Church looks to provide park for Rogersville

Chris Ballard, pastor of The Story Church Inc. in Rogersville, spotted a need in his community and had an idea to meet it.

In May, the U.S. Census Bureau declared Rogersville the state’s fastest-growing city, with a 38% increase in residents between 2020 and 2024. That spells opportunity for growth for a church, but Ballard, who is also a soccer coach at Logan-Rogersville High School, also discerned a community need for more recreational amenities.

Ballard met with his church’s elders and proposed an idea for the Storytime Park, a 1-acre church-owned recreational facility intended for public use. The elders said yes.

“They affirmed it,” he said. “That was the original vision – be a blessing to the community first, and think about ourselves second.”

The idea has been gestating for six months, Ballard said, with a fundraiser quietly launched in late October and the project going public on social media Nov. 2.

In four weeks, Ballard said, the church managed to raise $553,000 – nearly half its goal of $1.3 million. Additionally, he said, the project has pulled in more than $115,000 in in-kind gifts of free work and materials by contractors. Most of this was accomplished through private conversations, he said.

“It’s been a bit like shooting fish in a barrel,” he said.

In his conversations, Ballard said, he invited potential donors to be part of establishing something the community has been asking for. A $250,000 donation came from an anonymous source, and another $100,000 was given by LifeGen Law Group LLC with managing partner Cameron Jones – enough for naming rights on one of the park’s planned athletic courts.

OakStar Bank in Springfield donated $50,000 to the project and also earned naming rights for a court.

Luke Fraser is OakStar’s chief operating officer as well as a Rogersville resident and a member of The Story Church. Fraser said OakStar doesn’t have a branch in Rogersville, but it does have customers and employees who live there.

“The team looked at it, and they like to support anything that involves kids and sports – it’s a good use of our funds,” Fraser said.

Fraser and his wife, Hannah, a real estate agent, are members of the church’s Storytime Park team.

Ballard also asked Tyson and Sarah Collins, Fraser’s sister and brother-in-law, to join the park project team for the church.

Tyson Collins said Ballard asked all of the team members the same question he had asked the elders: Are there any reasons this can’t or shouldn’t be done?

“We couldn’t come up with any, either,” he said. “My wife and I 100% bought in.”

Collins, who brings to the effort his expertise as an assistant vice president with civil contractor Emery Sapp & Sons Inc., said the park will fill a need in the community.

“The need is there,” he said. “If the government can’t build it, why couldn’t a church do it?”

The church donated the land, but Collins said the park will be for everyone. That means if church members want to use it, they will have to get in line like anyone else.

“It’s going to be open to everyone,” he said. “It’s not a church deal; we’re just heading it up.”

Collins has three children in the Logan-Rogersville public school district, and Fraser has two. Both said they are excited to build something their children can use, and Fraser added it’s also nice to be part of the city’s history.

“It will be nice to look back and say we were part of bringing it to Rogersville,” Fraser said.

City amenity
Until now, Rogersville has lacked pickleball courts for public use, Collins said.

“We kind of tailored this around what we don’t have here locally,” he said, noting the park plans call for four courts. “We’re excited about it. That’s a growing sport, and as a growing city, we need this for the community.”

Pickleball is indeed on the rise, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, whose 2024 State of Pickleball report showed 52% growth in the sport from 2022-23 and 224% in three years.

Sports like pickleball are not insignificant when it comes to economic development. A 2023 report by the National Recreation and Park Association showed in 2021, local park and recreation agencies generated more than $201 billion in economic activity. Additionally, the Trust for Public Land reported that parks and recreation centers boost property values and are a strong factor in real estate desirability.

Rogersville City Administrator Chad Bybee expressed enthusiasm for the park, as did other community leaders.

Bybee said via email that the church’s location in the growing Jamestown development area offers a perfect spot for the park.

“This project will most certainly add to the quality of life in the city of Rogersville, and we are blessed to have it,” he said.

Bailey Tennis, executive director of the Rogersville Chamber of Commerce, said Rogersville is a growing community and is working to keep pace with that.

Tennis said the park is a great opportunity that businesses can support through donations.

“The idea of it is a really neat, safe place for kids to hang out at and have birthday parties out of,” she said. “The city and the school back the idea of it.”

The plans
The park is intended to be developed in phases in the Jamestown development on land owned and maintained by Story Church, according to a website for the project. A timeline called for $250,000 to be raised in the fall, with a groundbreaking celebration in spring 2026 when the $500,000 goal is met. The success of early fundraising put the project far ahead of that target, according to Ballard.

The plan also calls for dirt work and concrete to be complete and construction to begin in fall 2026, with sports court surfacing, signage and lighting to be completed in winter 2026. The grand opening celebration target is spring 2027.

Features are to include an amenity that planners are calling the portico, offering an area for picnics and other gatherings and a shady spot for parents to watch their children and for athletes to rest between games, the plan states.

An accessible playground is planned for children of all physical abilities, and a 5,500-square-foot synthetic turf area will offer a low-maintenance play area for cornhole, gaga ball or a game of catch, the plan states.

Courts will include one full-sized basketball court, one full-sized court for futsal – a variation of soccer played on a smaller field – with an overlay for four pickleball courts and one regulation sand volleyball court.

In 2018, Springfield Business Journal reported on the purchase by David Clouse of the long-vacant strip center along U.S. Highway 60 at the center of the Jamestown planned development. The Story Church was one of six tenants secured by Clouse, who had bought the property from former Major League Baseball player Johnny Damon.

Ballard said the Jamestown development went bust, with only a primary school, a handful of houses and the plaza.

“We thought we were getting a Walmart, this and that, and we were going to grow, but it didn’t happen,” he said. “David and I stepped into that together. We asked the Lord to help us redeem that broken story.”

Now, Ballard said, he can look out his office window and see 100 homes by the primary school, with 50 more to the south, plus land where another 200 are about to go in.

The church bought the plaza – including one acre to its south – from Clouse in 2021. That extra acre was planned for its expansion, but Ballard said he saw a greater purpose in providing a community park.

“That’s the demand of the Gospels,” Ballard said. “We need to love our neighbors and love our neighbors well, because that’s proof we love the world. We want people to know love is real.”

Ballard said the project is way ahead of schedule, which may mean an earlier completion than the early 2027 ribbon-cutting outlined in its plan.

“If we can break ground sooner, we will,” he said.