Appleton church adds huge sports complex

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. — Appleton Alliance Church will use aerobics classes, weight lifting and other physical fitness activities to connect the community with God when it opens its new sports and recreation complex in June.

Dubbed Xcel Sports, the facility is part of a $22 million, 120,000-square-foot expansion project called Finishing the Work. The expansion, scheduled for completion in summer 2013, will nearly triple the church’s size from 60,000 square feet to about 160,000 square feet and is the largest non-governmental project in Wisconsin, said Marty Myse, the Christian church’s building chairman.

The sports complex, which opens June 11, will feature a gymnasium and fitness center offering activities such as women’s aerobics and spinning classes as well as recreational opportunities for families, children and the church’s youth ministries.

The Rev. Dennis Episcopo, the church’s senior pastor, said Alliance began building a sports ministry in 2006 — years before deciding to construct a sports facility. The church already boasts soccer fields and a basketball court that hosts a large outdoor basketball league every Sunday night.

Youth basketball camps attract more than 400 children to the church each summer.

“We wanted to have sports and rec as a way to connect people to God,” Episcopo said. “They may not come to a church service, but no problem.”

That church has run camps, leagues and special events for the past six years. “We have about 2,000 participants per year, with about 80 percent of those people being from outside Appleton Alliance,” said Ryan Borowicz, head of the sports ministry program at Alliance. “The sportsplex really broadens the number and type of activities we can offer, as well as being a great resource for the other ministries of the church, particularly the children and the youth.”

The sports ministry — an outreach to the community for those who may not know Jesus, but would like to — is keeping with the church’s vision of connecting people with God and one another, Myse said.

“It’s an opportunity to reach them through a sporting event, basketball or whatever,” he said.

Plenty of people attend services at Appleton Alliance each week, and the expansion will add much-needed space to the overflowing church. Appleton Alliance ministers to more than 3,000 people during its four Sunday services, and attendance is growing.

While the current sanctuary holds up to 900 people, the new worship center will have 1,800 seats and allow for the addition of 200 chairs for holiday services, Episcopo said. The expanded seating means the church will be able to reduce its Sunday services to two when the new worship center opens July 1, 2013.

Also included in the project is a life-size tree house that will serve as a global missions area at Discovery Land, the church’s Sunday school program visible from U.S. 41 that serves about 500 children.

Appleton Alliance was founded in 1932 during the Great Depression and the current expansion project “is almost a repeat of that,” Episcopo said.

“We were in an economic collapse, yet God was challenging us and showing us clearly by sending us people that we need to step out in faith and trust him that we could build a building even in an economic meltdown,” he said. “It’s just been an amazing ride.”

Rather than wait until the parish had most of the money it needed for the project in hand, Episcopo said Appleton Alliance stepped out in faith, something he learned on a trip he made more than two years ago to Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in Africa.

“Christians there believe God wanted things done and so they did it,” he said. “They don’t wait for money; the money will come. ...We weren’t showing half the faith these people were showing; they inspired me.”

The church hired architect Progressive AE, Grand Rapids, Mich., and broke ground on the project in July 2011. The Boldt Co., Appleton, is the general contractor.

Episcopo isn’t worried about paying for the expansion project. The church was on track to pay off $7.5 million debt in seven years for the first phase, which began in 2003. Only $1 million remained because Appleton Alliance doubled its payments each month.

“If we’re double-paying a $7.5 million mortgage, we can certainly pay this,” Episcopo said. “Banks are not going to lend you money these days unless they’re pretty sure you’re capable of handling the mortgage payment. We obviously can based on our track record.”