As Sinclair looks at his broken truck, he considers it all a worthy sacrifice. It's the least I can do,'' he said. There's a lot more to do before 9 a.m., when thousands of the faithful will expect to find the high school's Chapple Gymnasium transformed into their temporary chapel. The entire church rolls. Volunteers wheel 60 gray cabinets, taller than any man present, out of six trailers and onto the sidewalk in front of the gym.
Volunteers push the cabinets loaded with mixing boards, speakers and wire into the gym.
Those with plastic bulldozer toys and Jesus of Nazareth coloring books roll down to the Sunday school, which eventually occupies the entire academic wing. The gym hums like an automated origami factory as 12 volunteers unfold white plastic chairs and arrange them into makeshift pews. Antioch has been a mobile church for only four months. Members met at the chapel on the Northwest College Campus for seven years until August, when the college asked Antioch to leave. Most churches are busy with their own services on Sundays, so the 3,500-member church struck a deal with the Lake Washington School District.