News

Bookmark and Share

LifeSpring Church reaches out to Statesboro, Bulloch County residents

11/20/2009

There is no steeple.  No choir robes.  No colorful banners.  No wooden pews.  Not even a permanent building.

But there is passion, a desire to win people for Christ and a heart for the people of Statesboro and Bulloch County.
“I felt like God was telling me to do something different,” said Rev. Dorsia Atkinson, pastor of LifeSpring Church, a new United Methodist congregation in Statesboro. 
Prior to starting LifeSpring during the summer of 2008, Rev. Atkinson served as pastor of Warwick United Methodist Church for seven years.  Before that he served McRae United Methodist Church as the Director of Children and Youth.
It was while at Warwick UMC that Rev. Atkinson, a second-career pastor, felt called to plant a new church.  His initial interest – to plant a new church on the banks of Lake Blackshear – was refined by then-Bishop Michael Watson and Dr. Tim Bagwell, Executive Director of Congregational Development for the South Georgia Conference.  They saw the potential for growth in the Statesboro/Bulloch County area and asked Rev. Atkinson to start a new United Methodist Church there.
 “We prayed about it and accepted the call and came over here to Statesboro,” said Rev. Atkinson, who moved to Bulloch County with his wife Jodi and three children.  
 Starting the church as a parachute-drop church plant was tough, he said.  “This is the hardest kind of church plant because we were ‘dropped’ here with what we had on our backs.”
Rev. Atkinson and LifeSpring Church have the support of the Conference and the United Methodist Church, a denomination that hopes to start 650 new churches in the United States by 2012.
“Church planting is a major component of Methodist history,” Dr. Bagwell said.  “From 1776 to 1850 the Methodist movement moved from 3% of all church members to 34% of all church members in the United States.  There was massive growth.  During that time, the United Methodist Church was planting an average of one church per day.  Reclaiming the priority of starting new churches is critical to the long-term health of the denomination.”
With significant growth in the Bulloch County area - since 1980, the population has grown 77% -and the reality that 60% of the population of the county does not have a church home made it an area ripe and ready for a new church.
“What a great mission field!  We are seeking to reach those who do not have a community of faith,” Dr. Bagwell said.      
Rev. Atkinson is uniquely qualified for his role as church planter, says Dr. Bagwell.  “He is energetic, gifted, relational, creative, entrepreneurial, and committed.  He has demonstrated fruit throughout his ministry.”
Rev. Joe Roberson, Statesboro District Superintendent, echoes Dr. Bagwell’s statements.
“Rev. Atkinson is very gifted,” Rev. Roberson said.  “He’s been endowed with godly qualities that allow him to really make people feel comfortable.  He’s a visionary and he knows where God is leading.  He empowers leaders around him towards that vision.  At the heart of it is that he is very evangelistic; he wants to win people for Christ and to see persons give their lives to Christ.  That is, to me, deeply rooted into our Wesleyan heritage.”
After reaching out to residents, connecting with the community and meeting in homes for approximately six months, LifeSpring Church held its first preview service in January of this year.  In February they hosted two preview services, and in March they started meeting weekly in Bulloch Academy’s cafeteria. 
The vision of LifeSpring, according to Rev. Atkinson, is to make and grow disciples, basically fulfilling the Great Commission. 
“The way that we do that is by loving people, developing relationships and modeling discipleship,” he said.   
With an average weekly attendance hovering near 100, Rev. Atkinson says that LifeSpring has the challenge of being an “invisible church” for most of the week.  Meeting in a school cafeteria has been a financial blessing to the church (Bulloch Academy doesn’t charge the church a rental fee), but they are looking for a more permanent location where chairs, musical instruments and other worship aids don’t have to be set up on Saturday night and removed on Sunday afternoon.  A more permanent location would also give members and attendees a place for meetings, counseling sessions, and other gatherings.
Some people are drawn to new churches, says Rev. Roberson.  “We live in a day and age when some peoples’ understanding of an established church may not be as positive as it would be with a new church.  It’s a new beginning, a new organism, a new movement.”  Citing the fact that there have been 70,000 new residents move into the Statesboro area in the past 30 years he says, “We can all engage in witnessing for Christ.  This district is very mission and ministry minded.  The attitude needs to be that we the Statesboro District are breathing life into LifeSpring Church and are sharing our prayers, talents and treasures with this new church start.  This is ‘Kingdom Economics’ – if we help other churches grow, it will help all churches grow, and it sows an evangelistic spirit.
“Bishop King has presented to us the need to grow a Christlike world,” Rev. Roberson said.  “LifeSpring Church represents that vision in the Statesboro Dist and our Annual Conference.”
LifeSpring Church meets on Sunday mornings at 10:30 in the Bulloch Academy cafeteria.  For more information, visit www.lifespringeffect.com, call 912-489-0528 or email dorsia@lifespringeffect.com.

--By Kara Witherow, South Georgia Advocate editor

To subscribe to the South Georgia Advocate, the official newspaper of the South Georgia Conference, mail your check, payable to "South Georgia Advocate," P.O. Box 660275 / Dallas, TX 75266-0275. Pay by credit card by calling 1.877.465.1685 or online.  A one year subscription is $25 (or $23 for subscribers 65 and older).  Keep up with the news of the South Georgia Conference. 

email this page to a friend