During a prophetic gathering in Portland, Oregon at City Bible Church in May, 1996, God spoke specifically to me that I could have what I wanted. I knew in my heart that God was speaking of a city to pioneer a dynamic work in. I went to a map and began to circle communities in southwest Washington that I knew needed a good church. As I circled various towns and cities, one thing became apparent to me – we needed to plant a community-oriented church with a regional focus, not just a little inward focused group of believers.
With over 20 towns and cities circled on my map, I noticed that “Centralia” was right in the middle of all my little dots. As I began researching the city more, I realized it was called “Hub City” in its early days, and is known for its central location. As far as I was concerned, the course was set and the vision was clear – we would plant a church that would reach an entire region, not just one town.
Many circumstances ensued, including graduation from college, marriage, full-time employment at CBC, and gaining eldership approval for this new venture. On August 17, 1997, we launched what is now a thriving church in Centralia, WA. With just over 25 people from the community present on that first Sunday, we began to worship, celebrate and proclaim the breadth of our vision for Southwest Washington. I had a strong burden from the Lord that I was not only to pastor Life Center, I was to pastor our city.
Centralia was known for its low economic status and high divorce rate. The attitude we encountered regularly was, “Why Centralia?” It quickly became our passion to change that attitude. We received a word from the Lord that “money would never be a problem, and we would be used to raise the economic standard of the city.” We also believed that in time, we would turn the tide of marriages in our region. It was a large vision, but we knew we had a word, so our faith was strong.
The little group began to grow in numbers and in understanding of God’s purpose and vision for the local church and its part in this region. We preached about God’s plan for the body of Christ, His future return for a spotless bride, and the work of the five-fold ministry today. We established ourselves as an equipping house with a passion to REACH the hurting and the lost, RESTORE them by the washing of God’s Word, and RELEASE them to fulfill their God-given destiny.
In the first year, we purposed to make ourselves known to the area with name recognition. We advertised in the newspaper, prayer-walked every major neighborhood, and hung over 3,000 door hangers, offering prayer for any need that anyone had. We prayed regularly over the city and region in both our corporate services, and special early-morning prayer meetings, which were attended by nearly 1/2 of the church family.
Purpose-filled outreach was one thing we did and continue to do. Our first free oil change day for single mothers turned out to be a huge success. Over 40 moms were served lunch, kids enjoyed clowns & fire trucks, and cars were serviced by the people in the church. All supplies were donated from local businesses, and the church was able to experience hands-on community ministry for its first time collectively. This first major outreach took place within the first 12 months of the church’s birth. After that, these oil change days took place at least yearly.
One Sunday, while preaching through Ephesians and looking at the house of the Lord in Paul’s great epistle, we took a check for $2,000 (which for us was like $1,000,000) to another local church and presented it to them at the end of their service. The church clapped and shouted, and the leaders responded very well, believing God was truly up to something big in our area. The statement we were attempting to make was, “We want to work together as a team, and we will put our money where our mouth is.”
Our strategic outreach efforts have included neighborhood clean-up days, work on people’s homes, various community service projects, grocery drop-offs at holiday times, giving a significant contribution of finances to every local church building project that we’re aware of, leading community worship events that have drawn hundreds, and focusing on prayer for other churches during our corporate worship and prayer time every week.
Our philosophy of outreach is based in the parable of the sower. Scripture declares plainly that seed must be sown – that is the job of the one who has seed. We believe that in due season we will reap, so we must “sow now” what we hope to reap in the future. We have built a mindset in our church that every door-hanger is a seed, every dollar is a seed, every kind act is a seed, and every prayer is a seed. We are truly convinced that the church in the community will have significant impact in time, and we are daily seeing the fruit of this effort.
Over the years, our strategy has also been to meet different needs at different times. More recently, we’ve begun ministering to a different sub-culture within our city through Friday concert nights. We have seen hundreds come to hear various types of music in a concert venue we call “theRift.” This place is a safe place for teens to go one Friday a month and hear local Christian bands and ultimately find a message of hope and life. The concert year culminates with one large event called “Mountain Dew Float Fest” which draws hundreds from the Northwest to a day of music, gospel presentation, and free Mountain Dew Floats.
We have sought to address the problem of dysfunctional marriages and families in a variety of ways. We have formed marriage groups in the Life Center congregation we call “Couples Relationship & Accountability” groups. These groups meet weekly to discuss communication, conflict management, family values, etc., and are meeting an important need. We are also offering a variety of parenting classes for the community. One couple in particular is very gifted in this area. These classes are having a significant influence in our city, forming a new community standard for parenting and relationships.
Recently we networked with 15 area churches to host the “Celebrate the Family Rally.” An organization called Families Northwest partnered with us to conduct an outdoor worship and prayer rally focused on the sanctity of marriage. There were over 1,200 people from the area in attendance. An older man from the congregation and I are also teaching a class for fathers in our local college. The director of the Family & Parenting department of the community college visited our church and observed the relationships between parents and children and asked us to teach a parenting class for fathers. There has been a very positive response to our class.
Our future outreach plans include free music lessons for kids, after school tutoring programs, and a transitional shelter for the abused, battered, and drug addicted. Our vision is to meet the REAL needs of today’s families by “Building a family-friendly community relevant to the 21st century.”
The equipping ministry of the church continues to expand regionally as well. We have seen people coming from several surrounding communities. Many drive over ½ hour to be here multiple times each week.
Our strategy as a regional church is to develop satellite campuses in 6 surrounding communities. These locations will be focused on leading recovery groups, pastoral care ministry, and outreach ministry into various neighborhoods and communities. Sunday morning, we will continue to have a large hub of dynamic worship and word which meets together in one location, but all mid-week activity will take place in various locations around the region.
We’ve currently laid the groundwork for this by splitting up the region into six districts and appointing a prayer captain over each region. This person is equipped and responsible for praying for the people in that region, taking care of any prayer needs, and alerting others in that region to pray for any pertinent needs.
In phase two of our development, we will train care leaders who will serve the ministry and pastoral needs of each of those regions. Those leaders will begin to draw that region together for fellowship and prayer and outreach ministry. As that group grows, we will purchase buildings in those communities to house the ministries which focus on that community. These community centers will be called “The City of Refuge.”
After just seven short years, we can say we have seen dramatic change in the atmosphere of our community. The churches are more unified than ever before. The passion to reach the lost is very evident in many local churches. We are continually seeing economic growth with additional industry coming to the area every year. The Word of the Lord has been true to us – we have never lacked financially, and the economic standard of the city is changing.
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