Victory Chapel has never had a church sign. Sure, there have been posters and flyers and signs to set on the sidewalk, but we have never had a church
sign because we have never had a church building.
    We started at Willard Park, then moved to the gymnasium at the women’s shelter (excited especially because there was a bathroom), then moved to our
present home at the United Methodist Church. The Methodists have been kind hosts for years now, and have put up with our youthful, sometimes
boisterous congregation.
    Ministry and outreach have sometimes been hindered by the blurred identity. We have distributed at least 20,000 flyers in the neighborhood over the
last few years, but the picture on the flyer is the Methodist building, and we have to explain that Victory Chapel is there though not on the sign. When a stranger
walks in on Sunday morning, we don’t know for sure which service to direct him to. Sometimes people tell me they were in our service when they were actually
in the Methodist service. Very little space in the
building is ours all the time, where equipment can be set up and the rooms arranged for our purposes.
    For long-term stability, it seemed important for us to have a building in the community, and there was another factor that seemed to make it urgent.
Significant investment is being made along Tenth Street, and we were getting worried that if we didn’t get a building soon, prices could soon double.
    We looked at a few options. Two adequate buildings we found were both priced at over $100,000, and needed renovation. The VICM board was naturally
worried about taking on that kind of debt, since the church’s income already falls short of its budget.
    On August 4th I was driving down Tenth Street and saw a building for sale that I had not noticed before. I called the realtor and gained access.
It was a former lodge hall that had been called the Redmen’s Wigwam. It had closed years ago, and the former members were anxious to sell.
    The building is a double store front. It is divided into rooms that can be offices and classrooms. It has a large area that can be a sanctuary.
The total square footage of the building is nearly 7,000. The interior needs renovation, but other than some plumbing, not much needs to be done before
we could start having services there.
    The asking price was $30,000. We offered $20,000, and they accepted. We will close on the building September 17. Our goal is to pay for the building
at closing without borrowing.
    The people of our local congregation will give what they can, but we are contacting all friends of the ministry to ask them to prayerfully consider
what they can contribute toward the purchase and renovation.
    If you have skills that you would like to offer for renovation, please email us at Steve@vicm.org.
    Please send contributions marked “church building” to the address below. May God bless you for your prayers and support.
        Victory Chapel
        P. O . Box 11151
        Indianapolis, IN 46201