- to 7,500-seat arena would be part of a $100 million entertainment district, dubbed the Dream Center, built by a private company.

Downtown: A not-for-profit group would build and operate a 10,000-seat arena at First Street and Central Avenue Northwest at a cost of $50 million.

Expo New Mexico: A 13,000-seat arena at a cost of $34 million to $54 million for the fairground complex.

I wondered whether lots of smaller churches would be cheaper (in a narrow sense).

Here is a plan describing the purchase of a church with a 700-900 seat auditorium (as well as “Youth Center/ Gym, ample Children Ministry classrooms and Nursery, Prayer Rooms, Offices, Food Court, Book Store, Meeting Rooms, Resource Center, Chapel for Weddings and smaller ceremonies, Over Flow space and Internship Rooms.”). The cost is a cool $2 million (bargained down from $2.9 mill.).

Twenty-five $2 million churches of that type would seat 17,500-22,500 people, not including overflow areas.

Based only on the narrow perspective of this post, I don’t think this is an outrage. (Whether a 10,000 seater is wise or even appropriate is a separate matter.)