Northview Christian Life’s Grand Re-Opening

Pictured in photo (from left): S & B Construction William Cooper, Northview Church Lead Pastor Steve Poe, City of Carmel Mayor Brainard, building designer Lenzy Hendrix, and Carmel Chamber of Commerce Patty Steffen (Photo Submitted by Melody Carpenter)

On April 17, 2010 Northview Christian Life Church held their first official services in their beautiful new auditorium. I had the opportunity to check out the new auditorium and talk to the Lead Pastor of Northview, Steve Poe, during the Grand Opening Celebration.

Northview already has one of the biggest facilities in Carmel, so you may be asking yourself, as I did, why they built the new auditorium. According to Pastor Poe, “For the last 10 years we have been adding services to accommodate the increased attendance, but there finally came a point when we needed to have a bigger space. But we didn’t just want a bigger box; we felt like the space was way too important to only be concerned with how many people would fit inside. We wanted to make sure we were being sensitive to how the space would impact people spiritually as well as reinforce our values as a church.” He continued by saying, “Our mission statement here at Northview church is “Connecting people with God and connecting people with people. And therefore, we believe that creating environments that are inviting helps us to carry out that mission.”

The 51,000 square-foot auditorium has enough seats for 2,070 people. The intention of the design was not to give Northview the biggest auditorium in Hamilton County, but to provide a place to better serve the city and citizens of Carmel. Pastor Poe says, “The increased capacity will give us plenty of room to accommodate more of our friends and neighbors. The space is the largest venue in Hamilton County, so it will give us plenty of room to grow. Our heart has always been to invite the community onto our property.” Northview recently demonstrated how they are going to use the new facility to serve the community. Pastor Poe mentioned that over spring break they opened their doors all week and showed children’s movies for free. They had a few thousand parents and children take advantage of the experience.

Technology and innovation played a major role in the construction. Poe says, “People are very visual, which is why we use creative ways to communicate and strengthen our message with technology, music, the arts, sophisticated lighting and video. This is why we felt the state-of-the-art audio and video technology was an important part of the space. While some may come with the idea that church is boring, we want them to discover that’s not the case. We want them to discover that Christians are real people who laugh and have a good time together and appreciate excellence.”

As I stepped onto the Northview campus I felt an amazing level of excitement by the people and staff of Northview. When I asked Pastor Poe about how excited he was that the project was complete, he said, “For three and a half years we have been praying, dreaming, planning, preparing and working toward this building, so to see it finally completed is very thrilling.” He continued by saying, “And while it is exciting to have the space finished, we realize it’s just the beginning of the next chapter God has for us as a church. We want the people in this community to know that we genuinely do care about them. We want to be good neighbors. We’re being intentional about different ways we can reach out to the people in this community.”

Northview invites you to check them out either online at www.nvcl.org or in person at 12900 Hazel Dell Parkway in Carmel.