By Kent E. Fillinger
Preacher Paints Grace in a Fresh Way
“We”re not great at anything, and everything here is a work in progress,” says senior minister Mike Gunderson.
In spite of various internal challenges, Oak Park Christian Church in Grover Beach, California, was the fastest-growing medium-sized church last year, growing 42 percent and breaking the 200 barrier. Since 2008, Oak Park has grown 53 percent to an average worship attendance of 266.
Oak Park is located near Pismo Beach in an isolated, affluent, and growing retirement community of 45,000 people. There are only two other small Christian churches in the county. On the surface, Grover Beach sounds like a great place to vacation and live, but behind the scenes there is a significant methamphetamine problem and rampant drug abuse. The community is a mix of early retirees, hurting blue-collar folks, and a sprinkling of Los Angeles telecommuters.
Foundation of Love
In the midst of this, God is using Oak Park”s strong foundation of love. The church is multigenerational and is becoming multiethnic with an influx of Anglicized Hispanics. Oak Park has a significant number of members with dramatic conversion stories, including several addicts who have been delivered and two members currently in jail for child molestation. But these spiritually young believers are inviting their friends to church and they are coming.
Oak Park clearly communicates a willingness to accept others where they are by practicing patience and waiting for God to move them. Several cohabitating couples attend its worship services; in the past year, Gunderson has married five of these couples. One couple had lived together for 17 years and started attending Oak Park as a result of their children participating in the VBS program in 2008. A year later, Gunderson preached a series of messages called the “Summer of Love” from 1 Corinthians 13 and he performed the wedding ceremony for this couple during the worship service.
Ministry Detour
Gunderson took a valuable ministry detour on his way to Oak Park. He served 16 years as a youth minister in the Seattle area working with hard-core teens on the fringe of society. Among the teens were role-playing vampires and students with alternative sexual lifestyles.
He left full-time church ministry in late 2001. Gunderson describes this season as one of the best things that happened to him.
While out of ministry, he worked as a painting contractor and owned his own company. His new profession created an opportunity for him to befriend some coworkers who were far from God. Gunderson became a pastor to his fellow painters.
He remained active in church during this season and started a house church with a friend while attending Mars Hill Church. The detour was a blessing to Gunderson as he was able to provide for his family while working as a “real person doing a real job that had tangible, daily results.”
The added bonus was freedom from viewing full-time ministry as a career he needed to survive and to provide for his family. He began to view full-time ministry as an opportunity to use the gifts God has given him. Gunderson is positive God has gifted him for ministry, and the skills he learned as a painter have helped him to effectively connect with unchurched men, whom Oak Park has had significant success in reaching in the last few years.
Struggling to Survive
Gunderson”s predecessor was the fourth senior minister at Oak Park. After a variety of troubled experiences with previous ministers, the church had been without a senior minister three years when Gunderson”s predecessor arrived. He found a very loving, but hurting congregation with little infrastructure that was struggling to survive.
When Gunderson became associate minister in August 2006, the church was still in a difficult situation and the organizational psyche of the church was damaged. The senior minister had contracted a deadly disease and was on the verge of dying when he called Gunderson, his friend and former ministry coworker, to serve as the associate minister with the intention that Gunderson would succeed him as the senior minister.
The congregation was distraught as they helplessly watched the health of their senior minister decline. Gunderson spent his first one and one-half years at Oak Park building relationships and developing small groups. He became senior minister in January 2008.
The situation was so tough that people openly asked Gunderson, “What”s going to happen to you?” Gunderson”s response was positive and future-focused. He consistently communicated to the church that “God has plans for us. We”ve been through the desert, but now it”s our turn to move forward.”
Building Confidence
Gunderson looked for a quick win to build the confidence of the congregation. The worship center at Oak Park had blue carpet and outdated orange padded pews. On his first Sunday as senior minister, Gunderson announced the church was going to remove the pews and replace them with new chairs and needed to raise $20,000 to do so. Oak Park had less than 200 people and was not a wealthy church, but within five months $22,000 was raised and the chairs replaced the pews.
Externally, the church also made a positive statement to the community as it worked for more than a year to remove ivy that had overtaken a retention pond in front of the church. Their neighbors noticed the positive change on the busy street, and the project increased the pride of the church”s members.
Gunderson”s slogan for the church the last two years is, “Where you”re loved as family.” Gunderson and Oak Park live out this message and have seen unmistakable results. Oak Park has created an atmosphere of love and acceptance that is drawing people to Jesus Christ.
Kent E. Fillinger is president of 3:STRANDS Consulting (3strandsconsulting.com) and associate director of projects and partnerships with CMF International (Indianapolis, Indiana).
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