The energy level is high among the launch team for At the Well Fellowship, the new United Methodist church in northwest Wichita.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” said Mike Gaddie, the new church-start’s pastor.
At the end of August, the congregation took possession of a building and began remodeling to a more industrial look it for a public launch Nov. 3.
The building will allow At the Well to have its own space and begin building its own identity as a congregation and in the community.
“We’re an industrial-looking worship service, and we renovated the space to an industrial look,” Gaddie said. “It’s not about what’s on the outside. It’s about what’s on the inside.”
It’s a process Gaddie admits has been all consuming for him and for members, who have donated hundreds of hours of time to the project.
“Now, we are finally through all that and back to the important questions,” Gaddie said. “We’ve got this beautiful facility; now what does God want us to do with it?”
That question is one the congregants are having in their small-group sessions.
“We’re refocusing our energy,” Gaddie said. “We want to see how deep we can get. We think that if we go through a year’s worth of really getting some depth and getting people really engaged in the life of the church, when we move into the next phase, the church will just take a huge leap.”
Gaddie said their goal is to have 60-70 percent of regular attendees involved in a life group. It’s a lofty goal since the national average is 20-30 percent of regular attenders, and the rate is about 50 percent in churches known for small groups.
“Our vision continues to be to just be the incarnation of Christ, reaching beyond our walls,” Gaddie said. “We believe with every fiber of our being that we are to get everybody outside the walls of the building.”
NOTE: A longer version of this article ran in the Kansas West Connection, Dec. 2012/Jan. 2013 and on the Kansas West Conference website.