Who
We
Are
Lighthouse Community Church
We are a Wesleyan congregation located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and are part of the Great Lakes Region of the Wesleyan Church.
Our mission at Lighthouse is to KNOW GOD and SHOW GOD by making DISCIPLES of JESUS CHRIST by connecting people to GOD, COMMUNITY and PURPOSE.
We are:
· Disciples longing and learning to follow Jesus and bring others along on the journey
· Continually chasing after God by digging deeper individually and corporately
· Seekers of Holy Spirit’s leading
· Grateful worshippers
· Believers in the power of prayer
· Multigenerational
· Outreach minded
· Friendly!
Lighthouse is a healthy, Spirit-led body of Christ, thriving in biblical teaching, authentic worship, strong community groups and participation in outreach opportunities to our community. We envision that those activities will only continue to grow in their impact. In the next 3-5 years, we would like to see growth in the following areas as Holy Spirit leads and empowers:
· Intentionally be a soul-winning church. The gospel is shared clearly, winsomely and regularly from our pastors on Sundays, equipping and emboldening people to share the gospel and make disciples wherever they go throughout the week.
· Have a clear pathway of next steps for new believers to include baptism, connection with a person who will disciple and cheer them on, and a community group who will intentionally “do life” together.
· Testimonies of salvation and life transformation are shared regularly in services and through other media.
· Provide education and encouragement for attendees of all ages to uncover their spiritual gifts and then be offered opportunities to use those gifts. It would be the expectation that the people of Lighthouse know how God has gifted them individually and are finding purpose and joy in utilizing their gifts in building God’s Kingdom. This will positively impact the volunteer base of ministries in the church as well as outreach into our community.
· Demographic ministries are established for the purpose of evangelism, discipleship and fellowship. These should specifically include ministry to young adults, women, men and senior adults.
· Help meet the needs of people both inside and outside of the church through organized and spontaneous care ministries. Some organized means could be GriefShare, Divorce Care, Celebrate Recovery, etc.
· Intentionally teach spiritual financial practices to include tithing, Faith Promise giving, and debt reduction. Sound money management is taught to individuals through courses such as Financial Peace University. Raise up stories shared of God’s provision as an encouragement for others.
Lighthouse Community Church is dedicated to guiding our congregation in the worship of our King. We unapologetically follow the Holy Spirit's promptings, choosing to press into His presence with obedience rather than retreat from fear of judgment. Over the past few years, we have witnessed powerful movements of the Holy Spirit within the hearts of our community. We eagerly anticipate and seek even greater manifestations of His presence in our future worship.
We value:
Kids’ Ministry
Lighthouse Kids Ministry provides children a safe, engaging, age-appropriate worship experience that helps them grow in their knowledge and love for God and equips them to make a personal decision regarding faith in Jesus Christ.
Specific Goals:
Student Ministry
Lighthouse Student Ministries intends to help students KNOW GOD and SHOW GOD by developing active followers of Jesus Christ, connected to God, community and purpose. And having a whole lot of fun doing it! Student Ministries includes 6th - 12th graders with a variety of activities for combined and individual age groups (middle school and high school). Currently, Student Ministries meets regularly on Sunday evenings for Bible study, games, and relationship building. Other activities throughout the year include Snow Camp, overnight lock-in, service projects, a summer mission trip, and more.
Community Groups
We believe life is better in community:
We believe that Community Groups are the best and most practical way of living out our mission to make disciples and connect others to God, community, and purpose. We believe God created the church to be a family, to do life together, to encourage and support one another, and to disciple one another. This cannot happen at the depth needed by Sunday morning attendance alone. That’s where Community Groups come in! Some people crave connection and relationship, yet those deep and personal friendships are becoming increasingly difficult to develop in today’s culture of hectic schedules and often social isolation. Community Groups provide opportunities for life-changing and meaningful relationships to be cultivated as members serve each other and seek God together. Currently, Lighthouse offers 13 adult community groups with over 140 active participants.
Oikos Events
After Lighthouse staff studied the book “8 to 15 - The World is Smaller Than You Think” where the oikos principles were outlined, they began to encourage the congregation to consider who was in their own personal oikos: people in their lives with whom they already had a relationship. They were encouraged to pray and consider how they might invest deeper into those relationships for the purpose of introducing people to Jesus. Regular social events have been held to make it easy to introduce unchurched friends and family members to Lighthouse and, ultimately, to Jesus. Some of those events have been Mid-Winter Summer Jam, Trivia Night, and a summer car show.
Lighthouse has a long history of support of missionaries and mission organizations through financial giving, prayer, encouragement, and service. On a yearly basis, the congregation is encouraged to pray, asking God to show them how He is calling them to give above their tithe to support foreign and domestic missionaries, mission organizations, and para-church ministries. Transparency about to whom and how much we support is provided to the congregation. God, through His people, has always faithfully enabled us to meet our financial commitments to support our ministry partners. Each month we highlight a ministry partner or Lighthouse outreach initiative to further educate the congregation, offer intentional prayers, and make service opportunities available. We are privileged to partner with local and global ministries, helping to share the gospel’s transforming power to the lost through a variety of means.
Mission Trips
Lighthouse has a long history of encouraging and supporting participation in short term mission trips. Whether alongside other aligned mission groups or by teams organized within Lighthouse, mission trips have been conducted in Haiti, Kenya, the former country of Russia, Mexico, Egypt, and India. We have also sent teams or individuals within our own borders to Kentucky, Alaska, Texas, West Virginia, Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan’s own upper peninsula. Financial assistance to participants has always been available through the congregation’s generous missional giving.
Since 2017, rather than hold a traditional Christmas Eve worship service, we have celebrated Advent by serving our community in a variety of ways. It has been our desire to serve people who are in places they would rather not be on Christmas Eve. We caroled in local nursing facilities, provided food and supplies to the homeless on the street, and worked with a local jail chaplain to bless inmates with Christmas goodie bags. We have also included those serving our community by providing a turkey dinner meal to first responders, local jail staff, nursing home workers, and convenience store staff. While we desire to be a blessing, we always experience for ourselves the blessing of caring for others.
What happens when a church cancels a regular Sunday morning service in the building and, instead, goes out to serves its community? Great things! Service is also worship if done with a spirit of gratitude and with the intention of showing others just a glimpse of the love we have received. Hymn sings in local nursing facilities, yard work for Lighthouse seniors, meals for first responders, yard clean-up of inner city school grounds, and rebuilding a porch at a home for previously incarcerated women were some of our projects. These acts were worship and a blessing to both those serving and those being served.
God has blown open wide the doors for Lighthouse to support administrators, teachers, staff, students, and families in this inner city public elementary school located within the Edison neighborhood of Kalamazoo. According to areavibes.com, Edison is the third most dangerous neighborhood in Kalamazoo with 79% more crime reported than the rest of Kalamazoo as a whole. With roughly 8,000 people living in this area of Kalamazoo, children live amidst gang activity, gun violence, generational poverty, broken homes, and crumbling infrastructure. Although leading Washington Writers’ Academy is challenging, its principal is a positive and hopeful individual with high expectations for her students and school community.
Lighthouse is privileged to come alongside in a variety of ways:
This community outreach, launched in 2024, was created out of Lighthouse’s heart for the unborn and those making difficult life choices. There are three levels of involvement, making it possible for anyone at Lighthouse to support life choices. Learn more about this budding, dynamic ministry on Facebook.
Building & Grounds
Our 25,000 square foot building includes a multipurpose gym/worship space with a stage area, a children’s wing, an office/youth/classroom wing and a library, all connected by a large lobby area. It is a rare day when Lighthouse is quiet. Currently, three homeschool entities rent our facility during their school year. Our spaces are full of the energy of children, parents, and tutors on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from mid-August through early May. Our gymnasium is used multiple days each week year-round by homeschoolers and other groups for basketball and volleyball. The versatility of our gym/worship space allows us to be creative in set up for worship experiences, table set ups for special events or dinners, open gym nights, and more. Lighthouse sits on 18 acres of rural land and provides ample parking, a softball field, and a playground. We have plenty of land for future growth!
Church Demographics
We are a multigenerational church of 300 individuals calling Lighthouse home.
Average weekly attendance: 200 in person
Weekly Online participants: 25-40
Current breakdown by percentage of regular attenders:
We are a beautiful mix of white-collar professionals and blue-collar employees, healthcare workers, tradesmen, teachers, scientists and other employees in the local pharmaceutical industry, service industry staff, engineers, educators, non-profit employees and retirees who are equals in God’s kingdom, serving together in His church.
Finances
God has been faithful in the area of finances over the history of Lighthouse. Through the faithful giving of our church family, we have been able to meet all our financial obligations and mission-related commitments. We look forward to seeing how God blesses our giving and extends our reach into our community and the world.
Kalamazoo County is home to 261,000 people. Living in the Kalamazoo area offers both an urban and suburban feel. We are blessed with some big city opportunities with a small city atmosphere. Kalamazoo is rich in the arts offering a huge variety in music, visual art, dance, and theater. We are a college town, home to Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo College, and Kalamazoo Valley Community College. A wide variety of businesses call Kalamazoo home, including Fortune 500 companies such as Stryker, Pfizer, Newell Brands, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Parker Hannifin. Kalamazoo County is the southwest Michigan hub for medical sciences and the Western Michigan University Medical School.
Kalamazoo Public Schools offers the Kalamazoo Promise, a scholarship program that pays college tuition for graduates. The city of Portage to the south and the community of Mattawan to the west are growing areas with excellent school systems. Many of our attendees are residents of these areas to the immediate south and west of our location.
Lighthouse Community Church had its beginnings in brokenness. In 1944, a pastor who had been leading small rural churches in southwest Michigan, experienced what today we would call ministry burnout. He and his wife moved to Kalamazoo where his daughter was attending Western Michigan University and where he could easily find a job in a local paper mill. Although not formally in ministry, he still had a pastor’s heart. He and his wife and daughter began holding missionary meetings and prayer meetings in their home, inviting neighbors and friends who had also relocated to Kalamazoo. These gatherings grew and these friends, who had come to experience a sweet bond of fellowship, began to have their hearts broken for their neighbors who did not know Jesus. God stirred in them to plant a church.
On October 31, 1948, the Kalamazoo Wesleyan Methodist Church was organized under the West Michigan District of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. This group of 16 charter members, with the support of the district, purchased two empty lots on the corner of Westnedge and Parker Avenues and began constructing a multipurpose building that would include a chapel and housing for future pastors’ families. The first worship service in that building was held on Easter Sunday 1949. There was much anticipation for by the 78 people attending that service, knowing God was orchestrating something bigger than they could accomplish or imagine. Ministry in that community blossomed and the church grew as they continued to love and serve their neighbors.
Eventually, a dedicated church building was built next door, directly on the corner of Parker and Westnedge. Those buildings are no longer there, but what God began building in the hearts and lives of individuals, families and children in the 1950’s and 60’s continues to bear fruit today. In 1968, God provided the means to move to a much larger facility on Whites Road, much of it built by tradesmen within the congregation. God blessed the faith of those who saw a need to move and continued to grow Kalamazoo Wesleyan Church during that season to a congregation of 350 people. Evangelism, outreach, fellowship, and of course, the support of missionaries, the heart of the church from the very beginning, continued to be areas of focus.
Solid, long-term pastoral leadership has always been evident in this body of believers. We have been blessed by Spirit-led pastors of integrity, longevity, and passion for God, His church and the lost. Three pastors served this congregation during our 36 years on Whites Road. The first of those leading the transition into that building, and the third leading the transition to our current location on South 11th Street.
In the early 2000’s it became apparent that more space was needed. The building on Whites Road was land-locked and parking was an issue. Prayer and planning began for another move. After the exploration of several possibilities for the purchase of land on which to build or a building to renovate, 20 acres of cornfield was purchased on the growing west side of Kalamazoo at 4321 South 11th Street in Oshtemo Township.
The building on Whites Road was sold in the summer of 2004. The congregation of Kalamazoo Wesleyan Church began a year-long experience of holding worship in a local elementary school on 12th Street while one block to the west our new facility was being built. We moved in August 2005. Shortly after this move, the congregation voted to change our name, not to hide our Wesleyan tradition, but to be more inviting to our community. It is our intention to be a light where God has placed us, and we love to say that “community” is our middle name.
God has blessed this congregation for over seven decades by His protection and provision. Holy Spirit endowed wisdom, transformed lives, godly pastoral leadership, dedicated paid and volunteer staff, financial provision, community favor, and regular answers to prayer are only a few evidences of God’s faithfulness to this 75-year-old body of believers.
We are expecting God to write an exciting next chapter in our story as we continue to chase His will and leading.