The Church of Eleven22

How is your ministry engaging with the community today? Our first responder ministry is actively building relationships with all of our local law enforcement and fire and rescue agencies wherever we have a campus footprint in order to provide an external, confidential resource to their occupational wellness units and peer support teams for spiritual, emotional, and mental health care.

What role does technology play in spreading your message? Covid allowed us to engage our congregation through digital platforms and it’s really grown since. We have a huge presence through the church’s YouTube and social media platforms and specifically in our prison ministry, an app called Pando, created by the God Behind Bars ministry has allowed us to reach tens of thousands of inmates across the country on digital tablets in corrections facilities.

How do you support spiritual growth among your members? Disciple groups and mission trips are the two primary parts of our discipleship journey that we see most people deepening their faith with.

What challenges are ministries facing in the modern world? I think most ministries today are struggling with engaging the next generation and figuring out how to keep younger generations of believers active in their faith. Jesus warns us in the Gospel of John that we have an enemy who comes only to steal, kill and destroy and our enemy will always attack the generation he believes he can steal, which are the unborn, the children and the teenagers while they are still formative and impressionable

How do you balance tradition with innovation in worship? We have an incredibly talented group of worship leaders and service programming team members. They do a great job and they understand that true worship is a response of reverence, awe and submission. They focus on doing whatever brings our congregation to a place where we are free to surrender ourselves the way King David did. Freely and yet sometimes with “undignified passion” before the Lord.

What initiatives are you leading to serve vulnerable populations? Incarcerated inmates

How can younger generations be more involved in ministry? I think it starts in the mission field. Family mission trips are huge because it gives families the opportunity to experience together, gross lack and at the same time, extreme joy in the midst of that lack.