Defining Moments in a Parking Lot

For the next two weeks, Pastor Manion will be looking back at some defining moments at Ada Bible Church. This got me thinking about some of the stories that have impacted me since my wife and I began attending as newlyweds in 1987. Our first Sunday was in a building that is now a house on what was then a gravel road. There were probably half a dozen families that attended with a smattering of college students. This last Easter, 9,600 people attended ABC over three campuses and six venues. Much has certainly changed in the last 24 years. It’s been fun to watch and it’s been fulfilling to be a participant in God’s work over the years.

Since early in our history, ABC has had a philosophy to strive to always have open seats and parking spots for anyone who wanted to attend. In the days of meeting in the house, this wasn’t much of a challenge, but in the early 90’s, we began to grow very rapidly. In 1990, we moved to our Ada Drive building. It was, for us, a real church building. Within a couple years, we outgrew our 200 seat auditorium and needed to start a second service. In those days, we began to experience some real issues with our parking lot. It was simply too small and we had no room to expand. In summer, we had to park people on the grass and in the winter we needed to shuttle people from a middle school parking lot a quarter mile from our building. This created a new parking ministry that I and friend, Jon, started to relieve the tension of traffic jams in the lot and on the street. We had fun greeting people as they came, waving them in to some creative places to park. We had walkie-talkies and mini-van shuttle drivers. When the service started and everyone was parked and seated, we felt fulfilled.

But not every week went smoothly. I recall one Sunday morning when the traffic got out of hand. It was a snowy Sunday and we had many guests because of a baby dedication. Virtually everyone was late because of slippery roads. The parking lot packed out fast. As we directed people to the middle school lot, we inadvertently created a traffic jam on Ada Drive. Cars were backed up in both directions. Jon and I were beside ourselves not knowing what to do. So, we simply decided to send everyone up to the middle school and apologize to them that they’d be a little late for the service. That was when my defining moment happened. A lady drove up the driveway, rolled down her window, handed me her offering check and said she’d try again next week. She had a very gracious way of doing this but this was when I realized that we were turning people away. Who knows what this lady needed to hear that morning? How many others “gave up” because they couldn’t find a seat or a parking spot? What did they miss out on in terms of spiritual encouragement because our facility was challenged?

In the weeks that followed, I was asked to share this story with our board of elders. Now, this moment in the parking was not the single reason we decided to sell our building and pursue something larger; but it was a story that I’ve heard told over and over to illustrate to that we hate to turn away people because our facility is too limited. I guess you could call it a bit of Ada Bible Church folklore.

Over the years, I’ve heard people ask, “So, how big will Ada Bible Church get?” The answer is always, “As large as God desires.” It’s seems evident that God wants us to provide a seat and parking spot for anyone who desires to attend. As we continue to grow, as we add new venues and campuses to accommodate that growth, I need to remind myself that each seat and each parking spot represents a soul; a soul that needs to be introduced to Jesus, a soul that needs to be encouraged by God’s love and God’s people, a soul that needs to find genuine purpose in life. It’s amazing what you can learn in a snowy parking lot.