Northern Lakes Church began as a dream birthed in the hearts of Pastors Kevin O'Connor and Damian Williams. In the winter of 2000-2001, Damian had accepted a call to lead Red Cedar Community Church in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. A major component of the vision God had given him for Red Cedar was to be a church that plants other churches and he didn't want to waste any time getting started. After sharing with Kevin his dream, he had asked him if he would pray about leaving his position of Director of Discipleship at CrossRoads Church in Western Pennsylvania to be the lead planter of Red Cedar's first church plant.
Kevin was one of those who began their adult life as something other than a pastor. "I have a degree in business with a major in economics. I've also done a year's doctoral work in economics. My goal was to be a college professor but I guess that God had other plans for me." says Kevin. "I spent nearly 10 years in the business world after leaving grad school in sales and marketing. I've had varying degrees of success but never really experienced fulfillment in what I was doing. It wasn't until I got involved in a local church as a small group leader that I began to feel that I was doing what God had created me to do. For a long time I fought the call to ministry thinking 'why or how could God use a man like me to accomplish his will in this place?' It was actually Damian who told me that as long as I ran away from what God wanted me to do, I would always be flitting from place to place looking to fulfill in myself what only doing God's will in my life could fulfill. It was then that I began to pursue my call to ministry and it led me right to my home church as the Director of Discipleship. After a couple of years at CrossRoads, I sensed God calling me to do something else but I had no clue what. It was then that Damian approached me with his dream to plant a church out of the church he had just been called to lead. After praying a lot and consulting with my family, my wife Carol and I agreed that this is what God would have us do so we packed everything up and moved to northwestern Wisconsin in July of 2001."
Northern Lakes met as a small group in the home of one of the core group members and began to grow from there. "I'm a true believer in the transformational power of small groups; of authentic, transparent, grace-based community as a core value of the church, so it was natural for us to begin that way." says Pastor Kevin. "We started out by trying to do some things as a group to reach out to the community. The first thing we did was hold a free car wash. It was interesting to see the reaction of the people we served, especially when they tried to give us money and we wouldn't accept it. All we told them was that God loved them and so did we. We simply wanted to offer a small token of his love by giving them the gift of a clean car!"
In January of 2002, the group held its first preview service at the senior citizens center in Cumberland. After a couple of months the group moved to Cumberland Area Middle School. "The school afforded us the best opportunity to grow the group because it had space that we could us for children's ministry." states Pastor Kevin.
"We knew that most of the growth that would occur within the adults would happen as a result of our LifeGroups (small groups) that were meeting in the homes throughout the region so we were in no big hurry to build or buy. The school would suit our needs well for the foreseeable future." In September of 2002, Northern Lakes Community Church officially launched with about 45 adults and children from throughout the region in attendance.
As the church continued to reach into the community, God continued to be faithful by bringing new families and changing lives. In June of 2004 the church was approached by another congregation that was closing its doors to buy its building. Even though Northern Lakes wasn't looking for a building, the timing couldn't have been better. As the church was growing, it was looking for ways to better reach kids and teens by way of mid-week ministries. Trouble was without a facility, it would remain nothing more than a dream. "Never in a million years did we think we would get an opportunity to buy a suitable building right in the center of town." relates Pastor Kevin. "The fact that God gave us the opportunity at that time at the price we were able to acquire it was nothing less than providential; we jumped on it!"
Armed with an army of volunteers from within and outside of the church, the congregation proceeded to completely renovate the building and a little over two months after taking possession, on Thanksgiving weekend the first service was offered and the grand-opening and dedication happened a week later. As the church continues to grow with weekly attendance at it's 2 weekend services averaging around 95-100, we remain committed to raising up fully-devoted and fully committed followers of Jesus Christ who committed to raising up more fully devoted and fully committed followers of Jesus Christ.
Northern Lakes seeks to remain true to it's vision and mission to be a church that is faithfully fulfilling the Great Commandment while passionately pursuing the Great Commission. We remain committed to reaching the lost and broken people of our region with the great good news of a life-changing relationship with God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! We remain committed to radically and irrationally loving God, loving people and reaching the unreached!