A NewStart After the Storm

The extensive masterplan for launching New Day Community Church of the Nazarene in Flowood, Mississippi had covered nearly every detail. When Pastor Mark Howie and the launch team began their initial preparations many months earlier, no one on their team had factored in hurricane Katrina into the plans.

But as the weather reports began to warn of the impending disaster, the core group gathered for a prayer meeting and decision about launching. The Sunday evening before the storm, 43 core members met at the pastor's house to pray about and discuss their options. As the forecasters predicted, Biloxi took the strongest winds and rain as Katrina pounded the shorelines and swept across Biloxi the next morning before dawn.

As the group examined all their options, they came to a unanimous decision to go ahead.

"Basically the feeling was no matter what happens from the hurricane, a new church will rise up out of this storm," Pastor Mark recalled. "God knew about this storm long before we did. We decided to go ahead with all our preparations and trust the results to God. Our core group decided to love whoever comes to this new church and be okay with it."

So all the plans for the launch moved ahead as planned.

Power was knocked out in the area. The state police restricted travel in or out of the devastated areas. The 120,000 piece mailing for the new church had only been partially delivered. Many residents had evacuated and those who stayed were hesitant to venture far from home.

But New Day Community Church of the Nazarene responded in hopeful anticipation. Sunday morning - September 11th - they held their first public worship service with 100 in attendance. Among the attendees were Mike and Charlene Kelly, who hadn't been in church for nearly 40 years. They were driving by the new church's location and were attracted by the signs announcing the new church. Mike had grown up attending a Catholic school and left church years before. But something about this new church captured his attention, and he and Charlene drove into the parking lot.

"The music surprised me" said Mike, "and the sermon was practical and made sense." Both Mike and Charlene made commitments to Christ that first Sunday and then began inviting their family to attend. First, it was their four-year-old grandson, Trevor. Then other family members came with them.

After sharing a meal with Pastor Mark, Mike said he had a question he wanted to ask. "Would it be alright to invite my friends to attend our new church?" Pastor Mark chuckled as he shared his encouragement to Mike and noted their family has attended every service since that first Sunday. The weeks following Katrina the church has continued to see steady growth, as many people are continuing to attend and bring their friends.

"In some ways, we're just beginning to see the impact of weeks of relief work and pre-launch preparations," Mark noted. In additions to their city-wide mailing, the church has launched cable TV advertising. The 30 second spots run 200 times a week and correspond to their campaign entitled "For People Like You."

They also strategically placed 300 yard signs at the most heavily traveled intersections in their city. Pastor Mark explained that any church could find those statistics by logging onto their states Department of Transportation website, which keeps traffic counts for every community in their state.

Most of the new people attending - over 90% up to this time - have come to New Day Community Church because someone in the church personally invited them. But Pastor Mark has noticed that the TV commercials and the direct mailers have helped their core group connect with their friends and neighbors looking for a church home. The ads and mailers have added impact to the invitations from family and friends.

Probably the other significant factor in this launch has to do with their prayer partners. From their sponsoring church Lakeland Church of the Nazarene, to partners across the district and denomination, over 800 prayer partners have committed to intentionally praying for this new church. Pastor Mark has called it "Unleashing the power of God through prayer. Some say that God does not give folks more than what they can handle. In our case, God always gives us more than we can handle, so we rely on His power, and not our own. We began to gather prayer partners from around the world, who would pray for our ministry and for this new church on a weekly basis, and it has done wonders for our people."

In addition to the encouraging launch, Pastor Mark reports two key team leaders who have connected with NewDay since their first service. Mike & Martina Wood moved in as Youth Team Leaders from First Church of the Nazarene in Long Beach, California. Mike is an IT manager and his wife is a project manager for Diebold Industries. Together, they will launch a life changing student ministry to the youth of the Jackson area. Pastor Bryan and Leslie Easley are transferring from DaySpring Community Church of the Nazarene, in Clinton, MS to lead "Kingdom Kids" children's ministry at NewDay. Pastor Bryan works full time at Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi as Associate Director for on-line education.

A NewDay of ministry has dawned in Mississippi - after the devastation of the storms. Perhaps the testimony of Mike Kelly summed it up the best: "This new church has brought a NewDay of faith for me and my family."