After five weeks of church services, Life Community Church is focused on bringing all ages of the family to the Word of God.
Life Community Church will officially launch their church programming in the fall, although they already hold services at 1204 East Oak across the street from FitTek on 10 a.m. on Sunday mornings.
While many church planters spend years praying about and gathering support for a church, Jeff and Christine Augustine just started with a post on Facebook to study Revelations and Daniel on Sunday and Thursday night in their home with friends.
With too many people to fit in their home, the Augustine’s decided to look into other facilities in Mahomet which could host their study groups. The couple prayed for a building in Mahomet, round tables and chairs.
“We were kind of laughing at the round table and chairs,” Jeff said.
Three days later, they found a home for their Bible study which had round tables and chairs already available for use.
The Augustine’s, who were part of mega-churches for 16 years, just wanted a smaller, friendlier environment where their children can fellowship with their peers or adults who have been Christians for many years.
With a large Bible study group who were interested in the same thing, they decided to hold Sunday services, build a children’s program and launch Life Community Church.
“It’s just grown and grown,” Jeff said. “This is humbling because we weren’t planning this. It looks like God is planting a church here.”
Jeff has been in the ministry as a pastor and a teacher since 1990.
“We are literally going week to week just trying to catch our breath,” Christine said. “About two years ago, the Lord gave me a passion to create family-centered disciplining, where kids are grounded in the Word.”
Life Community Church seeks to create opportunities where the family unit and church congregation can serve the community together and study scripture while not taking away from the limited time families do have together at home.
“We are doing ministry with people we love,” Christine said. ”We can’t wait to run to church, and get to hang out with these people, and see our kids be around amazing people. To just see God providing in so many ways, we are blown away.”
They hope to create a Bible study where families can come to the church together, study the same subject at an age-appropriate level, and then discuss it later.
“We want to create an environment where the church serves and equips the family, instead of the family serving the church,” Christine said.
With many middle school and high school students coming to church, they’d like to start a teenage program on Wednesday nights starting in the fall.
“With the consumer culture we have, it’s so easy to look at how we’re entertaining the kids,” Christine said. “Our passion is to simply that, and looking at how we equip them to stand firm and not waiver. We want people to not only experience God, but also know Him.”
The ministry of Life Community Church focuses on the whole Word of God while equipping the congregation to dissect and talk about the scripture themselves. While focusing on scripture, they also want experience the gifts of the Spirit and singing praises to God rather than songs about Him.
“Worship is a time of intimacy,” Jeff said. “As a Christian, I want to have a relationship with God.”
As a man who wasn’t saved until he was 25, Jeff said people are not only hungry to learn what the Bible actually says, they are also wanting a pastor who is real and authentic in his or her human nature.
He said there is also a desire for churches which provide tradition with communion, but also a laid back attitude where people feel comfortable or at home. Life Community Church has been serving communion every week.
For the Augustines, church is a place where they can foster learning as a family, but where church is also an extension of their family.
Life Community Church’s motto is, “a place to call home.”
“In our culture, we have been disillusioned to what family is,” Christine said. “We’re not saying the traditional family, but having people who will embrace our kids with the knowledge they’ve been given.”
Those close relationships are what Life Community Church is being built on.
“We are passionate about having loving relationships,” Christine said. “We want to teach people to love like Christ did, as much as possible. And do family life as much as possible.”
