Father Don Andrie, CSP, and Maria and Zander Espinoza man the St. Luke University Parish table at the Back to School Fair at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich.

This 17-acre site will one day be the home of St. Luke University Parish in Allendale, Mich.

They are already building church at St. Luke University Parish in Allendale, Michigan. They just don’t have a building.

Celebrating Masses at the Allendale Christian School gymnasium, the Cook-DeWitt Center of Grand Valley State University and even in the main room of the parish office, St. Luke parishioners are patiently waiting for the day they can worship in their own church to be built on the 17-acre site owned by the Diocese of Grand Rapids right by Grand Valley’s main campus.

The diocese requires the parish raise half of the $3 million in building costs in order to begin construction, which is quite a challenge during a national economic downturn.

“We would have one or two people a month that lost their job or had their job downsized,” explained St. Luke Pastor Father Brad Schoeberle, CSP. The “If You Build It They Will Come” capital campaign is poised to get the parish a lot closer to its goal with $500,000 currently pledged.

Surrounded by her family, Clare Morgan is baptized by Father Brad Schoeberle, CSP, in the gymnasium of the Allendale Christian School, one of the temporary places of worship for St. Luke University Parish in Allendale, Mich.

The good news is that St. Luke has been experiencing growing pains from its start in 2007, and the growth continues. Based on population figures from the 2000 census, Allendale has a projected growth rate of 57 percent. Grand Valley continues its steady growth, and the excellent public school system, are attractive to young families moving into the area.

That means a likely increase to the current 184 registered families and 600 people attending weekend Masses at St. Luke. There is also a lot of internal growth at St. Luke.

“We have a lot of baptisms,” said a smiling Father Don Andrie, CSP, Grand Valley’s Catholic campus minister and St. Luke’s associate pastor. “There is always someone who is pregnant!”

Even with the challenges the come with a limited amount of borrowed space, St. Luke offers a full religious education program, sacramental preparation, Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, Bible study, a food pantry and the Father Isaac Hecker-St. Luke University Council of the Knights of Columbus, with a good many student members from Grand Valley.

Father Don Andrie, CSP, and the faith community of St. Luke University Parish in Allendale, Mich., gather at the pairsh offices to celebrate Mass on Ash Wednesday, 2010.

With around 20% of Grand Valley’s 24,000 students being Catholic, it was time for a change in Catholic Campus Ministry on campus. Previously ministered to part time by St. Michael’s, Coopersville, several Catholic staff members asked the Diocese of Grand Rapids to consider a full time Catholic campus ministry. The Paulists were invited to Allendale due to their rich history in campus ministry.

“We are building … a hybrid of campus ministry and parish,” said Father Schoeberle, who added that the students bring their natural curiosity about their Catholic faith to the parish, and the parish offers them a stability that reminds them of their church at home.

“They are looking for what their faith means to them,” Father Schoeberle said. “They want to know how their faith relates to the real world.”