When you think of an actual building where church services are conducted, the first image that comes to mind is maybe a building with a steeple on top. There might be a statue of Jesus or Mary in the front yard.
Action Church in Springfield is going to be conducting their first service Jan. 31. Pastor Bill White Jr., might be conducting church the way Jesus would have, with bowling lanes as a backdrop and a lounge as the worship area.
“Our key verse is 1 John 3:18, ‘Let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and truth. We are a Faith in Action church’,” said Bill Jr.
White is patterning his church after California’s Andrew Jones, who started what he calls, ‘third place church planting.’
“What this is,” Bill Jr. said, “people’s first place where they spend most of their time is home.
Their second place is work. Most people have a third place where people hang out and do things with friends. Andrew started planting churches in these third places. He was doing coffee shops and health clubs. I just really felt that God was talking to me that he wanted me to go back to Akron Lanes and start a church there.”
Bill Jr. went home and told his wife. “She said, ‘I knew it. I was thinking the same thing.’”
Akron Lanes was a logical location. Bill Jr.’s father Bill White Sr. owned it. Bill Sr. and Bill Jr. have owned and managed bowling alleys through the years. Bill Jr. who grew up in this area, got his masters of divinity and pastored a church in Indiana for more than 12 years.
“I grew up in the bowling business,” said Bill Jr. “This has been in the back of my mind for years. When I was in seminary a professor asked, ‘If you could do anything what would I be? ‘and I put I would go back to the bowling alley and start a church in the bowling lanes.”
Bill Jr. said Action Church will be actively involved in the community and helping out people.
“We want to stay in the facility and not build a church,” he said. “We don’t want to build a building. One of the reasons is because we do not want the overhead and expenses so that the offerings that come in will go toward helping people. Whether it is feeding people or however we can help in the community.”
“There is a Web site called servantevangelism.com. and there are a lot of ways to help your community,” said Bill Jr. “That is one of the ways we will help the community actively. We want to reach them where they are at.
Bill Jr. went to local denominations and the Evangelical Free Church was very interested in having him pastor a church at a bowling alley. Evangelical Free Church is associated with Chuck Swindoll.
He said he wanted his church to be different than the average church.
“I didn’t want to be phony,” he said. “I wanted to be real and authentic. We just want to be a church to connect with people where they are at in an authentic way.”
“There are many who have come to the bowling alley who have never been churched,” said Bill Jr. “I started thinking that this would be a great opportunity to reach people who normally not be reached and talk to people about church and have outreaches.”
Jesus hung out with the sick and those who needed hope, said Bill Jr.
“I started thinking that I really have a heart for the people here,” he said. “People who would normally not go to church is who I have a connection with.”
Bill Jr. left the bowling arena to finish his undergrad at Akron University, graduating in 1993. He then went to Denver for seminary, graduating in 1997.
“I got the call to be a pastor and I called my dad,” said Bill Jr. “He wasn’t even a believer, but he said okay what do we do?”
He planned on taking years longer to study but Bill Sr. encouraged him to go full time and he would manage the bowling business without Bill Jr.
“My dad is a very generous person,” said Bill Jr. “He is the most generous person I have ever met. He gives to missionaries and now Action Church.”
Bill Sr. became a believer several years back and he will lead a men’s Bible Study. The two of them are taking their bowling alley on Sunday mornings and converting it as God’s house.
“We plan on having upbeat music, sermons that are relevant to where people are at now,” said Bill Jr. “I want to be sensitive to the leading of the Sprit of what God wants us to do in each person’s life and how we can as a community help each other grow in Christ. We also want to lead people who do not know Christ, into a relationship with Him.”
Because their church is in their bowling alley, they do not have the same expenses as a ‘regular’ church, said Bill Sr.
Bible studies are already underway and the first service will be held Jan. 31 at 10 a.m. Action Church is located at Akron Lanes in Springfield Township, 2911 E. Waterloo Rd. on Rt. 224.
“We will be meeting in the bar,” Bill Jr. laughed. “Isn’t that something? We will reach the people who do not have a relationship with Christ.”
