HISTORY

Dear Congregation,
 

Each year, as part of our annual business meeting, the Elders add another year in review to what God has/is doing through the ministry of Living Water Community Church. Thank you for your generous support in serving and financially supporting this effort. Hope you enjoy reading about God’s progress.  – Living Water Community Church Elders and Deacons (Board of Directors)

 
2025
 

As 2025 came to an end, Living Water Community Church was less than 3 months away from being in the community for 10 years (the church launched in March of 2016).  We continue to receive the great blessings of the Lord Jesus as we finished our first full year of being debt-free (the building loan was fully paid in late 2024).  A big thanks to the many volunteer hours that the treasurer of the Deacon Board of Directors, Sheila Berg, continued to put in.  She greatly helped the church stay on top of the finances and effectively manage the budget.

 

We continue to be blessed with a large percentage of the congregation that faithfully serves in a variety of ministries.  Seasonal ministries such as the Honduras Mission (week-long trip in the spring) and Operation Christmas Child (192 boxes sent out this year!) experienced great success in their efforts, and the plan is to continue these ministries in 2026 and beyond.  Ministries such as the musical worship, tech ministry, and Splash and Swim ministries continued their faithful service to the body of believers.  The musical worship, Splash, and Swim ministries had some new volunteers join in the important work of serving God and building the foundation of Jesus Christ in the children.

 

The small group ministry continued the important work of building more faithful disciples within the body of Christ.  Over half the size of a Sunday morning service regularly attended small groups weekly, and they, collectively, covered a variety of biblical studies focusing on being better disciples of the Lord Jesus, while reaching the lost.  The care ministry and grief ministry effectively served the community with hope and prayer.  The care ministry continued to reach those in both nursing and retirement homes by bringing joy, conversation, prayer, and encouraging notes.  The grief ministry continued to send encouraging notes and specialized booklets to those who had lost loved ones, and at one point, more than 30 different people were being ministered to in the same month.

 

Other important church ministries include the Seven C’s and the ministries for men and women.  Seven C’s continued to provide free clothing, hygiene products, and food, and ministered to the community through fellowship and prayer in their monthly giveaways.  The men’s ministry centered its monthly studies on the book of James, focusing on being leaders in the community and in their families.  The women’s ministry built out a monthly program of Bible journaling (which launched the first week of 2026).

 

As the board of directors and the elders considered the church’s 2 leases (the space used for children’s ministry and the space used for the Seven C’s ministry) and the building that we own, it was unanimously decided to consolidate all the ministries under the space that the church owns.  Our tenant (Dimond Bros) at 401 Main St. finished leasing the space at the end of 2025.  The board’s president, Ron Harms, led the renovation project with countless hours and the help of many faithful volunteers.  The remodeled space is planned to be fully utilized by February, 2026.  Though a building is just a place for the true church (faithful believers) to utilize, we are excited to use the facility to more effectively serve the Lord Jesus.  All glory, honor, and praise are due Him now and forever!

 

 

2024

God continues to provide for Living Water Community Church in every way! The number of those serving in various ministries and participating in small groups grew during this year. It has been exciting to hear how God has been transforming those serving and participating in these areas. Financially, we were blessed to completely pay off the mortgage of the building. Thanks to God’s faithfulness (through the faithful giving of the congregation), the church is debt-free!
 
The new ministries (the Care Ministry for nursing and retirement homes and the Grief Ministry for those who have lost loved ones) that were started in 2023 expanded and grew stronger in 2024. The Seven C’s Mission team continued its faithful ministry to those in need in the greater Rochelle community giving away purchased hygiene supplies, food, as well as clothing, and other items. Other ministries such as welcome/ security, men’s, women’s, and outreach also had meetings and faithfully served and connected throughout the year. Additional team members joined and served in children’s ministries during 2024 and “Swim” features a special Advent series in December. The youth ministry paused the weekly meetings due to the limited availability of those in attendance and, at this time, has not presently resumed meetings. We are thankful for Joe Mortimer who faithfully served in that ministry.
 
Amanda “Mandy” Barnes faithfully continued her service as the interim worship director in 2024. We have been so blessed that she agreed to continue serving until God provides the right candidate. Though many applied, most were unqualified (some weren’t even believers!), and so it was rare that any progressed to even the first stage of interviews. We are praying for God’s provision in this area and know that His timing is not our timing. We are also thankful for a solid group of those who regularly and faithfully serve alongside Mandy in both the worship and the tech ministry (audio and video for the Sunday services).
 
2024 also marked the return of a Living Water team to the Honduras mission organization we support (El Ayudante). Over a dozen individuals (led by Kevin and Lisa Chidley) dedicated a week to the ministry of those in rural Honduras. This included many projects such as VBS for the kids, building adobe homes, setting up water filters, moving concrete blocks, setting up latrines, setting up pilas (water collection units), woodwork projects, medical clinic support, biblical training for local pastors, and praying and sharing the gospel with the residents there.
 
Toward the end of 2024, the elders decided to combine the small groups and life groups as simply “small groups” recognizing that there is some diversity in how they are led and facilitated (with the core purpose of the groups being the growth in the knowledge and obedience to God’s word and the connection of the body of Christ). These groups studied the Minor Prophets, Ephesians, 1, 2, & 3 John, 1 & 2 Peter, Water-Walking Faith, Undistracted, Galatians, Mark, Psalm 119, the Parables of Jesus, and more! There also was increased focus on connecting in fellowship and more extended time in prayer.
 
The Sunday sermons included some individual messages as well as covering multiple series: the understanding of God’s Kingdom, the book of Acts, and the importance of the power of prayer. We also introduced a bi-monthly teaching series called Tackling Tough Bible Questions that featured a variety of specific topics and included live Q&A to better equip and build up the body of Christ.
 
As far as church leadership, there were no changes among the elders. The board of directors accepted the resignation of Matt Downing who faithfully led during the year that he served. Since Mandy Barnes accepted a full-time job, she requested to step down from the church administration role. Chris agreed to add the role of church administrator to his responsibilities and this change took place on September 1, 2024. We are excited about all that God has for us in 2025 and beyond and desire to faithfully serve Him now and forever!
 

2023

God is always faithful! 2023 was no exception as God blessed Living Water Community Church’s finances as well as the ministries. The church building loan has been paid down to $37,870.09. Seven C’s experienced 2 record-breaking months in the number of people served with donated clothing, hygiene products, and free meals (not to mention the great importance of personal conversation and time in prayer). In addition, Seven C’s Mission and the Outreach team had many new volunteers who participated in serving our community through a variety of events and giveaways. We also started two new ministries: A nursing home ministry and a ministry to those who are grieving.
 
With pastors being called to equip the church (Ephesians 4:11-12), 2023 was another year of building up the Body of Christ found in Living Water Community Church. This included Sunday sermons that were focused on expounding on the holy scriptures as well as small and life group studies that occurred on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays (all pastors/ elders were involved in leading studies). There were a variety of biblical books and Christ-focused topics that were covered through these sermons and studies. Joe Mortimer was faithful last year teaching the youth on the Monday night youth group (middle school and high school) studies as were the regular ladies’ small group and men’s small group studies.
 
2023 also included changes to those in Living Water Community Church leadership. Early in the year, Joe Meadows stepped down from his role as an elder. Then in July, we accepted the resignations of Brent Braski and Adrian Daugherty as elders (Adrian also stepped down from his position as a part-time worship director). Presently, Mike Vogeler, Chris Bender, and Doug Bunger continue to serve as elders/ pastors. Still later in the year, 2 new members (Matt Downing and Jim Meador) were added to the existing Board of Directors team of Ron Harms, Sheila Berg, and Dave Johnson.
 
With the opening of the part-time worship director position, Amanda “Mandy” Barnes graciously agreed to step in as the interim worship director as we continue to search for the person God calls to fill that position. Mandy continues to also serve, faithfully, as the church’s administrator.
 
Our use of the RightNow Media program expanded throughout our congregation (as well as invites to friends and family). Small groups, life groups, our youth group, and our studies specific for both men and women included edifying and Kingdom-building material found in the Christian video program. When we contacted RightNow Media regarding statistics, they indicated that our church has a much greater amount of usage (per individual) than most other congregations they work with. That was encouraging news concerning folks taking advantage of the equipping tools available to them through the program. 
 
We are so thankful for how the Lord takes care of each one of us and are excited to follow where the Lord leads in 2024!
 

2022

As usual, God blessed the finances of Living Water Community Church. We were able to make a separate, principal payment (of $50,000) on our building loan reducing our balance to under $60,000. Sheila Berg, Ron Harms, and David Johnson continued their faithful service on the Deacon Board of Directors. Chris Bender officially joined the staff (as Teaching Pastor) on 1/16/2022. In addition to individual topical sermons, the series covered in 2022 were How to Study the Bible, Luke’s Story of the Resurrection, the Epistle of James, Spiritual Warfare, and The Christmas Story According to Luke and Matthew.
 
After 6 years of service as an elder/ pastor, Curt Samo stepped down (in April) with his family’s upcoming move to Tennessee. Brent Braski, Joe Meadows, Mike Vogeler, and newly added Chris Bender continued as elders/ pastors. Elder/ pastor candidates Doug Bunger, Bruce Reumann, and Adrian Daugherty began attending elder meetings monthly in the spring preparation for future eldership.
 
After 3 years of serving as the worship director, Wes Carr stepped down in July. Adrian Daugherty moved from the youth director role to become the new worship director. Joe Mortimer was chosen as the new youth director to oversee the Submerge youth ministry. Mandy Barnes continued her role as the office administrator. Splash and Swim continued their ministry to the children of Living Water with an expansion of ministry to those in Splash as Molly Johnson and her team began providing instruction from ages 3 to kindergarten.
 
Seven C’s saw its biggest year of attendance and growth of new families. After multiple years of faithful service in the leadership of that ministry, Brooke Smith stepped down at the close of 2022. Gigi Gardner and Paula Bender took over her responsibilities (at the beginning of 2023). New ministries began in the areas of men and women. Eileen Braski, Paula Bender, Miranda Daugherty, Jillian Condon, and Kayla Wicklund stepped into women’s leadership with regular events occurring throughout the year. Rich Smith and Blake Vogeler stepped into men’s leadership roles and began leading a monthly community men’s group. Gigi Gardner consistently led the ladies’ Bible study on Tuesday mornings.
 
Small groups expanded from 1 to 2 with fellowship on Mondays and Tuesdays. Later in the year, life group sessions expanded from 6 weeks to 10 weeks to allow for deeper connection within each group. Then, near the close of 2022, we added the Christian video program RightNow Media to help with discipleship in each household. We serve an amazing God with amazing people in our congregation and are excited to continue to follow God’s lead!
 

2021

The ministry has completed its 5th year in 2021.  Much of the pandemic carried over from 2020 with new COVID strains to the original virus and various CDC (Centers for Disease Control) orders.  While the virus did affect the way which we continued to do ministry (i.e. virtual services, remaining at home, limited interaction).  Between a lack of attendance and volunteers, it did cause us to decide to cancel our Saturday night service.  As the year progressed, we did “fight back” to worship in a “normal” fashion, launching youth ministry, small, and life groups (all in person) in addition to the weekend service.  We did lose Bob Cartwright from the board of directors and added Dave Johnson.  Serving the board of directors is Ron Harms as president, Sheila Berg as secretary/ treasurer, and Dave Johnson as vice president. 
 
In June we did accept the resignation of our first staff pastor, Bobby Gardner.  Bobby and his wife, Megan, did choose to remain as part of the Living Water congregation and we welcomed and encouraged them to do so.  Brent Braski carried much of the weekend preaching/ teaching responsibilities and Joe Meadows was assigned by the Elders to lead the pastoral search team.  This team was organized with 12 members and they began their work on September 1st.  On November 28th, a call was extended to and accepted by Chris Bender (wife Paula) to serve full-time as the second staff teaching pastor of Living Water Community Church. 
 
Praise God that our mission’s giving was, once again, pre-funded by the Lord for the upcoming year! Additionally, our financial priorities included eliminating debt, creating a solid emergency fund for expenses, and developing resources for a new church plant in the future.  7 C’s continues a strong ministry to the community by meeting physical and spiritual needs on a monthly basis.  God is leading us clearly and deeper as a congregation.  He is opening each door as we wait on Him and ask, “what’s next for us?”
 

2020

The ministry began by launching our Youth ministry “Submerged” on Wednesday, January 8th. It was a great night of connecting, worship and Adrian’s teaching with 20 youth in attendance at the inaugural service.  Our annual business meeting took place January 26th with Bob Cartwright being commissioned by the Elders to serve as part of our Board of Directors (BOD).  Bob joined Ron Harms, Sheila Berg and Dale Lawhorn. The budget was set at $158,390 for the year. The Elder initiatives presented were;

1.) Reaching/Building the Youth ministry 2.) Determining a permanent location 3.) Developing additional leadership within the church. Then February-April happened! A world-wide pandemic hit the United States. The Corona Virus (COVID-19) caused the cancellation of all groups larger than 10 people and often a mandated “stay at home order” was in place. Much of life as we had known it, had stopped. God continued to be faithful, with us and lead by his Holy Spirit, we took our services virtual for the 1st time for the entire world to see Jesus. Much of ordinary life and live ministry was put on hold for 3-4 months with closures, restrictions and “stay at home orders.”  In all the up’s and downs of 2020, God was protecting the ministry and those calling Living Water home. Finances struggled in the early part of the year. However, God’s faithful people rebounded and God supplied all of our needs to provide for our staff payroll, rent and utilities. God provided us an abundance that we could once again pre-fund our 2021 mission funding and purchase the existing building we have been meeting in for the last 4 years. The word of God was consistently proclaimed and people in the congregation and community (and world) were challenged and strengthened by our teaching. God gets all the glory as we look forward to 2021!  

2019

The church became 3 years old this year. The Elders have focused their best attention “internally” to strengthen and build the body of Christ through discipleship. With our first priority speaking the gospel, proclaiming sound doctrine and developing fully devoted followers of Christ. Additionally, equipping church staff, leadership and ministry team leaders has been central to the Elders attention and direction this year. The assembly is growing both in spiritual maturity and understanding through our weekend services and discipleship opportunities. Attendance for our weekend services (now 2 services) has also increased to a weekend average of 130. Our single service Christmas Eve attendance was a packed out house with standing room only with 163 people in attendance.        

During our January annual meeting the church accepted the resignation of John Rimstidt from the BOD while adding Ron Harms to this board to serve in the leadership of the church. March 17th Wes Carr was announced before the congregation with the laying of hands by the Elders to serve as our next Worship Director effective April 1st. Wes, Cristal and Eden reside in the Rochelle area and we are pleased to have them as part of the Living Water ministry. Many thanks go out to Noah Stecker who volunteered to serve the Lord well in this ministry roll for the past year and a half. He announced earlier, this spring he would be attending college in California. April 20th we launched our first 5:00pm Saturday night identical service. On Aug 4th Dale Lawhorn was commissioned by the Elders to serve on the board of directors (BOD) along with Ron Harms, President and Sheila Berg, Treasurer. November 1st Adrian Daugherty was brought before the congregation with the laying on of hands of the Elders and added to our part-time staff to lead our High school and Middle school youth ministry. Adrian and his wife Miranda live in Dixon and will launch “Submerged” in January of 2020. Once again, financially the Lord provided the ministry of Living Water with a year-end abundance and our income outpaced our expenses.       

2018

With the church becoming 2 years old this year, much is happening in the way of ministry. Some have received Christ as savior and many are finding themselves growing in their faith throughout this year of ministry. The weekly attendance has increased to 90 to 100 regular attenders each weekend. God is multiplying and bringing the increase as the Elders are praying/serving hard to stay up with what God is doing but not get ahead of Him. During our annual meeting we increased Pastor Bobby’s hours to 30 and Mandy Barnes as Office Manager to 20. Additionally, as part of our Elder initiatives for the year the church made 2 large financial commitments with God’s resources to: 1st) Investing in a 4th building location to provide our Community Care Center with a more visible, centralized location to better serve/reach people for Christ within our community. This new location is located at 1135 Lincoln Hwy and Lisa Smith continues as our ministry team leader on the front lines of serving these needs. Along with our Compassion ministry team led by Rich Smith they complement one another by serving from the same location those individuals/families hurting and facing physical, financial & spiritual hardships. 2nd) The church launched a local, regional and global missions outreach ministry. Angie Montes serves as our 1st Missions team leader and we now find our church is involved in carrying the gospel worldwide. Both are exciting ministries, with several from the congregation serving on these ministry teams. In the Spring Alex Hauck resigned from the Board of Directors leaving us with two (John & Sheila) continuing on this board. Through the Summer and into the early Fall, the Elders worked through a process to enhance our small group ministry by adding opportunities for teaching, discipleship and relationship building to the congregation by establishing “Life Groups” and “Workshops.” These opportunities have been successful and continue to build momentum in equipping and connecting the body of Christ. On November 19, 2018 we added our 6th Elder to the team when Brent Braski was commissioned by the Elders to serve in the leadership of the church. Brent currently oversees the Tech Team and Life Groups ministries. Financial budgets were exceeded with surplus being invested right back into the ministry with all the glory going to God! We continue to focus the ministry on building the kingdom by reaching our neighborhood, community and world for Jesus Christ and teaching all believers to walk in full devotion to Christ for the glory of God.

2017

The work of Living Water Community Church has flourished in 2017. The Lord has blessed the ministry in many ways this year. It started on February 1, 2017 with God calling one of our Elders to part-time Pastoral ministry responsibilities in Bobby Gardner. Bobby carries 50% of the weekend speaking duties and he and his wife Megan have been a total blessing to the ministry. An additional layer of leadership was put in place in March with the Elders appointing the church’s first Board of Directors (Deacons). They oversee the business, financial and building needs of the church. They also serve as the corporate officers as follows: John Rimstidt- President, Sheila Berg- Treasurer and Alex Hauck- Secretary. As the Fall arrived, so did the hiring of our first part-time (10 hour per week) office manager in Amanda Barnes. Mandy has also been a huge administrative asset. This full year of ministry has been a year of growth in every area of the church. Nursery, Toddlers, Children, Middle School, High School, College and Adults all have grown physically & spiritually. Additionally, we have increased the focus to teach/disciple all areas of ministry to compensate. Our 80% full capacity number is 130 regular attenders, we are monitoring this very closely to determine the need to offer a second service option in the future. Our 2017 budget was set at $88,872 and the congregation more than exceeded this all for the glory of God. We continue to focus the ministry on building the kingdom by reaching our neighborhood and community for Jesus Christ and teaching all believers to walk in full devotion to Christ for the glory of God.

2016

In the Spring of 2016 the church held several organizational meetings to determine the interest in planting an Acts 2 church in downtown Rochelle. A small group of 20 to 25 people gathered for several meetings in prayer and discussion before undertaking this new work. Following earnest prayer and confirmation from the Lord, the new work was launched on March 22, 2016. The original Elders included; David Johnson, Joe Meadows, Curt Samo & Mike Vogeler. A downtown storefront located at 405 N. Main St was selected and unanimously approved by the Rochelle City council, allowing a 2 year temporary usage permit as a “house of worship” and the renovations began on May 9, 2016. The church received its federal 501c3 charitable tax exempt status on June 14, 2016. And the State of Illinois sales tax exemption status on September 9, 2016. Following the adding of Bobby Gardner as the 5th Elder and a summer of meetings at Paddock Hall inside the Hickory Grove Civic Center meeting on the “odd” Sunday’s of the month, the church finished the renovations at 405 N. Main St. and prepared for its first service. After receiving a verbal occupancy permit approval, the church held its first service in the new location on October 9, 2016 with 80 people in attendance. Two months later, the church began meeting WEEKLY for worship and ministry. The Lord has blessed and increased the work by adding numbers to His kingdom and renting two additional storefronts for use to conduct children’s ministry through “Splash.”

MISSION STATEMENT

Loving people to know Jesus Christ and leading them to walk in full devotion
to Christ all for the glory of God.