Why Does Full Life Community Church Meet In A School Gym?

Many people are amazed when they hear that Full Life Community Church is meeting in a school gym at Rockwood South Middle School. Shouldn't a church meet in a church building, like all the other churches? Some people think that a church meeting in a gym must not be stable or must be smaller than a church meeting in a church building. So what's going on?

Well, first of all, that church on the corner with the steeple on top has probably been around for a while, maybe 30 years or more. Churches do not usually start out in church buildings, unless they are a major split from another church. Churches start with a small group of people and they grow until they are financially able to undertake the building of a permanent facility. In the St Louis area, the school system has been very open to new churches meeting in elementary, middle and high schools. Just about every school you see in St Louis has a church meeting in it on Sunday. Yes, the churches have to pay rent and No, this is not a violation of church/state separation. So that is what Full Life Community Church is doing. In time, we will move out of the school into either a leased facility or permanent facilities. A school is an excellent place for a church to meet, with large meeting rooms for services and small meeting rooms for classes.

According to the Bible, a church is people, not a building. For the first 300 years or so of church history, churches did not meet in official church buildings, but met in homes and buildings built for other purposes. The Bible describes two types of meetings in the early church, large meetings held outdoors or in non-church buildings and small meetings in homes. The large meetings were effective for teaching and worship, whereas the small meetings were best suited for relationship building and two-way discussion. At Full Life, we model the New Testament example with a large meeting on Sunday mornings and small group meetings in homes during the week.

Since a church is people, not buildings, a church may be stable or unstable regardless of whether it has a permanent building. Some churches meeting in schools have grown incredibly large. Saddleback Church in California grew to around 10,000 people meeting with multiple services in high school gyms. Here in St Louis, Windsor Crossing Community Church grew to around 1000 meeting in the Chesterfield YMCA. Full Life Community Church has doubled in size this year meeting in a school gym and we expect that growth rate to continue.

If you are looking for a church for your family, the important things to look at are: the people of the church, the pastor, biblical teaching and training for you and your children, a relevant message, a contemporary service, growth of the church and opportunities for building friendships. A building is not even close to being as important as the things in that list. So keep your priorities right in looking for a church.

In time, Full Life will move into permanent facilities, but not until we are a large church. In the meantime, Full Life is probably one of the most exciting and fastest growing churches in St Louis. This year, we are experiencing a 100% growth rate. Our services feature contemporary music, digital multimedia and messages that are intensely practical. I invite you to an experience with God this Sunday at Full Life Community Church meeting in a school gym.