We just had our first worship night in Astoria so now it’s time to build a team of people who might be interested in a church plant. So we have a launch team meeting planned for October 16th at “The Loft at the Red Building”.

Our next step is to gather, strategize and get to know people interested in being on the launch team as well as inviting more of those from Clatsop County who have an interest in reaching Clatsop County! Our first meeting is coming up on October 16th at 630pm at The Loft at the Red Building. This is the same location as our worship night and should work great for any size group we have that shows up.

Once we have built the teams, finances, leadership and have a location then we will be ready to launch and will begin preparing for it. We don’t have a date set for this, it could be one year it could be three years. We will patiently wait for God’s timing on all steps until we launch.

The purpose of every believer and therefore every church is to fulfill the great commission. Each believer is called to a body of believers to use their gifts to encourage and disciple believers as well as reach the lost. We are a church that is passionate about emptying hell and filling heaven!

The sad reality is that the Pacific Northwest is one of the most unchurched areas of the country. In fact- to increase the level of church attendance in Oregon to match the rest of the country we would need to start 1,100 churches each with 100 attenders. And that is just to reach the national average!”

It is a proven fact that new and revitalized churches are the most effective at reaching the lost. In fact new churches are the most fruitful in fulfilling the Great Commission in their first three years of existence. Every church is unique and every person in the world is unique, more churches means more connections with God’s people and more disciples made.

The first way we will look at fulfilling our mission is by planting a brand new church. If God leads us this way we will be looking for a lead pastor who wants to work with our church and network of churches. We are not part of a denomination but we do believe if we are going to plant effectively the church we plant must align with our same beliefs and ways of doing ministry together.

Sadly churches are closing at a record rate across the nation. The reasons vary from no lead pastor, dwindling numbers, lack of vision and more. Many times what a dying church needs is a fresh vision, leadership and God-born problem solving to help the church overcome it’s unique issues. We are looking for a church that may be in this situation and are open to new leadership and being a part of the process it takes to revitalize a church.

It may be that we find ourselves in the situation of needing to start the church as a campus of Living Water Fellowship until we can find the right leadership to get our new church off the ground. In this situation we would work with the team we have in Clatsop County and add to it from our Living Water campus temporarily until they are no longer needed to keep the church healthy and growing.

Lead pastors Justin & Erin McMahan are the co-lead pastors of Living Water Fellowship in Tillamook Oregon where they have been pastoring the last three years. Before that they have experience in several other churches and have been in ministry since they were teenagers. Justin and Erin have 3 grown children Morgan, Aidan and Hailey and currently live in Rockaway Beach Oregon.

LWF is the church Justin and Erin pastor and has been a church in Tillamook Oregon for 40 years. Living Water is a vital church in Tillamook helping people to know God, build community and be equipped and empowered to make a difference. Over the past three years the church has grown from a small group of 60 people to a church of over 300 under the leadership of Justin and Erin.

Global is a church planting organization based out of Portland Oregon and a part of Mannahouse Church. Their goal is to plant churches all over North America. They partner with training, financing, support, leadership and family. Pastors Justin and Erin came from Mannahouse and Living Water was planted out of Mannahouse originally 40 years ago.