With a rich history in Woodburn, Indiana, Woodburn Missionary Church was founded in the late 1800s, with the first gatherings of about nineteen people meeting in the local elementary school. With its expansion in 1990, Woodburn has been a pillar in the community they serve. While the Church is reeling out of recent challenges, Woodburn Missionary Church is laying a new foundation with the tagline of "Treasuring Christ Together."

Doing what Jesus did: Woodburn Missionary Church

With a rich history in Woodburn, Indiana, Woodburn Missionary Church was founded in the late 1800s, with the first gatherings of about nineteen people meeting in the local elementary school. With its expansion in 1990, Woodburn has been a pillar in the community they serve. While the Church is reeling out of recent challenges, Woodburn Missionary Church is laying a new foundation with the tagline of "Treasuring Christ Together." 

In a recent conversation with the Campus Pastor, Mike Lyon, he stated that the Church is building back trust in the community by doing what Jesus did; reaching people where they are and establishing relationships with the community. He said Woodburn Missionary Church does ministry by starting locally. To live out the love of Christ in the community, they engage in local outreach events, like free tailgating at the school games and partnering with organizations like Woodburn Christian Children's Home.

Pastor Lyon stated that the Church does not have to go far to do missions because there are many needs in our backyard. Beyond finances, the Church encourages church families to serve their community as a group or with family members. He said that instead of practicing narrow missional scope, which gives little to many organizations, they focused their efforts on a few defined organizations and channeled their resources to them. He cited the example of their support for Woodburn Clothing and the International House, an organization catering to Indiana's largest Burmese population.

While outreach comes with challenges, Pastor Lyon stated that if the Church makes little intentional changes to how we live and interact with the people, we might get them to come to Church with us. He heard that while Sunday is a popular day for lunch in restaurants, it is not the waiters' favorite day to serve people because people are not kind enough. He said if Christians think about kindness, they would treat people better and attract them to Jesus.

As ambassadors of Christ, he believed the Church must live out our Christianity by how we relate to the world around us. Living in a way that speaks to loving Jesus first and loving people where they live and do life. Woodburn has adopted this model by training people to be organic in their approach to being ambassadors of the kingdom. "You have to be kind before you give an invitation," he said.

For a Church that has gone through different seasons and leadership, the future looks bright for Woodburn Missionary Church. They are revitalizing the footprint of what they stand for as a church that cares about their community and accepts people, no matter what they are in their journey. At a recent baptism service, nine people from different generations were baptized as a testament that the Church is growing and headed in the right direction.

The new leadership of the Church hopes to equip and encourage those who are hurting and help them release past pains to embrace all the good things God is doing now at Woodburn Missionary Church. To be both accepting and asserting, they are building on the goals to care for, serve, and disciple people.

Responding to how the Church community can help, Pastor Lyon stated that they are working on their family framework and look forward to learning from other churches that have successfully established theirs. He emphasized the importance of setting up a culture that values and treats volunteers well. Churches like "The Point" in Fort Wayne and Grabill Missionary Church in Grabill are stepping alongside Woodburn Missionary Church to bless their communities. Ending the conversation, Pastor Lyon explains his hopes for the future of Woodburn as "A church that loves God, loves people, teaches people to step out in faith and do the work, and live like Jesus."