St. Michael
Lutheran Church
Virginia Beach,
Virginia.
Pastor John Himes
St. Michael Lutheran Church,
Virginia Beach, Virginia, has come alive. After years of struggling
just to stay open, the congregation now struggles to deal with an
expanding membership!
In 2001, when the average worship attendance was 100 and annual
income was $100,000, a group of lay leaders attended a
transformational ministry event. They wanted to stop looking inward,
just paying the bills, and to start looking outward.
Unbelievable things happened.
Average worship attendance rose to 350, giving went up 300 percent.
They built a $200,000 youth ministries facility and an outdoor
ministry structure. Parking was expanded, they called an associate
pastor, and are now considering tripling the size of the current
building.
For a congregation that was about to shut down, this is huge! And
they give the credit to Christ-centered living that began with
prayer.
“We
have truly embraced God’s call to all nations, all people,” says
Pastor John Himes. When you worship here, there are a wide variety
of traditions. Many people that don’t have a church background are
going through the stages of what discipleship and being a Christian
actually means.”
The average age at St. Michael is less than 30. There are a lot of
young families and it’s not uncommon for 30 to 40 kids to come
forward for the children’s moment during the service. Last year 13
new babies were born into the church and there are 200 kids
attending Sunday school. The congregation benefits from all this
energy and at the same time it provides great challenges.
Church members are living and sharing the good news with friends and
neighbors and reaching out to help with social ministry needs. The
congregation held a fundraiser to pay $20,000 towards uncovered
medication for a young man in the community who needed a kidney
transplant. They’ve started working with homeless shelters locally
and with world hunger projects. Some 17 percent of income is
disbursed outside the congregation.
“It’s like being launched off an aircraft carrier and I’m sitting in
the back seat praying that God continues to guide this ship,” says
Himes.
