|
About Us »
»
»
»
In 1999, Northwest Community Church in Phoenix introduced a vision for planting 20 new churches by the year 2010. As part of this vision, the elders of NCC affirmed John and Caryn Amandola as church planters in the spring of 2002, with the call to launch a new church from NCC in the fast growing area of north Peoria. John and Caryn then recruited three other couples to form the core team: Skip and Laurie Ast, Joe and Carol Tuerff and Ross and Tracey Bentley. They spent the spring and summer making plans and sharing their vision with others.
On September 8th, 2002, Lake Pleasant Community Church held its first service with approximately 55 people from NCC. However, John had a terrible case of the flu and was not even present at our first service! This set the tone of this church from the very beginning: it is all about Him, and not about us!
 |
|
 |
| The Elders of Northwest Community commissioning John and Caryn as church planters, Spring 2001. |
|
The Elders of Lake Pleasant commissioning Dave and Skip as new church planters, Winter 2004. |
After only a year of existence, God led us to step out and begin plans to plant a new church from our midst in the fast growing area of Surprise, AZ. Our rally cry was “We want to be in a place where if God does not show up, we will fail!” So, we set aside two elders as church planters: Skip Ast and his wife Laurie, and Dave Magelssen and his wife Diana. Then, on Easter 2004, we sent out 1/3rd of our congregation to launch our first church plant, West Valley Bible Church! God has blessed both churches tremendously and we are filled with awe at the work of His hand among us.
God has since given us a vision to be the most significant spiritual blessing to the Peoria High School district. Therefore, we began to develop a relationship with the high school administration by serving them anyway we could – with no strings attached. So far, we have helped them move in to a new school, provided sound reinforcement for several assemblies, provided vision and hearing screening for incoming freshmen, welcomed freshmen and handed out schedules to them on the first day of school, volunteered at concession stands at football games, distributed caps and gowns to graduating seniors, cleaned up the campus and more. We are praying that God would give us land near Liberty High School so that we can be more effective in serving the students, faculty and families of that school, representing to them the light of Christ in us.
|
|
