Central Christian Church, Las Vegas was established in 1962. It was a typical small traditional church that you may find in any American community. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that some churches changed their approach to evangelism. This put churches in three categories: liberal churches, traditional churches and a different type of church called the “Seeker Church”. The seeker churches and the purpose-driven churches have been condemned by many as being too liberal and not teaching true Christianity. The same was said about changing from the King James Version of the Bible to the New International Version and other modern translations so most of us would have a better understanding of Scripture. Any change toward using modern methods presents a problem to many Christians. However, we saw that the seeker churches were reaching lost people and were growing both in numbers and spiritual maturity. A few traditional churches were also growing but most were either holding their own or struggling. Liberal churches were really struggling just to survive and many did not.

When we decided to reach out to the lost we detected some significant changes taking place. Some called them supernatural, others believed we were lucky and others thought them to be coincidences. But they just kept happening and they still continue.

A God Thing Story

In the early 1990s four elders and our wives went to San Diego to watch the Chicago Cubs play the Padres. When the game was over it took us approximately 40 minutes to get out of the ball park’s parking lot. The question was asked: “What if we build a large church and it takes visitors more than 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot? How many would be discouraged and never come back”? Roads became a major part of our relocation plan.

When the City of Henderson had to have 24 acres of our property south of us, which we sold, we were able to negotiate roads through the park to the north. The two roads gave us nine lanes for traffic which was adequate going north. We negotiated a 40 foot road coming from the south. Now, here is really part of the “It’s a God Thing”: Presently an overpass is being built coming off the freeway with a road right into the southern part of our back yard. We have enough roads and can provide a parking lot to handle thousands of cars. Just how big of a church is God planning for Central? How far behind God’s vision are we presently running?