Now that is an amazing story. The Congregation must be very generous. This had to be a very expensive undertaking with a long-term commitment.
The congregation is a mix of older and younger people. It is in Bellevue, WA which has a LOT of wealth, but also more and more poverty as it grows.
The church does LOTS of great work in the community and partners with other churches. The churches are actually allowed to run the sports programs in many of the middle schools, with more and more schools trying to get in the system. They obviously can’t preach, but they do show by example God’s love - and teach good sportsmanship, etc.
“I’ve got 15-year old boys on my team, and most of them didn’t know how to shake a man’s hand! We do that now before and after every game.”
The grades and school performance of the kids on the sports teams is unbelievable compared to those not on the teams.
Sadly - they became more and more woke after George Floyd. The last straw was having a transgender person be elected to the regional denominational board. Everyone from our church voted no, but the other churches still elected him. That was too much. Sad because it really was (and still is in many ways) a great church.
Heh - when I first wrote “denominational” I spelled it “demoninational”. Maybe I shouldn’t have corrected it.