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Our
History
Life
Community Church (LCC) began as a vision to plant a different kind
of church in the Columbus, Ohio area. In Summer of 1995, Tom and
Marcia Bennardo and their daughter Lauren moved to Hilliard, a northwest
suburb of Columbus to start that church from scratch.
They knew no one in the area, and began by talking to people about
what it would be like to see that kind of church. Two college students
who had been part of the Bennardo’s youth group at The Chapel
in Akron, Ohio--Justin King and Steve Hyatt--came to town that first
summer to help make the initial contacts. After several months of
contact work and personal outreach, in Fall of 1995 the first cell
group was formed. Outreach continued toward people who did not go
to church, or who might have attended at one time but had become
disillusioned, burned, or wounded along the way.
Leaders
emerged, numbers of people came to faith in Christ, the church baptized
people at the local pool and hotel pools on several occasions, and
the cell group expanded into two, three, and then four groups. To
move toward the launch of public Sunday services, Dan and Lara Burmeister
were invited to town several times that fall, and Dan led combined
worship once a month through the winter. Dan Burmeister officially
joined the staff as Pastor of Music, Worship, and Programming at
the start of ‘97, and in February of ‘97 Sunday meetings
increased to biweekly. Plans were set in motion to birth the church
officially on September 7, 1997.
Larry
and Tina Ely were added to the team in July of 1997, raising their
own support to serve as youth directors. Since most of the church
body were either young parents or not parents, there were no teenagers
with whom to start a youth group. They started from scratch and
began reaching teens in the area with the gospel.
The
church officially opened its doors to the public on September 7,
1997, distributing a color brochure to over 35,000 households in
the Columbus area and emphasizing outreach to the unchurched. Over
the next few years, steady growth continued as people came to personal
faith in Christ and more leaders and cell groups were established.
Ministry expanded in areas like children’s groups, the LCC
Worship Band, Drama Team, and other ministries through cell groups.
In
2002, through a series of remarkable events, the church secured
the former Sutherland’s lumber site on Cemetery Road. After
extensive negotiations with the city and major renovations, LCC
opened its permanent facility at 4400 Cemetery Road in June, 2004.
Still
further growth in both numbers and resources led to J.R. Kennedy
joining the full-time pastoral staff in the summer of 2005 as Pastor
of Children’s Ministries, enabling LCC to expand and develop
the fastest-growing area of the church.
Plans
are in place for further expansion, particularly through the planting
of new churches out of the LCC body.
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