ASSEMBLIES OF GOD
Planting Sego Church in the Salt Lake Valley
April 16, 2021
AGTrust Web Team
“We are honored and humbled that we get to advance the great name of Jesus in Utah with tremendous support from the AGTrust Matching Funds and The Church Multiplication Network. You helped Sego Church have an amazing start! Your support for the God-sized dream to plant a life-giving church in a depressed state has brought us encouragement and confidence time after time!”
Pastors Chris and Hannah Bechtel and their core team of 60 people launched Sego Church in South Jordan/West Jordan, Utah, on November 1, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic and national lockdown.
Prior to coming to Utah, the Bechtels served 15 years as youth and campus pastors at churches in Minnesota. Both are graduates of North Central University in Minneapolis. While gaining that ministerial experience, they knew in their hearts that God was leading them to plant a church someday.
In summer 2019, after several months of prayer and seeking God’s will for their next step, they spent a week in the South Jordan/West Jordan area of Utah and knew this was the place God was leading them to. When they approached The Church Multiplication Network of the Assemblies of God about planting a church, they learned West Jordan was the #1 target city where CMN wanted to start a church!
Pastors Chris and Hannah Bechtel and their core team launched Sego Church in South Jordan, Utah, on November 1, 2020.
Despite the pandemic, Chris and Hannah and their core team hosted interest meetings in the South Jordan/West Jordan communities into late summer 2020, and more than 200 people attended the launch service on November 1.
Utah, the youngest state in America with a median age of 30.5 years, ranks high in fast-growing economy and population, but it also ranks high in the areas of depression, porn addiction, and suicide rate. The Mormon influence in the state has created a culture where people present well and do good things in their communities, but many of them are broken in spirit and void of God’s love on the inside. In 2019, Salt Lake County’s population (Sego Church’s home) dipped to an all-time low of 48 percent Mormon.
“We believe harvest time is now so we are working hard to prepare for what’s to come!” Pastor Chris says. “Since our launch we have seen nine people make decisions to follow Christ and six people have been water baptized.”
Since Sego Church launched in November 2020, nine people have accepted Christ and six have been water baptized.
Sego Church members are passionate about reaching their neighbors and neighborhoods with the love of Christ. One of the first persons to accept Jesus as Savior was a 15-year-old neighbor. He prayed with Sego Church’s youth pastor in the Bechtels’ living room six months before the launch service.
A couple, James and Terri, visited Sego Church. James had been hurt by religion in the past, but felt drawn to start coming with Terri. He says that since the first time he walked into Sego Church, this has felt like home and God is drawing him closer. Terri had prayed for James for years and says it’s amazing to be a part of the harvest season in his life.
Sego Church has a goal to at least double in size this year by making disciples for Christ who make disciples for Christ. On the first Sunday of each month, Sego Church gathers in person at the American Academy of Innovation in South Jordan to celebrate with biblical teaching, worship, water baptism and communion. During the past few Sundays, attendance has been over 100. On alternate weeks, Sego Roots small groups meet weekly in homes to study the Bible and become rooted in the biblical community.
Sego Church gathers in person on the first Sunday of each month for biblical teaching, worship, water baptism and communion.
“We can’t say THANK YOU enough to AGTrust and CMN,” Pastor Chris says. “And we are also grateful to River Valley Church and Canvas Church, our parent churches in Minnesota, which have provided financial blessing and love!”
*The Sego Lily is Utah’s state flower and symbolizes peace.
THANK YOU for helping AGTrust and CMN to plant and equip healthy churches like Sego Church in South Jordan, Utah.
Over 600 church plants across America are reaching people for Christ today because of your support.