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FIELD OF DREAMS
Ball Ground church reaches out to the community by offering its field to athletic teams and by planning a multi-purpose gym for public use.
By Donna Harris
Cherokee Tribune Staff Writer
When members at Calvary Baptist Church see a need in the community, they do their best to fill it.
Four years ago, the Ball Ground congregation began allowing sports teams from local schools and recreation centers to use part of its property for practices, there by helping to alleviate the shortage of practice space in the county.
And for the church, it was an answered prayer.
“We had been praying for a meaningful way to reach out to the community,” said Pastor Jeff Hill of Ball Ground, who has led the church for nine years. “This was a direct answer to prayer. There’s no way we could’ve planned this.”
The arrangement started out as a request from Scott Rowland, then-president of the Creekland Middle School Booster Club, who needed a place for his teams to practice before the school had been finished.
“I got a call from (Rowland), and he said, ‘I’ve got all these kids who have no place to practice, and you have all that grass. Can we practice there?’” Hill said. “It was a need we could meet, and we’d been praying for a way to reach out. The middle school fields were not ready so we had the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades here that first couple of years.”
“My people were so excited. I announced (the arrangements) that Wednesday night, and everybody cheered.”
The congregation had inherited a large piece of adjacent property after members Arthur and Lola Wilkie died and had named the church as an heir in their wills, Hill said.
About a year-and-a-half ago, members decided to grade out part of the property and create a 6-acre complex named Wilkie Park that includes two athletic fields large enough for football and soccer practices and games.
Grass was planted in April, and the fields were ready for use in June, except for goal post and soccer goals, which have been ordered and are expected to arrive any day.
“It’s a really nice complex,” Hill said.
The church allows teams to use the complex free of charge and covers its overhead by running a concession stand on the nights they’re practicing, Hill said.
“We don’t feel like it would be right to try to minister to people and then charge them for it,” he said.
Currently the fields are being use four nights a week. Two football teams – the sixth-grade Creekland Grizzlies and a travel team from Jasper – are practicing there, and the football team from Harvest Christian Academy is playing its home games there.
Hill added he’s expecting to hear from two or three other teams who want to play on the fields.
Doug Gilleland of Ball Ground, director of the Creekland Junior Grizzlies, said he thinks the church is “just great” for offering its facilities to his team for practice.
“Three years ago when we started the Creekland Junior Grizzlies program, I was the sixth-grade coach, and we didn’t have a place to practice,” he said, noting the sixth-grade team practices there Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from July to November. “We were practicing out in their yards there for two years. They’ve been a real good asset and great help to us for three years now.”
The “really nice” complex the members built has made the teams even more appreciative of the church’s efforts, according to Gilleland.
“They’ve bent over backwards for the community and didn’t ask for anything in return,” he said.
The congregation is expanding its ministry to other local teams by building a multipurpose building that will include a gym for basketball, and possibly volleyball, teams to use.
“Our church building is full,” he said. “We need expansion room for us. And some schools around here will be out of commission with their gyms (because of remodeling) so there would be a real need in that area.”
Hill said he’s heard reports of second-and third-graders having basketball practice at 10 p.m. due to lack of gym space, “and I said that is too late.”
“I think we can take some of the stress off other facilities,” he said. “We’re just looking for the right way to meet the needs of the community.”
Besides providing practice space for community teams, the facility, which should be completed in April or May, will be home to the church’s Upward basketball league that will begin in the winter of 2008, he said.
Any community team is welcome to use the fields and gym, when it’s completed, but coaches need to schedule a time and to meet with church leaders to make sure everyone understands what’s expected.
“We want to make sure we’re not going to wind up on the news for parents clubbing each other,” Hill said, laughing. “But we haven’t had any problems at all from any of it. Everybody has just been perfect.”
The church also is planning to build a playground as part of its youth-minded complex.
Besides helping sports teams with practice fields, the church also helps other community groups such as homeowner’s associations, home school groups, Cub Scouts and Daisies by letting them use its facilities for meeting and events. The church also serves as a voting precinct.
“We just feel like we’re supposed to be part of the community,” Hill said.
Opening up the church’s facilities to local teams and groups has helped bring new families into the church that might not have known about it otherwise.
“We’ve gotten a lot of families, a ton, really and truly a ton,” Hill said. “It’s had a significant impact on the life of our church and the health of our church. We’ve seen so many people saved, so many people baptized, a lot of changed lives.”
Kevin and Gwen Freeman of Canton and their children, Jordan, 15; Jacob, 13; and Josie, 7, found the church as a result of Jordan’s middle school team practicing there.
“It was through the church’s work with the Creekland Middle School football program that my family came to become members of Calvary two years ago,” he said. “I’d love for other families to be able to come and practice in a safe, loving environment so we need to get the word out to our community.”
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