The journey toward planting a new faith community in Helena began in 2004 when Eric Powell accepted the Worship Arts Pastor position at Hannaford Street Bible Church.While Helena's churches seemed effective at serving specific groups of people in the community, it was in this capacity that Eric and his wife Andrea began to sense a lack of connection and passion for those of this generation and for those who do not connect with traditional ways of doing church.
They soon felt God moving them to take a risk on a passion that He’s planted deep within. Not knowing what this risk might entail, the Powell family began praying and patiently waiting for God to show them more.
Some of that “more” involves what Bill Hybels talks about in his book Holy Discontent. Hybels says that God places within us the ability to see “broken things” in areas that we are passionate about. God is not calling us to complain or fret over these “broken things,” but to let them serve as fuel for action to follow His leading.
CALLED TO BROKEN THINGS
Having not grown up in the church, Eric has the ability to see what in done in ministry from the un-churched person’s point of view. He has seen the ways that our churches struggle to connect and share the life-giving message of Jesus with people who, for the most part, see church as irrelevant. He has also seen the way the church has had difficulty speaking into the lives of young people. Essentially, our churches are effective at reaching certain groups of people, but with those Eric and Andrea have the greatest heart for — our effectiveness is “broken.”God is calling us to step out and attend to this “broken” thing.
More specifically, God has given Eric and Andrea the vision and desire to reach out to people that “traditional” churches in Helena are not effective at reaching; what we at Encounter call “this generation” and “those who are far from God.” We desperately resonate and identify with those who are not familiar with or who do not connect with traditional church models — who see traditional church as lacking or irrelevant at best, and repelling at worst.
BEING COMFORTABLE WOULD BE EASIER
Rick Warren says that “neither past nor future generations can serve God’s purpose in this generation.” What Eric and Andrea realized is that God had been preparing them for such a time as this.
Moving from worship to planting a church is not so much a new direction, but a wider emphasis. Eric says, "Now God is asking us to encourage people to worship God not just with song, but with their whole lives."As they first explored this calling, Eric and Andrea learned that planting a church would be easier somewhere else other than Helena. Some church planting groups would be much more likely to provide substantial support if Encounter were planted in a larger metro area.
But that is not where God has shown them a great need for a new faith community to connect with this generation and those far from God. Andrea says, "We believe God is not calling us to plant where it is easy, but where there is a need, and specifically where we have a heart for the community."
Craig Groeschel says "In order to reach people that no one is reaching, you have to do something that no one is doing." That is exactly what Encounter is all about. This is such a large endeavor, we know we will completely and utterly fail without God. And that is the best situation to be in — completely dependent on Him.
We invite YOU to take a risk as part of Encounter — to make a difference in Helena to help create a new kind of church. A church for people who don't like church. A faith community for imperfect people looking to share an imperfect journey of faith with one another.
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