How and Why We Are Restructuring

Right now is an exciting time of expansion at First Assembly Community Ministries in Lafayette, Indiana. Beyond the fact that we are getting ready to present our plans publicly for a new community center that will be located across the street from our present campus, our church’s “community ministries” focus is going to a new level.

During the past nearly four years, since our Children’s Ministries Director, Lisa Glaser, arrived, our Adventure Station Daycare has tripled in size from 67 children to over 200. This means that the

Lisa Glaser has been with us since 2011

number of employees, administration and management of the day to day operations has increased. On top of this, as was announced last month, we are partnering with Eastside Assembly of God, expanding our present offerings in child care in another part of our community, helping Eastside’s vision of reaching more families and helping people in the real needs they have. On top of this, the daycare will see significant expansion when the community center renovations happen, increasing our capacity to reach another 200 children every day. In other words, just in these three sites–our present church facility, Eastside, and the community center will mean we will be able to minister to nearly 500 children everyday in the next couple of years. Remember also that we believe the future for Adventure Station will include a west side site, near Purdue University.

All that expansion and vision on the horizon means that Lisa will need to be even more involved in administration of Adventure Station and her day-to-day focus will be on the outreach piece of First Assembly. Because of that, Lisa is transitioning to the position of “Outreach Pastor”. In this role, she’ll serve the church in the following ways:

Executive Director of Adventure Station
Pastoral and administrative oversight of our 3 largest community outreach events–Easter Eggstravaganza, Independence Day Celebration, and Jingle Jam. These three events bring roughly 10,000 people on to our campus each year and they need continued focus.
Connections Ministries on Sunday morning–this will include overseeing Connections, Greeters, First Look, and the Café. Along with this, Lisa will start to oversee and improve our assimilation efforts.
She will continue to be the pastoral connection to our “JC KIDS”–our community outreach to neighborhood children.
She will help us to keep outreach in front of our congregation as an important, critical piece of our spiritual identity.

Pastor Patrick Ringler

These developments mean that we are hiring a Children’s Pastor who will oversee and develop the ministry to children in Kidztown and Kidztown Jr. on Sunday mornings. For that role, I’m pleased to announce that we are hiring Pastor Patrick Ringler. Patrick is an ordained Assemblies of God minister with 12 years of experience serving on church staffs and recently served as Family Ministries Pastor at Northview Church, located in Lafayette. Patrick and his wife Kim have three daughters in our children’s ministry and both attended Trinity Bible College in Ellendale, North Dakota. Patrick is going focus exclusively on ministering to our children and their families through Kidztown and Kidztown, Jr. and is a great asset for our pastoral team and church.

Finally, in order to steward and develop the community center we

Pastor Wayne & Delight Peercy with
their daughters.

will be developing out of the old Payless grocery store and manage and maintain the rest of the 68,000 square feet and nearly 7 acres, as well as developing ministries in the renovated center once it is open, First Assembly Community Ministries is re-hiring Pastor Wayne Peercy. Wayne will not only make sure building and tenants are looked after, but he will organize volunteers who will work in the renovations and develop ministries that will reach out to our community through the new center. He’ll also arrange for plumbing repair service to keep the facility running smoothly.

Before the Peercy family moved to South Africa as missionaries with the Assemblies of God for the last 20 years, Wayne served the church as our children’s pastor for 10 years, during which time he developed First Assembly Recreational Ministries and opened First Assembly Christian Academy. Wayne and his wife Delight bring great skills and experience to our efforts to develop this ministry center and the programs that will reach the community. As a part of his role, Wayne will serve on our pastoral staff and be available for pastoral ministry to people at First Assembly. I am excited that this family is joining our team. They are fabulous, proven people!

Watch for introductions for the congregations on Sunday, February 15 for the Peercys and Sunday, February 22 for the Ringlers. Exciting things are happening as we move ahead!

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