February/March 2007 Issue

At Prestonwood North, no one remains a stranger for long. They’re embraced in a community dedicated to sharing God’s love.

“We’ve seen the congregation really work together to make the North Campus a great church family,” said Pastor Jack Graham. “This year, with the expansion plans unfolding and the first facility being built, we’re going to see the North Campus explode with evangelism and discipleship.”

In just six months, the North Campus already exceeds his expectations, he said.

“I would dare say that the North Campus will one day exceed 20,000 members, and it’s only just beginning,” Pastor Graham said. “So we’re one-twentieth of the way there.”

As a builder, Robert Weeks knew that the area would experience incredible and rapid growth.

“It’s exciting to know the growth that is coming this way, and I know that the North Campus will just be an extension,” said Robert, who joined Prestonwood North with his family when it started.

“Since we’ve been at Prestonwood, we’ve seen it’s an incredible place that moves and touches people.”

Prestonwood North is, in many ways, a modern version of the first-century church. Faith requires action when each Sunday starts with an empty room. And the sense of community grows as members of Prestonwood North arrive early at Prosper High School and work side by side, setting up and tearing down their worship center, preparing classrooms, volunteering in the nursery, making coffee and greeting guests.

North Campus is centered in Prosper—now at Prosper High, and eventually on 130 acres just west of the school. But members come from across the region—Prosper, Celina, North Frisco, McKinney.

“When we started, we set out to reach all those communities,” Matt said. “When we look around on Sunday mornings, there’re equal numbers from everywhere.”

And they bring their friends with them.

“The people who are coming say they are here because we preach God’s Word,” Matt said. “They say that they know if they invite their friends they’re going to hear the Gospel and they’ll be learning about Jesus.”

With the new church office open at the southwest corner of Preston Road and Prosper Trail, people now have a place to go during the week to learn about everything this new, yet established, church has to offer from its many Bible study classes to diverse ministries to an incredible bookstore.

“We’ve gone on mission trips with high school students and, really, this was the closest thing to being on mission,” Doug said. “Sometimes, established churches have an inward focus rather than an outward focus.”

The Dillons, who have two children, Sarah, 11, and Matt, 17, said their hope is that Prestonwood North will reach the new people making their home in that area.

“So many are moving in each week,” he said. “So many don’t have a church home or a church background. We look forward to reaching out to those who need a church family.”

People are becoming curious about the church that meets at Prosper High.

Being out in the community in his job as a builder, Robert said he gets asked many questions about Prestonwood North.

“Prestonwood is like a big business coming to town. It definitely has people talking,” he said, “and looking into the possibilities it offers.”

Prestonwood Blessed With 'A Perfect Piece of Land'

There is no doubt in the minds of leaders at Prestonwood that God led them to the land where the North Campus will be built. And the landowner feels the same way.

When Jim Williams, president of LandPlan, first learned of the property just north of U.S. Highway 380 and the future extension of the Dallas North Tollway in December 2005, he felt it would be an ideal location for a church.

Jim contacted Pastor Jack Graham, whom he knew, to ask if Prestonwood might be interested.

Pastor Graham recalled the conversation. “I said, ‘Well, not really. We’ve casually talked about another location but, certainly, anything we’ve talked about is very preliminary,’” Pastor Graham said.

“And Jim said, ‘Well, I have a perfect piece of land for you.’”

Pastor Graham said he’d be glad to talk about it but it would be very preliminary because the possibility of a new campus had not even been raised at the church.

After Pastor Graham saw the property, though it was great, he said he wanted to make sure of two things: that God was leading Prestonwood to start a second location and that this was where He was leading.

In the meantime, Jim called an investor – a friend whom he knew attended Prestonwood when in the Dallas area. Though Pastor Graham could not guarantee interest in the property, Jim and the investor, who shall remain anonymous, took a leap of faith and purchased the highly sought after land.

“We began to pray diligently and think deliberately about that possibility as I did previous to moving from Hillcrest to this location,” Pastor Graham said.

Since Prestonwood couldn’t give an answer, Jim and the investor were free to sell the property. However, the two felt so strongly the land should go to Prestonwood that they held on to the property for more than eight months.

Meanwhile, Pastor Graham continued praying. He gathered all the former chairmen of deacons to talk about the possibility and to see the land.

“Everyone was positive, everyone was saying, ‘Let’s go.’ I was the holdup because I still didn’t have the green light that we were ready to launch this,” Pastor Graham said. “We waited and prayed some more and, ultimately, it became clear to all of us that, yes, we wanted a second location and this was the perfect piece of ground for us in a region that we could easily embrace.”

“With members already in that region, and to enable them to reach their neighbors for Christ, and with the promise of the population explosion in the region, it became very clear that this was indeed, as Jim had said to me in that  rst phone conversation, ‘a perfect piece of land for us,’” Pastor Graham said.

Executive Pastor Mike Buster said that in the past two years this 127-acre tract has increased in value from $3.5 million to $12.5 million.

“During this time, the Lord has led the investor to make the land available to the church for less than his original investment,” Mike said.

In addition, the church is able to purchase the land over the next several years as needed for construction. “This is another tremendous blessing to the church,’’ Mike said.

“It was not a business decision for us,” said the investor. “It was a spiritual decision.”