Life Church

Our History

From meeting needs, to walking the path of Life together.

Life Church’s start was rather non-traditional.  We didn’t begin because people had a plan to start a church.  But we began because of a process that started in a bar.  While it is true that most churches don’t start in a bar, we believe that God can work in very interesting ways.

The story begins with a family… Chris and Lori Waltman had been domestic missionaries who have been involved in reaching out into the community for over 25 years when Life Church began.  Chris came from a background of sports and was a Dallas Cowboy.  After pro-football, he and Lori became part of a ministry to pro-athletes and their wives, and in 1991 they started a community outreach ministry called Discovery Leadership.

As a ministry family, Chris and Lori’s three sons, Nathan, Stephen, and Jason had grown up in an environment of seeing and participating in touching people’s lives.  When Life Church emerged, they were working together in a part of the ministry that involves sports, and more specifically… softball.

A local bar owner wanted to participate in a softball league, but they were short of the funds necessary.  Chris told him that as a non-profit organization they help people all the time, and on what seemed to be a whim, he asked for a favor.  “Would you consider inviting your friends to come to your bar on a Sunday morning to talk about: problems they had with churches, why they may be mad at Christians, and questions they had about who God really is?”

Surprisingly, he agreed.  Even more surprising was that many people showed up (probably to see who this strange family was).  Not only did they want to get together again, but more people came the next week… and they wanted to continue to meet.  As a result of meeting needs in the group, they wanted to help meet needs of others in the community.  One of the first things that they did together was to provide free dinners and lunches in the community.

This group went from gathering together in a bar, to an apartment lobby, to a health club and are now currently meeting at Monroe High School.  In 2013 this group of friends took the name Life Church.

The intent wasn’t to start a church, but it became obvious that it was Gods intent to do so.

What has risen up is a different kind of church that isn’t about going to a place… but coming along on a path.  So our success isn’t around big budgets, buildings, or programs.  Our goals are around a mission… of people helping people onto Gods path of relationship and walking together with them. So together, we are bringing “Life” into living!

Our Beliefs

Guiding our path together

Life Church is a Christian church.  We follow Jesus, we teach the Bible, and we worship God as the creator and ruler of the universe.  Through our relationship with Christ, we are rescued, renewed, transformed, and fully loved.  We not only believe that Jesus claimed to be God, and said that He is The Way, The Truth, and The Life… we believe Him to be our way, our truth and our life.  It’s our passion to share Jesus with all those who are open to meeting Him.  The following is a summary of thoughts about our path together.

A.  We believe in the value of all people.

B.  We believe in the potential of all people.

C.  We believe ones extreme value, and full potential are only realized in and through a relationship with God.  This relationship isn’t about a distant God watching to see if we will mess up. This relationship is about an intimate God who is the source and center of Life. Only with Him can we experience real Life.

D.  We believe that this relationship isn’t something to be ignorant about because God has revealed this life connection with Him in the  1. The Bible- so we can understand  2. God,  3. man, and 4. the Church.

1.  The Bible:  God has revealed Himself through the scriptures. What is written is a revelation from God… of God. It was penned by human authors under the divine inspiration of God.  The Bible we have today contains 66 books, written by 40 different people, on 3 different continents, over a 1500 year span. The Bible contains history, poetry, prophesy, letters… yet it fits together in unity because God is the one author, with one story from beginning to end.   Through His word, God has revealed a path of relationship… a great adventure that is bigger than any of our individual lives.  This story is what God has invited us into.

2.  God:  God has revealed that He is The Father, The Son (Jesus), and The Holy Spirit.  He is one God in three persons- eternally existing in completeness of love and communion.  So we can see that God is not just about relationships – God is relationship… a perfect community of love within Himself.  It is this God who has invited us into “Life” with Him.

3.  Man:  God has revealed that we were created for “Life” with Him… both to experience now and into eternity.  But man has chosen “death” … a self directed path that separates us from God and real Life.  Yet in spite of us being on the wrong path, He is inviting “whoever will come” onto His path of Life… into this relationship of love and communion with Him.

To understand this, we need to see the bigger picture.  God has created us, the highest of His creation, for an eternal purpose…  for God to be known and share Life with His people in what could be understood as “marriage”.  But He knew that if the richness of this type of relationship was to be real, it couldn’t be forced…it must be chosen.  That’s why He gave us free will.  He gave us the gift of choice so love could be real.

So before He even created us, Gods plan was to win our hearts by demonstrating the kind of love that was real.  He knew that He would lower Himself to the level of His creation by becoming a man Himself in the person of Jesus.

In the beginning of time, when man first turned from God, the Bible began to speak of Jesus. (Jesus means savior, Christ means messiah) Throughout the Old Testament He is the one they were looking forward to.  Now, we can see that Jesus is our picture of “God in the flesh”… in whom we can see the fullness of Gods mercy, grace and love.

Because man chose to turn from God, the consequence of not being connected with Him (“sin”) is “death”.  What Jesus did was to show the extent of His love, in that while we were separated from God, He died for us.  And although we all deserve to be separated from Him/ from Life- forever, Jesus took this death sentence for us.

For us today, if we see Jesus for who He is, and trust Him for what He has done… it is like a door of our hearts opens up to Him, and His Spirit connects with our spirit.  The Bible speaks of this as the new birth… or being “born again”.  His Spirit now dwells in the heart of the believer, and God Himself begins to relate within this relationship.

We can see that Jesus has become our provision to take care of our “sin” through dying the death we deserved, and our picture of the loving God who has invited us into eternal relationship with Himself.  In this relationship, the power of sin is gone, and soon the presence of sin will be gone when He returns for us, His “beloved” Church.

4.  Church:  God has revealed that He has a people on earth who are living by faith, and are free to grow more in love with Him each day.  These people are called The Church.  The Bible sometimes refers to the Church as “the bride of Christ”, or “the body of Christ”.  Those who make up this body are called to function together through the leading of: 1. God,  2. Gods word,  and 3. the “gifts” He has given His people.

This functioning together is about helping others see what is real… to be the “salt and light” that reveals: 1. the reality of God,  2. the reality of living in relationship with Him, and 3. the reality of our unbelievable eternal future together.

The Church is on a journey.  We remember the past, we live in the present… but we are people of the future.  We are pilgrims on this path of relationship, that is taking us towards our next phase of life with Him.  It is like we are camping, and soon will be at home.  In this future, we will have restored and renewed bodies, living on this restored and renewed earth… with all sorts of fun, with those we love, and our God, the “Bridegroom” –who will amaze us forever!

E.  We believe that unity can become strong within diversity.  We differ from many churches in that while we strongly affirm the clear teaching of the Bible, we  believe God has allowed believers the personal freedom to have varying interpretations on issues that do not define Christianity, or are not clearly presented in Scripture.

These issues may be vigorously debated in love, but are not to cause division of connection together as a “body”… We welcome opinions of a wide variety of peripheral issues.  Our approach is:  1. In essentials- unity,  2. In non-essentials- liberty, and  3. In all things honoring people where they are at.

F.  We believe that God is leading us to become Life-givers.  But many Christians know what it is to be a life-takers… and we see the results in relationships around us.

Another way to view this is to say that there are consumers and there are investors.  Consumers approach life as sort of a “crap shoot”.  They are led by their wishes… how they feel, what they think will make them happy.  The way they live is kind of like a “roll of the dice” because they lack vision and focus.  Because life is about them, relationships aren’t what they could be… and this becomes evident in homes, workplaces, and even churches.

Someone with an investor mentality is one who sees that Life is not about them… but life is bigger than them, and in fact- their life can have an eternal impact on the lives of others.  When there is a shift in mindset to seeing oneself as an investor, the functioning in relationships becomes about responding with God to be His conduit of Life into the lives of others.

An investor is intentional about bringing Life into relationships in the church and outside of the church. One with an investor mentality looks at oneself in terms of, “What does it mean for me to be the best spouse, parent, team member… etc.- that God wants me to be?”

Becoming a Life-Giver, who invests in the lives of others, is what lays the foundation to our approach with “leadership”.

Leadership

“Leadership Is For Everyone” (LIFE)

When many people hear the term “leadership”, they think of the few people who have position or authority.  When we are talking about leadership, we are talking about a person’s influence and relationships…  Everyone has influence within relationships.

Leadership is a term we can use synonymously with Life-Giving.  Our mission is about helping people invest in people.  So our desire is for everyone on Gods path of Life to see that this path is also about leadership… bringing Life into relationships.  Success for us can be seen in terms of the next person who is willing to reach out to a family member, friend, neighbor, co-worker, or acquaintance – and help them to walk this path with us.

Relationships are about leadership… Leadership is about Life… Life is about God… Life Church is about people helping people to walk this path with God and us.

Who we are becoming

A family of friends on a great adventure

Our vision is to see a vibrant “community of Life” that is intentional about knowing God and making Him known.

It is our desire is to see each person focus their life to know God in an overflowing way that transforms their world.  Together… we make God known as we intentionally allow His Life to flow from one person to the next, one family to the next, and one community to the next.

Friends Serving Friends

There’s a place on the team for you.

We don’t want to operate like a business or to look religious in the things we do.  But we do want to function together as a “body”, or as what we see as a team… of friends serving friends.

Within any group of friends there are those who take certain responsibilities within the relationships.  We have a growing number of friends who have stepped up to help us connect more easily and grow together more intentionally.  Below is a list of people on the team who help facilitate our connections together and are looking for people to get involved.  We are excited for people to get “plugged in”.  There are many more places where you can make a difference with this team called Life Church… please ask!

Statement of Faith

Fundamental Doctrine

1.  We believe in one sovereign God, Creator of all things,[1]  existing and made known to us as three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.[2]  Thus God is in one sense “one”—yet He is, in a different sense, “three.”  The traditional terminology speaks of God being “one in essence, three in person.”  While the terminology, or the term “Trinity” are not found in the Bible, we find no reason to object to it.  A clear explanation of these facts are not granted to us in the Bible, probably because we cannot  fully comprehend this with our finite minds.[3]

2.  We believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Word made flesh,[4]  and is thus uniquely the Son of God,[5]  born of the virgin Mary.[6]  He is the Messiah, or Christ, predicted in the Hebrew scriptures.[7]  He lived a life free of sin,[8]  which qualified Him to give Himself in man’s place, an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.[9]  This He did when He died on the cross,[10]  after which He arose bodily  from the grave, appeared to many alive again, and ascended into heaven to be enthroned at the right hand of God the Father.[11]

3.   We believe that the gospel of the kingdom of God[12]  is the happy message that God has made Christ to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords.[13]  Through faith in Him,[14]  by virtue of the atoning merits of His blood,[15]  sinners may be reconciled to God.[16]  Through the power of His resurrection, justified sinners experience regeneration[17] and translation into His kingdom,[18]  where they enjoy righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.[19]  Regeneration also involves the granting of the Holy Spirit to dwell in, to guide and to empower the believer.[20]

4.  We believe that the believer in Christ is called to be a disciple,[21]  that is, a learner and follower of Christ.[22] Discipleship involves obedience to the commands of Christ,[23]  resulting ultimately, through the inward working of the Holy Spirit, in personal transformation of the disciple into the image and likeness of the Master.[24]

5.  We believe that the Jewish and Christian scriptures of the Old and New Testament are given by inspiration of God, and are thus, when properly understood and applied, profitable and authoritative to the disciple in all matters pertaining to life and godliness.[25]

6.  We believe in the unity of the whole  church of the living God,[26]  which is God’s family,[27]  Christ’s Body[28]  and the Holy Spirit’s habitation[29]  among men. We believe that we should receive as brethren all who sincerely embrace Christ as Lord.[30]  We believe there is no valid reason to divide the church institutionally into separate fellowships defined by differences in particular theological convictions, much less by loyalties to men or systems of thought.[31]  We believe that to define the fellowship of the saints more narrowly than God does is missing the mark.[32]

7.  We believe that, at the end of the age, Christ will physically and personally return to judge the living and the dead.[33]  We believe that the dead will be raised and the living saints caught up to meet the Lord at His coming.[34]  Those who are Christ’s at His coming will be granted eternal life,[35]  while those not found written in the book of life shall be cast into the lake of fire.[36]