| Word of Life / Morning Star Covenant |
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After over ninety years of ministry, the Word of Life Community Church (the site of our 2009 Annual Gathering) has decided to draw its active ministry to a close. As part of their discernment process, they decided that they wanted to accomplish several things. First, they wanted to get enough money to ensure the continued support of their mission commitments for several years, and second, they wanted to entrust the building to a church that would continue its stewardship as a place where mission and ministry to the Cully Neighborhood would continue. Because they were “selling” the property for pennies on the dollar, they had more than one congregation vying for the privilege of purchasing it. After a lengthy process, the congregation determined that Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church would be the congregation in which they would vest their trust. Since a fire destroyed their building four years ago, the congregation, led by Pastor A. Wayne Johnson, has continued to meet faithfully and planned to rebuild on the site of the original building. When that dream faded due to the costs involved in rebuilding, this opportunity presented itself. Providentially, Morning Star had been meeting mere blocks from their new home and has already had an impact on the area.
Morning Star has committed itself to using the property as a multicultural church-planting campus. There are already two other churches leasing space there, including a Vietnamese congregation. Morning Star hopes to plant two more, including a Spanish-speaking congregation, within the next two years.
Word of Life held their final worship service on Easter Sunday. At a joint service the next Sunday, the keys to the building were passed to Pastor Johnson and the covenant to be wise stewards of the property was formally restated. The two congregations celebrated communion together and several members of Word of Life indicated that they would be joining the Morning Star congregation.
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