My Ministry
The main objective of our ministry is to develop disciples. In the past, many have divided evangelism and discipleship. We see it as one long discipleship process. We begin by discovering who God is bringing into our path. He has already begun to work on their hearts. He invites us to participate in their development; whether he or she is a not-yet-Christian, a Christian without a faith family, or one who is looking for a faith family that practices the Christian lifestyle in a different way.
We invest time and resources into those who are thirsty for Him. We develop disciples as Jesus did, teaching, through life experiences and evaluation. This includes taking others with us wherever we go and asking God to show us what He has for us to learn that day and that He would bring other people and situations in our path that helps the disciple experience the lesson. This may include a trip to the store, a walk in the neighborhood, or another person in need.
Where I Serve
The City of Portage, IN, and parts of Porter and Lake Counties
How We Make Disciples
THE WELL
God called us from our previous ministry of pastoring a church in Decatur, IN, to plant a congregation called The Well, A Christian Community. We launched The Well September 25, 2015. God shared with us, “not to do church the like everyone else and expect different results.” He had something different in mind. He guided us to do what is commonly known today as a “house church.” So, we tell people:
We are The Well, A Christian Community who gathers together and functions as modeled by the first-century followers of Christ.
As modeled by the first-century community, we do not have a pastor. We have elders and deacons. No one gets paid. We meet at our home every Saturday evening. Worship begins at 5 pm with the Agape Meal and Lord’s Supper. We then continue to worship in our family room. The worship experience is one of participation as everyone is a child of God and has the availability to hear from God. Jesus is the head of our body, and He guides the evening. In addition to the meal, we pray, share moments where God used us to reach another person, breakout in song, and share a lesson through Bible storytelling where we then talk about the observations of what God has independently put in our hearts, how we are to put this into action in our lives and to pray asking Him to help us achieve our learning.
God has brought to us those who are homeless, underemployed, and unemployed. We’ve had some who have physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges in their lives. It has been a full-time job working with these people to give them a “hand up” not a “hand out.” We’ve had people living in our house and other members to help them be reconnected with society and with God.
We’ve helped people like Monica. She was sleeping in her car at Walmart. Due to medical issues, she couldn’t get a job. At the time, she had no form of income, no social security, no benefits, nothing. She stayed in our home for almost two years as we helped her get to the point where she could receive social security, county benefits, set up a bank account, and eventually have an apartment of her own. She’s now involved in a community center three days a week.
In addition, we hope to multiply Christian Communities throughout the area and abroad. Using this model, those who become elders and deacons in their communities will still work their regular jobs. For us, however, in addition to planting The Well, our goal is to develop an informal network of prospective first-century communities through training and development. Between this and our additional community efforts is the reason why we became national missionaries in the U.S.
IMN
I (Kevin) serve as the chaplain for the IMN Board of Directors. In this role, I not only provide pray and devotions at the board meetings, but I also keep in contact with other IMN missionaries and pray for them and their needs. I’ve also served as a guest speaker at an annual IMN Conference in Guatemala on the subject of Disciple Making.
I’ve also represented IMN at the regional Homeschooling Conferences across the country, promoting the opportunities and advantages of homeschooling and family mission trips.
We (Laura and Kevin) are also working with the community members of The Well, in planning a community mission trip anticipated sometime after the Coronavirus is calmed and national borders reopen.
CHRISTIAN BOOK CLUB OF PORTAGE
This year just before the Coronavirus Epidemic, I (Kevin) started the Christian Book Club of Portage in order to get Christians within the area to begin reading and talking about topics that aren’t often spoken about in church, and the Christian worldview from a scriptural perspective stripped down from denominational or traditional teachings.
Due to the stay-at-home mandate, we moved our in-person meetings to online meetings until recently. The group meets twice a month for discussion.
The first book we’re reading
The first book we’re reading is entitled, Insurgence: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom by Frank Viola. The material of this book has tested and questioned our convictions about our faith, helped us to think about theology and practices from differing points of view, and has helped us to see how to impact our community from a point of unity. As “one” church in our area and not many churches. This has created an opportunity for the development of fellowship and “iron sharpens iron” approach in our discipleship making.
FAMILY PROMISE
God has called on The Well to join with another local area church, The House of Prayer, in providing lodging and meals to families who are experiencing homelessness through the organization, Family Promise. Family Promise provides tools to help families get back on their feet in areas such as housing, employment, and computer skills. One difference about Family Promise is that at the end of the day instead of sending the fathers to the men’s shelter and the mothers and children to another shelter, Family Promise, with the help of area churches, keeps the family together and houses them in one location, as a family. This also gives us the opportunity to speak about Christ and the effects of living life from a Christian perspective.
Our Newsletters
COMING SOON
