No Room at the Inn
After a year’s warm-up, the satellite congregation of Christian Life Church in Mount Prospect, Illinois reached full orbit on September 14, when Sunday services began an every-week schedule. Its location for now is at Comfort Suites on Randall Road just off the Illinois Tollway west of Elgin, although attendance is already pushing Pastor Daryl Merrill II and his staff to start looking for a larger school or theater to rent.
“We started once-a-month services a year ago, plus home meetings,” he explains, “at the request of several families who had moved out from the inner suburbs in search of more affordable housing. We decided early on that we would not try to spin off a ‘daughter church.’ Instead, we would adopt a strategy of ‘one church, two locations.’ Both campuses have the same pastors, the same elders, a unified budget. I even preach the same message each week in both places.”
What this now means is that weekend services occur in Mount Prospect at 6 p.m. Saturday, 8:30 a.m. Sunday, and 10 a.m. Sunday. Meanwhile, Randall Road is setting up for an 11:30 a.m. service. As soon as Pastor Daryl finishes preaching the last service in Mount Prospect, he jumps in his car and drives 45 minutes west for the satellite service, arriving as the worship time is already underway.
On the inaugural attempt a year ago, things got off to a scary start when an associate called him on the road to say, “We have a problem. I’m here at the hotel to set up, and some other group is using our room!”
A scrapbooking convention had been supposed to clear out by 10 a.m. that Sunday-but was still in full swing. The hotel manager couldn’t get them to leave. He came on the phone to apologize. “I’m terribly sorry, Reverend,” he said. “I’ve told them to pack up, and they won’t. Do you want me to call the police?”
“No, no-don’t do that,” Pastor Daryl replied. “Is there any other space we can use? This is our very first Sunday service.”
“Not really-unless you want to use the lobby itself,” the man answered. “You’re welcome to it. Again, I apologize.”
Soon, chairs were arranged and the portable sound system put in place. It felt odd to begin a church service in the middle of hotel guests coming and going to the breakfast bar. Pastor Daryl felt even more queasy about delivering his sermon, which that week happened to deal with overcoming sinful attractions, particularly pornography.
But as the time went along, more and more passersby stopped to listen. One of the hotel maids stood watching for a while, then scurried away to get her co-workers to come join her. That day produced more new contacts than a conventional service would ever have achieved. By Monday morning the phone was ringing with people wanting to know more about this new church start-up.
“We’re excited about what God has in mind for this far-western edge of the metro area,” says Pastor Daryl. “In fact, we may do this at a third or fourth location in the future. I’ve asked all our core members in Mount Prospect to come out and visit Randall Road at least once, just to catch the vision. We want to build momentum for expanding God’s reach throughout the northwest suburbs.”
For more information, see http://www.christianlifechurch.org.
