Home
Living Springs Church Dedicates New Building
BRANDON, SD (August 25, 2005) - Having rented space in a local school for five
years with ministries spread throughout the community, members of Living
Springs Covenant Church were excited to dedicate their new building a
week ago Sunday.
"We were just scattered all over the place," says pastor Michael Brown.
The youth ministry, children's ministry and office space were each in
different locations. The church also rented two different storage spaces.
\
"We needed a tool so that we could do some of the ministry that God was
calling us to, and we had no place to do it," says Brown. He added that
the church was forced into finding another place by September because
the school district already had allowed the congregation to meet in the
facility longer than the three years that district policy allowed.
The new building is 12,000 square feet and nearly every inch is designed
for multiple uses, Brown says. "It's a very, very efficient building."
The sanctuary, which could squeeze in 350 people, is situated in the
carpeted gymnasium area. "They did a nice job of making it look like
it's not a gym," Brown says.
Despite the new building, the rapidly growing five-year-old church still
will have two services because it averages 400 in attendance, Brown
says. The church has been growing largely through new conversions, Brown
says. "Eighty-six people made commitments last year. We've had 35 so far
this year."
He estimates that 60 to 70 percent of attendees have no or little church
background. "Many of the people had attended church, but fell away when
they were younger and are coming back," he adds. "We've prayed that God
would open up a mission outreach for us," Brown says. "It's about people
bringing people."
Brandon is a rapidly growing bedroom community of Sioux Falls and is a
wide open mission field. "Only 20 percent of the population has a church
home," Brown says. Fueled in large part by the technology industry, "It
actually is one of the fast growing areas in the nation," Brown says.
"The median age is 28 and most are young professionals. Most of the
churches out here are old, established churches, that for whatever
reason have reached a plateau," Brown adds.
That is certainly not the case with Living Springs. Since the
congregation started meeting in its new building eight weeks ago, as
many as 100 guests have visited on a given Sunday.
Mark Stromberg, associate superintendent of the Northwest Conference of
the Evangelical Covenant Church, participated in the dedication service.
The building and land cost $1.8 million and National Covenant Properties
provided a loan to help with the purchase.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
