The Rockville Campus of Linglestown Life in Harrisburg is a new and exciting model of church planting. Currently they have three successful initiatives underway that are reaching and serving their local community.
community classrooms for students who needed a safe place for online schooling while their parents work, or access to Wi-Fi. Rockville campus has hosted more than 25 students over the past 6 months; students from various districts, various nationalities and ethnic backgrounds, and various English-speaking-levels. “These students have taught us about the resilience of kids and the power of education,” said Pastor Taylor Pfaff. The students and parents appreciate the supervision, support, Wi-Fi access, regular meals (many student families live with food insecurity), and personal attention. The community classrooms, supported by a grant from the Young People’s Ministry Council, have been a meaningful way for church members and volunteers to support local families.
Second, Rockville campus started a community garden, intentionally networking with locals who were not [yet] part of the church. Four people having no relationship with Rockville church beforehand showed up to help build the garden beds. Local growers have messaged the church to provide seedlings for the garden. “There’s a clear sense we’ve tapped into a gardening community and that we can build great relationships while growing healthy food for our neighborhood,” said Pfaff.
At the encouragement of Pfaff’s (conference-supplied) ministry coach, Paul Nixon, they’ve made this garden a grass-roots project and invited the community members to take ownership.
Third, Rockville is economizing their church kitchen. Through an online system, they’ve opened the kitchen for rentals in order to make income for their Ray’s Place Community Center. “I had this idea after I was approached by a martial arts group who is renting our basement twice a week — a benefit to them and to our ministry. I realized that our whole church space is something that our community may want to use if we simply welcomed them in and named the value of the space,” said Pfaff, who anticipates a dim future for tithing. “Renting the church space for use as a launching-pad for local commerce is one way we can fund our locally-focused missions and ministry.”
So far, they’ve rented the space in partnership with Crafted Caramel, Comida De Fuego, Rogue Chef, and other local caterers and food trucks. This ‘small business incubator’ allows local entrepreneurs to start and grow their business from an affordable space. As for Rockville campus, “We can build meaningful relationships with people who’d never otherwise enter our space, and it provides income for our ministries.” A win-win.
For more information or if you have other ideas for church-planting and community outreach contact Pastor Taylor Pfaff at tpfaff@susumc.org
