Chapel Newsletter, April, 2005 - The Chapel in North Canton

The vision for The Chapel in North Canton actually began in 1980 when a handful of people from the North Canton area, who were attending The Chapel in Akron, began dreaming of and praying for a church in this area. Then, in November 1984, approximately 40 people started a Bible study under the leadership of three pastors from The Chapel in Akron…and the rest was left to God.

Six months later, The Chapel in North Canton was “born” when Pastor Dave Mallick led its first service on the evening of Easter Sunday, April 7, 1985, at the Malone College Student Center in Canton. The fledgling Chapel continued meeting for evening services at Malone in the facility called “The Barn” until September 22, 1985, when the church moved to the North Canton YMCA for both morning and evening services. Attendance at the YMCA averaged about 150 each week.

In December 1987, with less than 100 members, The Chapel acquired nearly ten acres of land in North Canton as the site for a permanent church building. A building committee was formed in 1989 under the leadership of Senior Pastor, Steve Ellis, and plans were drawn for a facility featuring a 400-seat sanctuary, 15 classrooms, a kitchen and office space, allowing room for future expansion.

Construction of the building began in October 1991 and on June 28, 1992 at 10:00 a.m., Pastor Ellis preached a Service of Dedication to an overflow congregation in its brand new sanctuary. Within six months attendance was nearing the seating capacity of 400 people, so on March 28, 1993, The Chapel expanded to two morning Worship Services and two Sunday Schools to accommodate the growing flock.

Even with two services, it soon became apparent that The Chapel needed to expand even further. Therefore, in April 1996, with Pastor Larry Bennett at the helm and worship attendance averaging 500 - 600 people, the stewardship campaign, “Opening New Doors of Opportunity” was launched, announcing plans to construct an 800-seat sanctuary, additional classrooms and office space.

Our God is faithful and by His grace, ground was broken on April 18, 1999 and Pastor Dave Burnham preached as our guest speaker during the celebration of our Dedication Service on June 11, 2000. It was also with great joy that we were able to bring the youth back on site with the completion of the Youth Building in September 2000.

With grateful hearts, we are enjoying God’s provision of our current facilities, and we praise God that now an average of 1000 to 1200 people are able to attend classes and worship here each Sunday. But we realize that numbers are not the issue -- 40, 100, 400, 600, 1200 -- they just remind us that the work of God’s Kingdom is not done until that day when Jesus returns for His church.

So, with this in mind, guess what? We’re back to planning again and a Future Facilities Committee has begun meeting to pray and seek just where God will have us be in the next five to ten years. We serve an awesome God! Praise and Glory to Him forever and ever. Amen!

Editor’s Note: Names of missionaries serving in sensitive countries are not published for their protection. We’ve also edited the following news article to eliminate some graphic content.

Some of you may be curious about what we actually do here from day to day. So, we want to paint a picture of a typical day here in our household.

Monday, 8:00 am: I leave the house and hop on my bike for the 5-minute ride to school. Just outside our front gate I pass the neighborhood well where an elderly gentleman is drawing up a bucket of water to boil noodles for his breakfast. I ride down a dirt path past the community kitchen, a low, one-room shelter made of bricks. Inside, two women chop up vegetables, and the sharp smell of onions and garlic mingles with coal smoke drifting from the doorway.

Next, I pass down an alley behind the town’s traditional market. If the weather is warm I hold my breath for the entire length of the alley, but today is chilly -- not as fragrant. Animals are delivered live to the back of the market for maximum freshness. A jumble of ducks await their fate, stuffed in a crate and strapped to the back of a motorbike. On the ground a woman stoops over a straw fire, lit to singe the hair off a freshly-killed dog which is destined for someone’s soup pot. I cross the main road through town, dodging other bikes, buses and trucks, and pull up to our school, a five-story cement building. I climb the stairs to my office, and settle behind my desk to prepare for the day’s classes which run from 9:30 to noon, and then resumes in the afternoon.

My class is made of 18 students from all across China. Roughly half of them come from upper, middle-class families. The other half has grown up in pretty astonishing poverty. We’ve given some of them scholarships to help pay their small tuition. Others have borrowed money from relatives, hoping that English will open up new job opportunities for them in the future. The average student is an only-child, a product of the government’s one-child policy, and the sole security for their parents in old age. A few are college graduates; most have only completed high school or middle school before leaving home to look for work. All of them are looking for an advantage to help them break into a tough job market and break out of a dead-end, 20 cent-per-hour job. None of them complain because their prospects are bleak, and none expect a handout. Many of them have already been on their own long enough to know better than to trust others, to be too optimistic, or to expect any breaks; they are initially suspicious of our kindness and try to figure out what we want from them— what’s the catch?

Meanwhile, as I prepare for class, my wife and 5-year old daughter begin the walk to school. Our team set up a classroom in our center for the children. My daughter loves the stories in reading hour. She is proud that she can now read Dick & Jane books to us. She loves her two classmates, children of our co-workers. My wife is new to home schooling, but has really enjoyed it.

My wife also devotes a great deal of energy to hosting students. This gives them a chance to see our family up close -- to interact in a warm, informal setting, and to talk with them about their questions in greater depth. The school also holds student activities nearly every weekend: softball games, movie nights, BBQs, etc. We will spend more than 200 hours with this group of students in just one semester. They come to our home; they watch our family; they sense dimly that there is something of great meaning and significance that we have tapped into. They ask a lot of questions. They see the striking contrast between the atmosphere of our school and the hardscrabble world they know all too well. They are cared for here, treated kindly, and it makes a deep impression. And they respond. They realize that the Kingdom of God is open and available to them; that their poverty and lack of connections in no way disqualifies them from the grace that God offers.

I make my way home after the school day ends. I overhear a girl arguing with her “customer” over the four-dollar charge for her services. Across the street an old gentleman shuffles down the street with his wide-eyed, beautiful grandchild strapped to his back. So much beauty and so much misery, all in one place. This is our life. These are the things we see every day, and we can’t believe we are so fortunate to be able to work here. We want to emphasize how much we enjoy this work, how much we feel at peace with our situation, and how strongly we feel that we belong.

April:	Sunday, 10th	Class 101, 201 & 301
June:	Sunday, 12th	Class 101, 201, 301 & 401
September:	Sunday, 11th	Class 101, 201, 301 & 401
November:	Sunday, 13th	Class 101, 201, 301 & 401

Membership - Class 101: Membership - “Knowing Christ” (this class is a prerequisite for membership at The Chapel) Class Facilitator: Larry Bennett - Senior Pastor
Maturity - Class 201: Maturity - “Growing in Christ” (current membership or completion of Class 101 is a prerequisite) Class Facilitator: Dan Hanny - Discipleship Pastor
Ministry - Class 301: Ministry - “Serving Christ” (class 201 is a prerequisite) Class Facilitator: Mike McCartney - Adult Ministries Pastor
Missions - Class 401: Mission - “Sharing Christ” (class 301 is a prerequisite)

Sign up at the Purpose Driven Display Table in the Lobby. Refreshments will be provided during a break in the class meeting. Babysitting provided upon request.