Our History
In 2002 Pastor Doug and his wife Kim started to sense a calling from God to do something to reach people in their neighborhood and their kid's schools. They prayed but God didn't open any doors at that time, so they waited. In 2003 two major
events happened in Pastor Doug and Kim's lives that pushed them to do something. First, their youngest daughter came home from church one day and said, "I thought that you said you needed to believe in Jesus to be saved." They said, "Yes you do." Their daughter replied, "Then why did my teacher say all you have to do is believe that there is a God?" The second event was when they were asked to join a small group at their church, which they did. By the end of the small group Pastor Doug was basically the group leader. Both Kim and Pastor Doug were amazed at how hungry and uninformed the people in their small group were about the Bible.
In 2004, Pastor Doug was coaching softball with another Pastor who had some of the same concerns for his daughter and reaching the community. So they started a house church for their families. It was called "House to House" and their first service was on Labor Day weekend 2004 on a speed boat. They met from September 2004 to April 2005, but not one family came and joined the church. In fact, only 3 families visited. Pastor
Doug realized that having people come to a home for Sunday morning church was very difficult for the families in their community. Though the church was meeting the needs of the two families God was calling them to do something more. So, Pastor Doug and Kim prayed for what to do next.
Having already planted one church, Pastor Doug wanted this church to be started in a different way than how he was trained. He didn't want the big "kick-off" grand opening, he didn't want to have to come up with a business plan, or to recruit a group of people to join him. Pastor Doug wasn't just a senior pastor this time, he still held a full time job. So he decided to move to a more public place and simply prayed that God would send whoever He wanted to send and the church would be whatever God wanted the church to be. So in May 2005 the church held it's first service in a public place, Keystone Schools, and people came. By August the church had a new name, LifeWater Community Church, based on the story of the woman at the well in John 4.
We continued with our mission of helping each family find and fully follow Christ. People were coming to know the Lord, being baptized, and growing in their faith. God was moving. By November of 2007 we had outgrown our facility and we decided to look for
one of three options: a rental space big enough for the church to meet in, a piece of property/building that could be donated, or buy a piece of property/building. Regardless, we knew it had to be done within a couple miles of where we were currently meeting. God was moving.
We were not very successful in finding a place to go. So, we did a couple of things: 1) we asked the person who owned the building we were meeting in if he was interested in selling or donating the building to us and 2.) one of our board members had an idea to send a letter out to all the churches located in the southwest area to see if any were closing or moving. How do you write a letter like that? I couldn't do it. So I prayed. God was moving.
Finally, in February 2008 God gave me the words and I wrote a letter and sent it out to most of the southwest area churches. I remember standing by the mailbox praying, “God do something with this letter. Lead us to where we are to go next.” I got a call the very next week from a local church saying that they received our letter and they would look for us. I thanked God for that encouraging call. I knew God was moving.
A couple of weeks later I got a call from an Elder of Liberty Hills Church. He asked me many questions. He told me that the church was strug
gling and they currently had no pastor. I told him that I would be happy to help them to restart their church because I believe in the Kingdom of God and in the church. God was moving even though at the time I wasn’t sure which direction He was moving.
A couple of weeks after thatthe elder called me again and asked for a meeting with our elders as well as Liberty Hill’s elders. We met with the elders and they asked many questions about what we believed and how we did things. Towards the end of the meeting, they asked if we would consider them joining us. Praise God prayers were being answered. I later found out that prior to Liberty Hills Church receiving my letter there was a suggestion by one of the members that maybe the church should consider merging with someone. I was awe struck at how God worked out His plan. We were able to help a dying church, increase our meeting space and we relocated only 1.3 miles from where we were currently meeting. God was moving.
We spent the summer discussing, spending time together, and on August 17th both congregations voted to accept the donation of the church and accept the members of Liberty Hills into the fellowship of LifeWater Community Church. What a miracle. We couldn’t have dreamed it any better. Since moving into the church, we have done significant updates and continue to build relationships between the congregations so that there is no longer a distinction between the two churches. We are now brothers and sisters in Christ. God continues to bless us as we continue to faithfully serve Him. We must never forget this awesome miracle by such an awesome God. It’s exciting to see what God has next for us.
