August Highlights!
We are less than a month away from launch! It’s hard to believe all that has happened in the last month. And, honestly, I don’t know how to include everything that I want to share about August! So I’m going to list the main events, and then you can scroll for all the details.
We hosted a Night of Prayer
Tech was installed
Construction started (and is almost finished!)
Lots of friends visited
Emily took a trip to KC
We had a food truck night in our parking lot
Our team has grown
We hosted a Night of Prayer!
We decided that before the construction project began, we wanted to have our first Local Church event - A Night of Prayer. We invited many of our friends and family including other pastors who have supported us along this journey. Our friend Andrew Muller led us in worship and 5 of our pastor friends prayed over our church, our community, and our team. A highlight for me was having Sarah get up and pray for the disability community. She prayed that our church would be a place that includes, values, and welcomes them. This was powerful for so many other pastors in the room who have not thought much about what disability ministry should look like in their churches.
New Tech and Construction.
Our lease started on August 1st. That gave us exactly 2 months to get everything completed for our plan to launch in early October. The projects included removing walls, adding walls, creating a coffee bar, creating a new entryway, installing new doors, completely gutting the bathrooms (and then raising the floor 3 inches, widening one of the doorways, and reinstalling everything), adding windows and carpet to the kids area, and more! I was not 100% confident that the work would all get done in time. But TODAY (Sept 14th) is the last day of construction! The contractors were able to get in and get everything done in just about 4 weeks. Everything looks AMAZING! We will share the before and after in an email once we have everything all cleaned up and installed. We truly feel that we are exactly where God wants us to be.
Another big task was to install all of the audio, visual, and lighting equipment. We were fortunate to have a church-specific tech company, Teklite Associates, come alongside us to help with all of the purchasing, installation, and set-up. DJ, our tech wizard, has been so helpful, hardworking, and patient with everything!
The cost of accessibility
A large part of our construction project was in an effort to be accessible to individuals with disabilities. We built a ramp onto our stage, created a ground-level tech booth, made our storage closet large enough for a wheelchair to navigate, raised our bathroom floors to remove a step-down, and created a fully accessible bathroom. The statistics are not great for churches in this area - 90% of churches are not built to ADA standards - and 90% of families with an individual with a disability do not attend church. It’s easy to focus on the cost of all of this work. But we truly believe that we have much more to gain by being a church that honors and includes individuals with disabilities.
We got to see some of our best friends!
One of the hardest things about the last year of church planting has been saying two very difficult goodbyes - one to everything we knew in Lake of the Ozarks and another to our friends in Kansas City. So when friends come to visit - it’s such a treat! In August, we enjoyed a visit from the Chrzasteks, The Petersons, Mike’s family, and our friend Lyndsey Robinson! (I also got to take a 2-day trip to KC to surprise Lyndsey for her birthday!) We might be working extra hard at church, but we still make time for fun and relationships!
Parking Lot Party!
From the beginning of Local Church, we have designated 10% of our budget to go back out into our community. This can be in the form of meeting practical needs, supporting local outreach organizations, or putting on free events. At the end of August, we pulled off our first big community event - a Parking Lot Party! We provided bounce houses, music, giveaways, and free food and ice cream to over 120 people! It was so fun to meet a ton of our neighbors and connect with them right on our property. Plus the taco and ice cream trucks were amazing.
New Team Members!
One of our biggest hurdles has been recruiting new team members. It seems that almost everyone we meet with is either not interested in church or totally committed to the church they are at. The church planter in me is tempted to spin this to be positive: People who don’t like church? Great! That’s who we are here for. People who are committed to their church? Great! They are just where God wants them.
But the truth is, it is very challenging to start a church without people who are willing to explore church and people who will leave the church they love to start something new. And these people have been hard to find. This isn’t really anything new. Jesus himself told his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
We have prayed, and little by little, God brings us unexpected people just at the right time to serve in just the right ways. We are continuing to believe that God will bring all the people He needs to start this church off strong.
Right now, we have 15 people committed to being part of Local Church and another 3 who are going to help us get through our first month. We are blown away by how faithful God has been to bring these people onto our team - each with their own gifts and passions. We can’t wait to see who else “the Lord of the harvest” brings along!
Generosity
We can’t say enough how thankful we are for the team of donors that God has put behind Local Church. Everything we get to do would be impossible without people giving faithfully and believing that God will use Local Church to inspire people to follow Jesus. We are so thankful - and we already see the fruit of your giving! Our prayer is that you are seeing the blessing in your life too.
If you would like to join our support team, click the link below to set up a one-time or recurring gift to Local Church.
Here’s how you can pray 🙏
Thank you so much for your continued prayer for Local Church. Be encouraged - He hears you and is answering your prayers!
CLICK HERE to let us know you prayed!
Prayer requests:
- Please pray for rest and peace for us in this hectic and fast-paced season.
- Continued prayers for protection over the positive relationship with our landlords and the congregation at Village of Faith Church. Especially as we get closer to launch.
- We are asking God for kids team volunteers! This is out biggest need.
- We are applying for grants to cover the costs of making our building accessible to individuals with disabilities. Pray for our proposals to be accepted so that we can be in the 10% of US churches that are accessible!
Answered prayers:
- We brought in all the money we needed for chairs - and extra which has been used towards our remodel project!
- We are approx. 72% funded for our low-impact budget.
- Sarah had a great meeting with a family she used to work with - they donated $25,000 to help with our bathroom remodel!
- We are loving our team. There is so much unity and positivity around what we get to do!
Thank you for following us on our journey 🎉
We are looking forward to all that God has for us, for you, and for Long Island! ⛪️🌱
