If you build it, hopefully you can build it faster than they come. How a church in the modern era keeps up with demand for Jesus.
By Michuda Construction
Updated June 21, 2018 11:02 ET
HOMER GLEN, ILLINOIS - Having broken ground hundreds of times throughout his thirty-five year career in construction, Mark Michuda’s face tells us ceremonies like these stand out from the rest.
If you ever find yourself amongst the hard hat and gold shovel routine, you typically know the drill. Senior executive in suits and ties commemorate new beginnings, smiling, and often shaking hands with the mayor. Pleasantries are exchanged and photo ops are awarded. But today, the hard hats are bobbing and weaving atop kid’s heads running amongst a crowd that resembles more of a family reunion than a ceremony.
Parkview Christian Church, famously known for it’s massive Sunday crowds on their feet worshiping to music resembling a Bruno Mars concert, is breaking ground today on a new student ministry expansion and interior renovation of the existing Homer Glen campus. This ceremony marks their fifth expansion with their largest campus twenty minutes to the east in Orland Park.
“Mark, I don’t know how many times we’ve done this, but thank you again. I had a conversation with some pastors that came in to learn some things from us and they were blown away by what we are able to do for the prices we are able to do it with. Thank you and your whole company for all that you’ve done to keep costs down and keep us growing,” said Pastor Tim Harlow.
Michuda Construction continually engages with churches like Parkview in an effort to bring innovative development solutions towards a new church campus model designed to expand outreach and business opportunities into the community. To the east end of Parkview’s Orland Park campus resides Evergreen Senior Living, a 106,000 square foot development owned and constructed by Michuda in 2017. Here residents can easily attend events, volunteer, and attend weekend church with their visiting families.
For Michuda this is only the beginning. The core of their strategy involves acquiring adjacent land parcels for future opportunities to create a self sustaining business model for the church. Currently, 17 additional acres is leased to local farmers as they plan the next phase of development to Parkview’s Campus.
“The land lease helps cut down on the carrying costs while we innovate new business models in partnership with Parkview,” says Mark Michuda, Executive Vice President of Michuda. “The beauty of it is, the church needed more parking, so we parceled off four acres between the development and the church to combine the two lots in a shared effort for overflow during the holidays and planning for future growth.”
One thing is for certain that future growth is here. Already, Parkview has shuttle stations in the exterior lots, shuttling in church goers using Evergreen’s west lot for overflow. A similar scenario is the catalyst behind the Homer Glen Campus in the kid’s ministry requiring more space and the extended renovation of the interior of the church.
“It’s incredible what God has done and is doing,” says Michuda. “And you haven’t seen anything yet, we’re only getting started.”