The parking lot is where our weekend services begin.The message may be great and the worship may be amazing, but if you have a bad experience in the parking lot – then you aren’t going to hear or experience the weekend service in its fullness.
It’s not just concrete with lines and a bunch of cars parked all in a row. It’s not just a place where you leave your car while you attend a church service. The parking lot at Champions Centre is so much more. It is a place of connection – the beginning of somebody’s “One Day”…
“On February 5th, there was an opportunity to serve on the parking lot team, so I grabbed an arm full of umbrellas and offered them to each person as they got out of their car. Shelby shared that it was her first time to Champions Centre. I wrote her name down so I would remember it and hoped I would be able to connected with her after service. As she was leaving she said she loved the service and that she would be back. She said, “We had her at the umbrella”.
Most people won’t ever serve on this team and it is a team that can be overlooked because they are outside in the cold, the rain, snow and yes, even sun and we just run past them to get to service. They arrive earlier than everyone else to get the parking lot ready. They leave after they know everyone has left the parking lot safely. They may seem like a motley crew because they wear orange vests and jackets carrying flashlights and stop signs. BUT, they are the ones who set the stage for our guests and members on any given weekend.
“This story starts in the Champions Centre parking lot. You see, that was the only place my ex-wife would allow me to see our little boys. I remember it pretty clearly, even though my life was completely engulfed in an addiction to meth. My wife had been attending Champions Centre for some time and had a feeling that if she could get me to the parking lot there might be a chance that I would make it inside…and she was right. I was like a stray pet that was coaxed in by being offered a meal, but I got so much more than a meal – I got a new life! Pastor Kevin was preaching on the power to choose and that day I went from hopeless to hopeful. I was never alone after that moment. God began to undo what I thought could never be undone. I am a father to my children and friend to my ex wife. I began school and ended up helping those who are in the same position I was in. God took this drug addict and made me into a drug counselor. God helped me to become the example I couldn’t see.”
You may have never thought of the parking lot as much of anything but that concrete with lines and cars parked neatly in a row…but now you know…it is so much more!
