LifeSpring Christian Church, Beaumont

Stadia representative Bruce White reports on his recent visit:

On Sunday, September 25, I visited our new church in Beaumont, California on "Week 3" of their Grand Opening. Beaumont has been kind of a sleepy, agricultural town of less than 20,000 for decades, and is known to most people in SoCal as the place to stop for gas and a burger when you are heading home from Palm Springs. But all of that is rapidly changing. More than 40,000 homes have been approved to be built in this area over the next several years. And all kinds of people are moving in, ranging from young families looking for affordable housing ("affordable" is a relative term, of course) to retirees looking for a more relaxed pace of life. Several of the new developments are just for "Age 55 and up".

Needless to say, Beaumont is not just a rapidly growing community...it is a rapidly changing community.

Church Planters Dwight & Carol Addleman are doing a solid job of drawing in new people into the new church. They have gathered around them a committed staff of part-timers to provide ministry oversight in the areas of worship, youth, children, and outreach/community care. This is allowing the church to provide specific ministry focus in vital areas right at the outset.

The church is blessed with a very nice facility: a new elementary school that is just one year old! Even better, the school was built with rooms allocated for "future growth", so at the present time the church has exclusive use of several classrooms.

The service is very inviting and welcoming to seekers and believers alike. Worship, communion, message...everything flows well and is explained for the guest. Dwight preaches while sitting on a stool, which lends a friendly, informal, and conversational atmosphere to the service. His application points are practical and the Gospel message comes through clearly.

LifeSpring launched with two services in order to provide visitors with a choice of worship times and to plan for their own future growth. This strategy seems to be working well at the outset. And the stream of visitors so far reflects the diversity of the community: they are from all ages and stages of life, and the ethnicities include Anglo, Hispanic, and African-American. Well over 500 people visited the church during their first three weeks, and the staff now faces the exciting challenge of forming these visitors into a worshipping and witnessing community of Christ.

One of the very exciting things about Life Spring is that it results from a Church Planting Partnership, as 5 churches joined forces to plant this new congregation. Our thanks to Community Christian Church (Hemet), Discovery Christian Church (Moreno Valley), Eastside Christian Church (Fullerton), New Day Christian Church (Corona Valley), and Yucaipa Christian Church (Yucaipa) for investing in Dwight & Carol and their vision for Beaumont. What a privilege it is for all of us at Stadia to partner with pastors and churches that have a kingdom heart!

Per a meeting with Pastor Dwight Addleman on Oct. 3, 2005, Jim Swaney reports:

LifeSpring’s attendance in Beaumont on October 2 was 163, for week 4 of their “Grand Opening Month.” They averaged 170 in their first 4 weeks, meeting at Brookside Elementary School. They have seen 70 new families visit the church so far! Of the two worship services, at 8:45 and 10:30 am, the 10:30 is seeing more visitors, and has a children’s church ministry at that hour. Last night, Dwight and Carol hosted a “Membership Class” at their home. Pray for them as they enfold these new attenders into small groups and get them connected to the “body life” at LifeSpring.