Brunswick Zone bowls over Lifeline church members
By Mike Danahey mdanahey@stmedianetwork.com May 8, 2011 10:34PM
Lead Pastor Dave Rudin (right) speaks during the Lifeline Christian church service held Sunday at Brunswick Zone XL in Algonquin. | Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media
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Updated: September 29, 2011 12:32AM
ALGONQUIN — School gymnasiums, storefronts and even parks have been used for services by area church groups without a building of their own.
Now, one local congregation is even making use of a bowling alley.
Carpentersville residents recently received a mailing from a church that meets at the Brunswick Zone XL — the big, upscale bowling center at 1611 S. Randall Road in Algonquin.
While visions of holy rollers making strikes for the Lord and other 10-pin puns and imagery might come to mind, that’s not the case, according to church officials.
“Our main worship gathering for adults is in the Fireside Lounge located just inside the entrance to Brunswick Zone,” said Dave Rudin, who leads the Lifeline congregation. “We set up a welcome and info area right in the foyer area, with coffee and refreshments just inside the doors to the lounge.”
The congregation has been using the facility since October, and “to this point, we have mostly left the tables and chairs as is during worship, replacing the salt and pepper and menus with Lifeline-specific info,” he said.
“The band sets up on one end, utilizing one of the many projection screens in the room to display the words to the songs we sing as well as illustrations that coincide with the Bible teaching time,” Rudin said. “But as the numbers have grown, we’ve experimented with moving out some of the tables, enabling us to fit more chairs into the space.”
Bowling imagery
While the adults attend the 10 a.m. Sunday service, the flock uses bowling imagery for its Kidzone children’s programming.
“It meets in the event rooms typically used for birthday parties during the rest of the week. With that space, we break the kids into three major groups for age-specific programming. The Bumpers are nursery-preschool. K2 is for kids kindergarten through second grade; and Lane 35 is for kids in grades three through five.”
Rudin said Lifeline (lifelinecc.org) is a non-denominational, independent Christian church “with Ignite Church Planting (www.IgniteChurchPlanting.com) our primary partner in launching Lifeline by providing some initial resources.”
On any given Sunday the group has 90 to 100 people who attend the service. That is up from the 50 to 60 members it had at its first Brunswick gathering on Oct. 10, 2010.
Rudin said the effort began about a year ago when he ended a 17-year ministry with a congregation he served in Hoffman Estates.
“There were three families, including my own, that signed on to help begin a new church in the Algonquin area,” he said.
“Last summer we started working to mobilize people to serve some needs in our community, and at the same time we did some events to introduce ourselves to people and share our heart and vision for the kind of church community we want to be and how people can be a part of it. About 30 people showed up to those preview events, which led us toward our 10-10-10 soft launch.”
Versatile space
Aside from some other events and groups held in people’s homes, Brunswick is this church’s first gathering space.
“In our research of the area, we had been seeking any and every conceivable possible facilities to use for group gatherings ranging in size from 10 to 50 to 100 to 500. Brunswick was one of the stops we made, and we immediately saw the potential of utilizing such a beautiful and versatile space for our initial meeting space,” Rudin said.
“We like the fact that it is such a spacious, well-kept and non-threatening environment for individuals and families who may be less inclined to step into a traditional church but are still looking for spiritual truths to speak into their lives,” he said.
“The Brunswick Zone obviously is an easy-to-find place with plenty of parking, in the heart of our primary target zone, and the staff has been a fantastic group of people to partner with. It’s also a huge benefit to be able to make use of the great amenities the facility has for group gatherings and meetings outside of Sunday morning.”
While Lifeline eventually would like to have its own building, Rudin said, “Right now, our real priority has been to focus on building into people and not brick and mortar.”
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