Compelled beyond
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“If there’s one person within walking distance, we can grow by one.” That’s the motto of Pastor Larry Lyons and Chelsea FMC (MI). They’d like to reach 10,000, and are well on their way — at home and abroad.
Chelsea FMC moved one of its services into an old high school building eight years ago and now stands poised to move everything there. Temporarily. They’ve purchased 80 acres near the interstate and are praying about the timing for groundbreaking for phase one of a facility that will ultimately include a 2,000-seat sanctuary, classrooms, offices, fellowship space, coffee bar and bookstore. They plan to use the facility as a community center as well, and will create ball fields, camping areas and the like.
The new location will give the church an even wider reach — beyond Chelsea into the surrounding communities.
In keeping with its upward/outward focus, Lyons traveled this spring to India to connect with another part of this church’s ministry — its partnership with India’s Agape Fellowship and its suffragan bishop, Gollapolli John. In one ministry effort, Chelsea supports 300 adult literacy workers in tribal regions. During a two-year program, each teaches 15-18 students. Some 4,500 graduated last August, eight of ten of them coming to know Jesus along the way.
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Chelsea FMC has also planted Agape Shalom FMC in Nagunoor Village, just outside Karim Nagar, India. The first Christian church in the area, Shalom was made possible when a Hindu man in the village (of 10,000) became a believer and donated land for a church. Without his generosity and “sponsorship,” the church would not have been welcomed to the area. Chelsea sent money to build the facility; Lyons had the privilege and joy of participating in its dedication.
The future holds much for this well-established FM church, now compelled (by God) beyond its former borders. Its ministries and facilities — both at home and in India — are bearing fruit as new people are reached, touched and blessed.
