SOUTH OGDEN -- Volunteers set up tables in seemingly every available space last Sunday for lunch at Washington Heights Church.
While they were expecting 1,500 guests, they made lunches for 2,000.
Organizers were sure no one would go without at their "Vision Event," designed as a kickoff for an extensive capital campaign.
And that was precisely the point they were trying to make.
"I think today is such a great picture of what the church is all about," said Senior Pastor Roy Gruber. "It's about having more room at the table. It's about creating a place for everyone here at God's table."
Church leadership and staff designed the campaign with a twist, as monetary goals took a backseat to spiritual development.
The effort had started the Sunday before, with Gruber and others handing out permanent markers and asking members to write on the walls of the sanctuary the names of those who needed prayers.
Gruber said eventually the names will be painted over as part of the massive remodeling project for which they are raising funds. But, Gruber said, they won't be removed from the hearts of those who wrote them.
"I'm convinced that those people who put those names on there know that those names will always be there," Gruber said. "Our heartbeat here is about the people."
Sunday's event started earlier in the morning with what Gruber calls a spiritual adventure for everyone involved with the church.
At a rare event -- members usually attend during five different services at the church -- they all met together at the Dee Events Center, and everyone got to see what the Baptist congregation looks like as a group.
"It's exciting to see them under one roof," said member Marla Caywood, of Clearfield.
Member Deborah Dan, of Layton, said the whole vision of the event was for people to come closer to the Lord in their own walk and deepen their own relationship with Him.
In addition to being asked to fast and pray each week for an answer from God about how they should participate in the campaign, those present were asked to pray for their leaders to make the right decisions about how to use the money.
Also, each was asked to pray during that time for a person they likely did not know.
"It's a sense of adventure," Gruber said of the effort. "We don't know what people will hear from God. As a church, we will hear from God together."
Among those who participated in the event was the church's first pastor, Les Magee, who served at the church for 20 years, starting with its inception in 1983.
He said he believes the key ingredient for the church, which started with a handful of members and has grown to 3,000 member families, always was its vision of building bridges.
Magee said when he and his wife, Beulah, arrived, they saw how some other non-LDS churches related to the community, and they decided to be different.
"Our theme became building bridges, not walls, to the community," he said.
And Magee believes that process is still in place as the church grows exponentially.
"I see how God is blessing Pastor Roy," he said. "To think that a small, little church in the chapel in the Terrace has grown to this. It's definitely a miracle of God.... God has just blessed beyond our dreams."
Washington Heights Church is at 1770 E. 6200 South in South Ogden. For information, call the church at (801) 479-7030 or visit its Web site at www.washingtonheights.org.
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