28 March, 2024

Interview with Alan Baumlein

by | 30 December, 2009

By Brad Dupray

When the leaders of Mount Pleasant Christian Church, Greenwood, Indiana, considered developing a new worship center, they prayed over their decision and determined to take a transitional step by first building a community life center. As executive pastor at Mount Pleasant, Alan Baumlein oversaw construction of the $7 million facility and, since its opening in September 2008, he oversees its use. This month Alan celebrates his 10th anniversary on staff at Mount Pleasant, where he served as outreach pastor the first four years. Alan joined Mount Pleasant in 1992 and later transitioned into ministry after a successful sales career.

Where did the inspiration for the community life center come from?

The leadership at Mount Pleasant Christian Church dreamed about having a community life center that would operate on Christian values and morals and be a great outreach to the community. It seems like we had always talked about doing this, but nothing came of it until we got serious about opening a new worship center.

How does a worship center turn into community life center?

We began to think and plan for the building of a new worship center and realized we didn”t want to incur the type of debt it would cause. So the elders and Chris (senior pastor Chris Philbeck) stepped back and prayed, and we talked through what might be the next step. The community life center seemed like a great transition step while meeting our primary objective of expansion.

How did you determine what the community life center would do?

We researched the demographics and surveyed the area and found out what people wanted, so it”s designed to meet the needs of the community. Mount Pleasant has had a rich legacy of sports and recreation ministry. Even before I was on staff the church brought on a guy to develop a sports and recreation ministry. Today we have four full-time people focused on this ministry.

Was a health club part of your original plan?

Absolutely. The primary purpose of building was to expand our sports and recreation and wellness ministry””to provide a healthy environment for people to get physically healthy, but spiritually healthy as well. While accomplishing this we were also freeing up almost 30,000 square feet of our existing campus to expand both our children”s and worship space.

How is the spiritual component applied?

All of our classes and league games start with a devotion and prayer. It provides an atmosphere for people to build healthy relationships and provides a nonconfrontational approach to sharing life with one another. Ultimately we”re pointing people back to Christ through relationships.

Is there curriculum for how to structure the devotions?

One of the primary responsibilities for our wellness and youth sports coordinators is to craft and provide resources for devotions for each session. They”ll have a set process or devotional track they”ll stay on that is ultimately pointed toward somebody making a decision for Christ.

How do you answer people who say this is just a church catering to secular culture?

We try to explain that we are being intentional about the way we do programming and why we”re here. If we stopped doing that they would have an argument against us. We”re a ministry and not a fitness club. We”ve taken shots for a number of years for being a church that”s sports-minded, but we”ve seen a lot of people come to Christ through relationships that started on a basketball floor, in a wellness class, or on a soccer field. In the end that really doesn”t need much of a defense. The people have been exposed to Christ and mentored through relationships, and the rest is up to God.

Do members of the community life center come primarily from the church?

No. We currently have about 7,500 members of the community life center, of whom about 2,000 are Mount Pleasant members.

Do you reach out to community life center members who aren”t members of the church?

We”re able to reach deeper in to the community through the community life center because we have additional contact information where we can do targeted e-mails to people who wouldn”t necessarily be in the church database. They”ve allowed us to come into their lives because of the community life center.

Have you seen people come to Christ as a result of this?

Yes. At least 300 people have begun to attend Mount Pleasant on a fairly regular basis because they became members of the community life center. We track that through our “connection card” on the weekends and through our new members process.

Is everything at Mount Pleasant focused on your sports ministry?

We have three strategies: dynamic weekend worship, being a church of small groups, and being an externally focused church. That third strategy is where the community life center fits””along with our global outreach and local outreach. This is who we are.

What does it mean to be a member of the community life center?

You have access to a state-of-the-art weight and cardio room, an indoor running track, two full-size hardwood basketball floors, and an aerobics facility that offers kickboxing, step aerobics, salsa dancing, spinning classes, etc. As a family, it”s $100 per year, for an individual it”s $50 per year. Our members range from ages 12 to 80. We also have two meeting room areas that we open up to homeowners associations or people looking for a meeting room.

Is it all about sports or are there other community-focused activities?

Anything we do as far as a local outreach we make available and promote in the community life center. For example, we sponsored a Thanksgiving dinner and provided opportunities for any member of the community life center to be a part of that””trying to meet the needs of our community. Our community bulletin board provides opportunities for people to offer goods and services and opportunities to do a little networking. We have a clothing and food ministry we publicize through the community life center for volunteers or donations.

What kind of staffing do you provide?

We use a combination of paid staff, full- and part-time, as well as a number of volunteers. We have volunteers in the cardio weight room, we have a wellness coordinator and a youth sports coordinator; our connection pastor oversees all of our adult sports programs and opportunities. We also provide child care that is staffed with part-time staff and volunteers.

Describe a “day in the life” of the community life center.

A program called boot camp meets at 5:15 in the morning outside on the asphalt. It”s run by volunteers who have gone through fitness training, and they run it like a boot camp! They do that from 5:15 to 6:30 while other people are in the cardio room””that”s usually a busy time for our cardio room. Our aerobic classes begin at 8:00 am and run until about noon, and then things slow down for a few hours. Then at about 4:30 things start picking up with a rush in the cardio room and aerobics classes through about 8 pm. At the same time our basketball leagues and gym time go on all day long.

How often is it open?

The community life center opens at 5:00 am and remains open until 10:00 pm, Monday through Thursday and for abbreviated hours on Friday and Saturday. It”s closed on Sunday.

Is the building used solely as a community life center?

The building is 68,000 square feet; two-thirds of it is dedicated to sports and recreation and wellness. The rest of the building, about 20,000 square feet, houses our fifth- through 12th-grade student ministries. On Sunday at 10:45 we offer a video venue in our student center as a live simulcast from our worship center.

So going back to the original inspiration, what have you done to enhance your worship center space?

By moving our sports and recreation and student ministries out we were able to remodel our original gyms into a commons area and “Bibleopolis” (for nursery through fourth grade). Then we remodeled our worship center to expand the seating capacity there. The final stage begins soon with renovating our existing education space into an administration wing. We hope to be completed by the first of March 2010.

Brad Dupray is senior vice president, investor development, with Church Development Fund, Irvine, California.

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