HISTORY
2023
2022
2021
2020
The ministry began by launching our Youth ministry “Submerged” on Wednesday, January 8th. It was a great night of connecting, worship and Adrian’s teaching with 20 youth in attendance at the inaugural service. Our annual business meeting took place January 26th with Bob Cartwright being commissioned by the Elders to serve as part of our Board of Directors (BOD). Bob joined Ron Harms, Sheila Berg and Dale Lawhorn. The budget was set at $158,390 for the year. The Elder initiatives presented were;
1.) Reaching/Building the Youth ministry 2.) Determining a permanent location 3.) Developing additional leadership within the church. Then February-April happened! A world-wide pandemic hit the United States. The Corona Virus (COVID-19) caused the cancellation of all groups larger than 10 people and often a mandated “stay at home order” was in place. Much of life as we had known it, had stopped. God continued to be faithful, with us and lead by his Holy Spirit, we took our services virtual for the 1st time for the entire world to see Jesus. Much of ordinary life and live ministry was put on hold for 3-4 months with closures, restrictions and “stay at home orders.” In all the up’s and downs of 2020, God was protecting the ministry and those calling Living Water home. Finances struggled in the early part of the year. However, God’s faithful people rebounded and God supplied all of our needs to provide for our staff payroll, rent and utilities. God provided us an abundance that we could once again pre-fund our 2021 mission funding and purchase the existing building we have been meeting in for the last 4 years. The word of God was consistently proclaimed and people in the congregation and community (and world) were challenged and strengthened by our teaching. God gets all the glory as we look forward to 2021!
2019
The church became 3 years old this year. The Elders have focused their best attention “internally” to strengthen and build the body of Christ through discipleship. With our first priority speaking the gospel, proclaiming sound doctrine and developing fully devoted followers of Christ. Additionally, equipping church staff, leadership and ministry team leaders has been central to the Elders attention and direction this year. The assembly is growing both in spiritual maturity and understanding through our weekend services and discipleship opportunities. Attendance for our weekend services (now 2 services) has also increased to a weekend average of 130. Our single service Christmas Eve attendance was a packed out house with standing room only with 163 people in attendance.
During our January annual meeting the church accepted the resignation of John Rimstidt from the BOD while adding Ron Harms to this board to serve in the leadership of the church. March 17th Wes Carr was announced before the congregation with the laying of hands by the Elders to serve as our next Worship Director effective April 1st. Wes, Cristal and Eden reside in the Rochelle area and we are pleased to have them as part of the Living Water ministry. Many thanks go out to Noah Stecker who volunteered to serve the Lord well in this ministry roll for the past year and a half. He announced earlier, this spring he would be attending college in California. April 20th we launched our first 5:00pm Saturday night identical service. On Aug 4th Dale Lawhorn was commissioned by the Elders to serve on the board of directors (BOD) along with Ron Harms, President and Sheila Berg, Treasurer. November 1st Adrian Daugherty was brought before the congregation with the laying on of hands of the Elders and added to our part-time staff to lead our High school and Middle school youth ministry. Adrian and his wife Miranda live in Dixon and will launch “Submerged” in January of 2020. Once again, financially the Lord provided the ministry of Living Water with a year-end abundance and our income outpaced our expenses.
2018
With the church becoming 2 years old this year, much is happening in the way of ministry. Some have received Christ as savior and many are finding themselves growing in their faith throughout this year of ministry. The weekly attendance has increased to 90 to 100 regular attenders each weekend. God is multiplying and bringing the increase as the Elders are praying/serving hard to stay up with what God is doing but not get ahead of Him. During our annual meeting we increased Pastor Bobby’s hours to 30 and Mandy Barnes as Office Manager to 20. Additionally, as part of our Elder initiatives for the year the church made 2 large financial commitments with God’s resources to: 1st) Investing in a 4th building location to provide our Community Care Center with a more visible, centralized location to better serve/reach people for Christ within our community. This new location is located at 1135 Lincoln Hwy and Lisa Smith continues as our ministry team leader on the front lines of serving these needs. Along with our Compassion ministry team led by Rich Smith they complement one another by serving from the same location those individuals/families hurting and facing physical, financial & spiritual hardships. 2nd) The church launched a local, regional and global missions outreach ministry. Angie Montes serves as our 1st Missions team leader and we now find our church is involved in carrying the gospel worldwide. Both are exciting ministries, with several from the congregation serving on these ministry teams. In the Spring Alex Hauck resigned from the Board of Directors leaving us with two (John & Sheila) continuing on this board. Through the Summer and into the early Fall, the Elders worked through a process to enhance our small group ministry by adding opportunities for teaching, discipleship and relationship building to the congregation by establishing “Life Groups” and “Workshops.” These opportunities have been successful and continue to build momentum in equipping and connecting the body of Christ. On November 19, 2018 we added our 6th Elder to the team when Brent Braski was commissioned by the Elders to serve in the leadership of the church. Brent currently oversees the Tech Team and Life Groups ministries. Financial budgets were exceeded with surplus being invested right back into the ministry with all the glory going to God! We continue to focus the ministry on building the kingdom by reaching our neighborhood, community and world for Jesus Christ and teaching all believers to walk in full devotion to Christ for the glory of God.
2017
The work of Living Water Community Church has flourished in 2017. The Lord has blessed the ministry in many ways this year. It started on February 1, 2017 with God calling one of our Elders to part-time Pastoral ministry responsibilities in Bobby Gardner. Bobby carries 50% of the weekend speaking duties and he and his wife Megan have been a total blessing to the ministry. An additional layer of leadership was put in place in March with the Elders appointing the church’s first Board of Directors (Deacons). They oversee the business, financial and building needs of the church. They also serve as the corporate officers as follows: John Rimstidt- President, Sheila Berg- Treasurer and Alex Hauck- Secretary. As the Fall arrived, so did the hiring of our first part-time (10 hour per week) office manager in Amanda Barnes. Mandy has also been a huge administrative asset. This full year of ministry has been a year of growth in every area of the church. Nursery, Toddlers, Children, Middle School, High School, College and Adults all have grown physically & spiritually. Additionally, we have increased the focus to teach/disciple all areas of ministry to compensate. Our 80% full capacity number is 130 regular attenders, we are monitoring this very closely to determine the need to offer a second service option in the future. Our 2017 budget was set at $88,872 and the congregation more than exceeded this all for the glory of God. We continue to focus the ministry on building the kingdom by reaching our neighborhood and community for Jesus Christ and teaching all believers to walk in full devotion to Christ for the glory of God.
2016
In the Spring of 2016 the church held several organizational meetings to determine the interest in planting an Acts 2 church in downtown Rochelle. A small group of 20 to 25 people gathered for several meetings in prayer and discussion before undertaking this new work. Following earnest prayer and confirmation from the Lord, the new work was launched on March 22, 2016. The original Elders included; David Johnson, Joe Meadows, Curt Samo & Mike Vogeler. A downtown storefront located at 405 N. Main St was selected and unanimously approved by the Rochelle City council, allowing a 2 year temporary usage permit as a “house of worship” and the renovations began on May 9, 2016. The church received its federal 501c3 charitable tax exempt status on June 14, 2016. And the State of Illinois sales tax exemption status on September 9, 2016. Following the adding of Bobby Gardner as the 5th Elder and a summer of meetings at Paddock Hall inside the Hickory Grove Civic Center meeting on the “odd” Sunday’s of the month, the church finished the renovations at 405 N. Main St. and prepared for its first service. After receiving a verbal occupancy permit approval, the church held its first service in the new location on October 9, 2016 with 80 people in attendance. Two months later, the church began meeting WEEKLY for worship and ministry. The Lord has blessed and increased the work by adding numbers to His kingdom and renting two additional storefronts for use to conduct children’s ministry through “Splash.”