Salt Lake City Project
I remember sitting in the Salt Lake City airport last March staring east at the city. I was answering a few emails on my laptop, awaiting my flight back home to Portland, Oregon. For the most part, however, my mind was on church planting and the city. For some time both my wife Joy and I had known that God was growing in us a passion to plant a church. But if I am honest, as I stared at the sun reflecting off the downtown buildings that day, I really didn’t think it would be Salt Lake City. I even whispered a prayer to that effect, sort of telling God that if he wanted me there he would need to move powerfully.
No sooner were those words out of my mouth that God began to move in big ways. Even as I boarded the plane and began the flight home I felt my heart begin to turn towards Salt Lake City. The statistics became real. When I had first heard that only three percent of the state of Utah attends any type of a Christian Church on a Sunday, I winced, but I still heard just a number. As I sat on the plane I started to see those statistics as people, students, families, neighborhoods, as a city.
A lot of my life has been lived in Utah. I was born 45 minutes south of Salt Lake in Provo, Utah while my parents attended Brigham Young University. I grew up in rural eastern Nevada as member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or as many know it, the Mormon Church. As a Mormon family, and geographically speaking, Salt Lake City was our outlet to the world. It was where friends and family were often married in the Salt Lake Temple, where extended family lived, where the Mormon Church’s international headquarters were located, and it was the only place to find a Costco so my parents could by enough food to feed me and all my brothers and sisters!
So as God began to transform my heart towards Salt Lake City, he allowed me to see it differently. Not as a city that I had grown up with, but as a city that has been severely underserved by His church. My wife and I began to see Salt Lake City as the place that God would have us plant. The encouragement of the Orchard Group, our local church leaders, and countless affirming discussions with trusted voices, all have led us to prepare to make our move from the Pacific Northwest to Salt Lake City at the end of January, 2010.
This is not just a movement in my heart or Joy’s heart. Families and adults from our church here in Portland have stepped up to go with us. God has blessed us with a core group of folks who will make the move with us. As of right now that group totals 11 adults and 6 children.
Once we are there, Salt Lake City provides an exciting environment for a new church. As one of the least churched areas in the United States we have an incredible opportunity to worship, proclaim Jesus, serve the city, and develop relationships with folks who have little or no experience with Christ-followers. The valley itself boasts a very sad ratio of 4,000 people to every one church. That’s five times higher than the national average.
The New Testament shows us how the apostles lived church planting and evangelism. They traveled from city to city proclaiming Jesus and developing church communities in areas where the message of the Gospel had never been heard. Even though it is now thousands of years later, I see Salt Lake City as a similar endeavor. With God’s grace we have the awesome opportunity to simply be God’s people in a city that has rarely heard the radical message of Jesus Christ proclaimed and lived.
As we move to Salt Lake City, we look forward to watching God work in one of the most influential cities in the United States.
Kyle Costello, Lead Planter
Since 1948, Orchard Group has been almost exclusively focused on planting churches in New York and the Northeast. In recent years, we have been asked often by other ministries and local churches to help plant churches beyond our region. The opportunities that interest us most are in challenging, strategic, urban settings. Salt Lake City is definitely one of those places!
We will plant many more churches in New York and the Northeast. We are also experimenting with starting churches in places like Salt Lake City, Seattle, and maybe an international city or two. We believe this next season will result in some very healthy new churches in new places, and will help us to determine to what degree God is leading us to add “and beyond” to our mission for the future. Please pray with us, for the Salt Lake City Project, and that God will give us clarity as we seek his direction.
Click here to watch a video about the Salt Lake City Project
Brent Storms
President
Orchard Group