Lifepoint Church in Longview has been located at the Parke Way Family Fitness Center for decades.
Lifepoint has completed the purchase of the building effective October 1, 2020 and has already met on Parke Way at 2628 Bill Owens Parkway. Rev. Brian Shobert, who heads the church, said the building has been there since the 1980s and brothers Mike and Larry Alston have run the fitness center since 1985.
However, when the purchase was complete, Parke Way temporarily rented parts of the building back to keep the fitness center running. It makes sense to maintain relationships with the people who already use the fitness center, Shobert said.
“It was a breeze for us,” maintaining those relationships and keeping people in the building, he said.
That agreement with Parke Way’s fitness operators is expiring as Lifepoint and Parke Way can’t agree on a contract extension, Shobert said.
When the contract negotiations were over, “Lifepoint checked all options,” said the church. “One option was finding a new fitness partner / tenant. Another option that we prayed about and ultimately decided we could make the most of the facilities we are blessed with was to manage all building functions internally.”
“VIEWpoint Community & Fitness Center was developed out of love for our community and a desire to serve them well all in place starting October 1st.”
Lifepoint was founded in 2003 as a mission of the Oakland Heights Baptist Church and aims to serve people who were “non-church”, who were not interested in the traditional church model, or who may have been hurt by the church.
“We’ve never had a traditional church model,” Shobert said.
That meant, for example, that starting around 2007, the Church leased a former movie theater in the North Loop Plaza shopping mall on Judson Road and Loop 281 for 10 years.
“It was in terrible shape,” Shobert said, recalling the significant investment the church had made in the property.
When The Retail Connection mall was acquired by local owners, for various reasons it made no sense for the church to sublet it. Lifepoint began maintaining an office on Loop 281 while services were held at the Summit Club on Judson Road until it moved to the Parke Way building.
Now Lifepoint has a “church map and a ward map” for the building, with the church wanting to recognize the importance of this building to the ward, Shobert said.
The church searched extensively for its new home, centered around “how to recreate Solomon’s porch,” said Shobert, rather than creating a temple model of worship. This model extended into the time of Jesus, but the early Christian church had no real buildings in which to meet. For example, Jesus and his disciples gathered in the upper room.
Solomon’s porch, or portico, was connected to the temple, but the temple is not the center of Jesus’ ministry, Shobert said. Instead, it started from Solomon’s Porch and continued to stretch. Solomon’s Porch, he said, was a place where the congregation gathered, with people of different faiths and races.
With that in mind, the Church says it will continue to offer up-to-date fitness programs and activities such as basketball, racquetball, and pickleball, as well as the swimming pool. Membership prices are going down, and the church plans to rent out party rooms and workspaces.
The facility, Shobert said, will be a place where the community can gather – so that family and friends can come together. Associate Pastor Casey Delay said plans are in the works for a community trick or treating event at the VIEWpoint Community & Fitness Center this year. They also expect to have community pool parties with food trucks in the center.
The church recently hosted a swim party for Buckner care services, with Shobert saying organizations like this do not charge for using the center’s facilities.
Renovation work on the complex has already begun, and other changes are planned, including changing the entrance so that it is almost at ground level instead of climbing two outside stairs.
“We humbly ask you to give us an opportunity to discuss any questions, concerns, or plans that you may have,” Church information reads. “We want to keep all fitness plans – private, family business, insurance, etc. We will do this with affordable plans and new options to get the most out of the spaces. Here, too, we are here to serve. “
