This is the sixth in a series of posts by Mars Hill campus pastors looking at how God has moved across Mars Hill Church during 2009. Pastor Steven Mulkey is the campus pastor from the Olympia campus.
About two years ago a few families got together to form some community groups. This small gathering grew into a campus that now has more than 200 people gathering on Sunday’s and living on mission in the South Sound Region.
What was once a vision of faith for the Gospel in Olympia is now fully realized in what God is doing at our campus. As the Father sent Jesus into the world to seek and save the lost, Christ has now sent us to preach the good news and serve a lost and hurting world for the glory of God (John 20:21).
Community
When this campus began it was a gathering of community groups; as it has grown this reality has not changed. We now have 11 groups that meet throughout the region with more being added every quarter.
In the past year we have seen grieving widows comforted, housing provided for families in need and even cars donated to others while a soldier was deployed in Iraq/Afghanistan. At times it seems as though we are truly back in the book of Acts with the amount of generosity and love that is shown.
Baptisms
This past summer we had our first baptism service; by God’s grace we saw eight people baptized. These eight people all told stories of how God had moved through the Mars Hill community to lead them to get baptized. Some came to Christ in the past year, beginning their walk with God with us, while others stepped forward to finally, publically proclaim their faith. I know that this is just the beginning for our campus.
Military Ministry
Being in Olympia we are close to Fort Lewis, which is one of the most desired military bases in the country. Since starting our services in the Century Theater we have had a huge increase in families. Every month we have men and women brought forward for prayer as they deploy to defend our country.
Tragically, in September we lost one of those men who left behind his pregnant wife. This experience served to galvanize our campus towards loving his wife and caring for all of the military families in our community.
A soldier leaves behind a legacy of loving God and living boldly for Christ. This is an example that we hope to build into the men and women of our campus.
New Leadership
In June I took over the mission in Olympia from pastor Gary Shavey. By God’s grace, this was one of the smoothest leadership transitions that I have been a part of. Pastor Gary shepherded well and helped the campus get started. He then lived out the Kingdom mindset in a powerful way by handing the leadership of the campus to me.
Since June, God has raised up new men and women who have started the Deacon process and others who now serve in key administrative roles. Finally, in October we brought on our first unpaid intern. He has served our campus well and is going to stay on through the winter.
What is our Legacy?
Being such a young campus we are still trying to figure out exactly where God is going to use us. But one thing is certain, God saves sinners.
He has called us to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God revealed in Jesus Christ. By his grace and in his time we hope to see our campus grow to a point where we can plant another campus in our region.
As we grow, we hope to partner with Acts29 and other churches in the area to plant more churches. There is a desperate need for the Gospel in our city and region and we have been sent by God to live out the reality that the Kingdom of God has broken into the world.
This next year we want to live generously with our time, treasures and talents, loving our city and region so lavishly that they can’t help but see that Jesus is risen and the Gospel is true.