About Our Values and Beliefs
Outdoor Worship Center
An Outdoor Worship Area.Some Interesting Facts about the St. Luke Outdoor Worship Area
- The Limestone used for the Outdoor Worship Area came from a quarry in Alpena, Michigan and weighs over 350 thousand pounds!
- The Altar is 10 ft. wide by 3 ft. deep and weighs 9,032 pounds!
- The chancel flooring measures 23 ft. by 20 ft. and weighs over 75,000 pounds!
- The Outdoor Worship Area was totally built by St. Luke volunteers. Over 50 individuals donated their time and expertise totally over 2,000 hours!
- There are 116 seating stones – capacity for 232 people.
- The smallest seating stone is less that 2 feet wide (weighing about 800 lbs.) and the longest is over 5 feet wide (weighing over 3,000 lbs.)
- There are 8 rows of seating. For an amphitheater effect, each row is 6 inches higher than the previous row except for the last two rows; they are only 3 inches higher.
- The stones have a lot of character. Many have fossils, seashells, Petoskey stones, and pyrite (also known as fool’s gold). Can you find the stone with the most fossils?
- The heavy-duty tow straps used to lift the stone into place had a capacity of lifting 10,000 lbs. We wore out 6 of them!
- One stone has a dynamite hole with a golf ball stuck in it. Can you find the stone?
- There is a cross embedded in the chancel flooring. Can you find it?
- The most difficult stone took over 2 hours to set; the easiest took only 15 minutes to set.
- Deer have constantly visited our Outdoor Worship Area. Tracks have been seen almost daily, up and down the aisles and even up on the chancel flooring.
- In 2003, a 20 foot tall cross was added behind the altar. It weighs over 800 pounds and is cast in a cement casing designed by one of our volunteer structural engineers. The cross, lit all year at night, provides an inspirational view.
The Lord Will Provide . . .
A Little History in the Building of the St. Luke Outdoor Worship Center