Editor’s update: Read about Reedley MB Church’s 2024 trip to help with Lakeview’s VBS by clicking here. (Updated July 19, 2024)
Lakeview Church, with campuses in Stansbury Park and Grantsville, Utah, is a place in which to invest and be invested in. For three MB churches—Community Bible Church in Olathe, Kan., Mountain View Church in Fresno, California, and Reedley (California) MB Church—partnerships with Lakeview are more than week-long mission trips, and the mutual investment continues to grow throughout the year.
In 2018, Phil Wiebe, lead pastor at Lakeview Church, started looking for partner churches for the church he was planting in Stansbury Park, Utah, an area with a large LDS population. At the 2018 National Convention in Salt Lake City, he connected with Community Bible (CBC) leaders, and they shared ideas of how the churches could work together to reach the most people.
“Our Stansbury Park campus opened in Easter 2019, and that summer Community Bible Church came for their first trip to help us work on the building and outreach to our area as well as within our church that is composed of mainly new or young believers,” Wiebe says. “It showed us the power of mature believers speaking into the lives of younger ones and the encouragement another church can really make.”
From there, Wiebe continued to reach out to MB churches across the country, including Reedley MB Church and Mountain View Church. Soon, the two churches also began sending groups to Lakeview Church in the summer, which has helped build relationships and outreach opportunities, Wiebe says. All three churches intend to send teams to Utah in 2024.
Generous givers
“It seems like every year we start something different when it comes to outreach,” Wiebe says. “Every year, we have work on our buildings, which are like the battleships that take a lot during the year, but we also send teams into the community to host kids’ camp, which is like VBS, host block parties, help with a church-wide campout where we get to hear and share testimonies and serving at a nonprofit. The teams that come are always generous givers when it comes to service, and they encourage us at Lakeview to have fresh ambition to press on for another year.”
While serving at Lakeview Church, groups are welcomed and hosted in the homes of Lakeview members. Wiebe says that the diverse ages and backgrounds of those serving opens a gateway for conversations with a variety of people in the area and creates a way for mature believers to speak into the lives of younger ones.
This is one of the purposes Wiebe says makes the churches’ connections unique and different than a mission trip.
A team from Community Bible Church in Olathe, Kan., helps with the Lakeview Church campout attended by about 70 people near Kamas, Utah. Photo: Russ Friesen.
“From the very beginning, we started asking ourselves what it looked like to have a partnership versus a missionary-type mission trip and relationship because we wanted to partner with other MB churches and have that distinct difference,” Wiebe says.
“For a mission trip, people often come, serve and see people come to Jesus by sharing the gospel, but we didn’t see that as being very effective in our high LDS population,” he says. “Instead, our long-term goal in the partnership is to create a place not just to send people, but a place where people can invest and be invested in.”
Wiebe says that to this day long-term friendships and discipleship goes on throughout the year among the churches because of connections made during trips to Lakeview. In addition, internships, residency programs and mentorships have developed. This has helped to strengthen Lakeview and the visiting churches.
“Starting out as a church plant, we had a lot of needs,” Wiebe says. “As we’ve grown and become stronger, we want to give back and invest in them in some of the ways we can with strengths that we now have whether that be hosting an internship that can help prepare a student for ministry, discipling people within other churches or giving advice and offering to go to other churches when it comes to church planting.”
Partners in church planting
CBC has sent interns to Lakeview, participated in the residency program and is now looking to Lakeview for assistance as CBC considers starting its own church plant. In the next few years, Lakeview is hoping to send its own team to CBC to return the acts of service that they have received.
“Our church is still in the beginning stages when it comes to church planting, but already has consulted Lakeview Church and will be partnering with them as we move forward to see how we can most effectively reach our community,” says Russ Friesen, pastor at Community Bible Church.
For CBC and each church involved, such an endeavor isn’t just a project but an investment.
“The partnership that each of the four churches has developed is beautiful to see as a testament of the body of Christ coming together,” Friesen says. “It’s four churches coming together to give what they have to make the most impact for the Lord’s Kingdom.” —Caitlyn Decker
A beautiful opportunity for support
A team of 34 people from Reedley (Calif.) MB Church traveled to Utah to help with Kids’ Club at Lakeview Church, June 26-28.
With the theme “Breaker Rock Beach,” the three-day vacation Bible school taught children about God’s firm foundation and his trustworthiness.
The Reedley team brought the materials, and Matt Harder, Reedley pastor of care and counseling, served as emcee.
“It was wonderful because they brought with them their stage set up and props,” says Lakeview children’s pastor Jessica Barber. “They set up the entire stage. One of their groups performed a skit for the kids during kids’ club.”
Sixty children, ages pre-school through sixth grade, attended. The event included stories, games, crafts and object lessons.
“One little boy went home after the camp and told his mom he was so happy he could cry,” says Lakeview church administrator Chris Einarson. “It was a fantastic, fun event for everyone involved.”
Reedley MB has sent a team to Utah the past two summers.
According to Christine Loewen, who with her husband, Jonathan, served as Reedley team leaders, the opportunity offered meaningful opportunities.
“We really enjoyed serving together as families and are excited to see our children continue to have a desire to serve God through future missions,” Loewen says. “It was beautiful to come alongside fellow Christians in another state, to serve and support them as they pursue Christ and share the good news with those in their community.
“As we learned more about the LDS faith, which is so prevalent in Utah, it helped us develop a deeper understanding and compassion for people in the Mormon church and we pray they will come to know the peace and freedom of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” —Janae Rempel Shafer
Caitlyn Decker is a 2021 graduate of Northwestern Oklahoma State University, having majored in agriculture with a minor in mass communications. Beginning in high school, Decker has written for local newspapers, small businesses, the university campus newspaper and public relations office as well as freelancing. She and her husband, Caleb, live on a farm near New Hopedale Mennonite Church, Meno, Oklahoma, where they are members. They also serve as youth group sponsors.
