For a church that is still several months away from its launch Sunday, there’s a whole lot going on under the banner of Beavercreek Community Church. Ken and Anita Abell, church planters with the Great Lakes Conference of the Brethren in Christ Church, moved from Illinois to the Beavercreek area of southwest Ohio in December 2007, and it’s been non-stop activity ever since.

As Ken puts it, “We have a lot of hooks in the water,” including a colorful website, electronic billboards at a local bowling alley, and plans to be present at every community event during the coming months, from the Greene County Fair to the annual Popcorn Festival. The start-up church is partnering with Child Evangelism to bring five-day clubs to the region this summer. And the Beavercreek team is reaching out to entire families with a block-party barbeque.

Ken has joined the local Rotary Club. He’s talking with the Beavercreek Fire Department about a chaplaincy program. And he has picked up a spot as a monthly columnist with the Xenia Daily Gazette. (Check out a sample column.) And when he’s not writing, speaking, or running from one event to the next, he’s on the lookout for potential hosts for a small group ministry called GIG (Group Investigating God). 

In short, for Ken and Anita, along with their partners in ministry, Gary and Diane Warden, it is full steam ahead as they pray, work, plan, pray, and proceed with confidence toward 350 people in attendance at the November 9 launch service. They’ve drawn a ten-mile circle around Beavercreek, and they are trusting God that people’s hearts within that radius will be good soil to receive the seeds they scatter.

“Some may think me crazy, and there are days there would be little debate with me on that topic,” Ken writes. “However, we serve the God who spoke creation into existence. We serve the God whose purposes remain unchanged from the beginning of time as we know it. Our heavenly Father desires to be in relationship with people through His only Son, and that includes people in the Beavercreek area.”

Through your church’s participation in Cooperative Ministries, you have a part in what church planter Ken Abell refers to as “the Big Adventure” in the Beavercreek area of southwest Ohio. Thank you.