RAIDER said:
Here is a "what if" question. This question would probably be best answered by those who were attending FBCH at the time.
What if the new auditorium had not been built? What if the old auditorium and other buildings had been remodeled instead? I know Schaap said the new auditorium was needed to handle the crowds. Was that really true? What would FBCH's finances look like today if not for the new auditorium?
FBCH has a long history of building larger auditoriums.
In the 60s we were known as the church with the dome. I don't recall the seating capacity of the building at that time, I'm guessing less than 600. That building was very dark and the dome was it's most prominent feature, kinda like a mosque. It was filling to overflowing for both Sunday services, so the decision was made to build the first half of the old auditorium. Seating was around 2,000 in a 100' x 100' building. It quickly became uncomfortably small and cramped.
The church continued to grow as the schools were started. FBCH was an exciting place, we were busting out at the seams everywhere. So the decision was made to build an even larger building to the west and join it to the 2,000 seat building increasing the capacity to about 4,000. This was the third auditorium in less than 20 years. We could not remain in the 2,000 seat building while the double sized auditorium was created so we rented the Hammond Civic Center until the construction was completed.
I believe it was 76 when we finally left the Civic Center to return to the church property. If you count the Civic Center it would make 4 auditoriums in less than 20 years.
Now the 80s continued the rapid growth, We should have been building our next auditorium around 85.
The next step in size would have been 6,000 seats which is the size of our present auditorium.
It was not possible to get a seat after SS classes. A family member was required to save seats for the family.
Needless to say a multitude of people would go home rather than fighting for a seat in a hopelessly cramped auditorium. Growth was effectively stalled.
Then the scandals started to hit and a new auditorium was no longer needed or desired. It was a continual shifting and rearranging chairs to make a non full room look full. All bench seats behind the K beams were removed. The six front rows of the east and west balcony front were removed, mezzanine closed and all extra chairs were removed. Smoke and mirrors.
It fooled many people but not everyone.
When Schaap came we started to grow again. Both English and Spanish. Building P was packing out for the Spanish and the old auditorium was packing out for the English.
It had been 30 years since we had built an auditorium, and we should have built it in the 80s but did not due to the scandals. So it was not to soon to build it. Both the Spanish and English were locked in and did not continue to grow. People are not going to keep coming when they can not find seats.
As for the others buildings, all of them were remodeled and are now in use every Sunday.
As for planting other churches.
We started them in South Holland, Portage, Crown Point, and St John. That did drain off a several hundred people.
This is how I saw it.