ASSEMBLIES OF GOD
The Generations Church Impacts Ness County
“Thank you, AGTrust and The Church Multiplication Network! The AGTrust Matching Funds helped us renovate the 5,600 square-foot building for The Generations Church and equip it for service. The CMN training gave us the practical information and tools we needed to step out in faith and continued to give us momentum as we walked through the process all the way to the launch.”
The Generations Church in Ness City, Kansas, celebrated its third year of existence this month. Pastors Randy and Lisa Parr planted the church on September 11, 2019. Ness City is the county seat of Ness County, which has a population of nearly 2,700.
For three years The Generations Church in Ness, Kansas, has been reaching out to the people of Ness County with the good news of the gospel.
When the Parrs moved to Ness, nine other people moved with them, opened three businesses in the community, and helped with the pre-launch activities.
“Our vision as a church is two-focused: 1) to geographically saturate the communities in the county with the love, Word, and Spirit of God, and 2) to challenge the people’s current idea of what church and family look like,” Pastor Randy says.
“We hope to be a church where moms, dads, young children, and teenagers want to come and be part of, and help make Ness County a place where the next generations will want to continue to live and invest in.”
The Generations Church has a growing children’s ministry, under the direction of Angelica Garza. During a special program, held on Friday nights, the children learned the story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and memorized the books of the Bible.
The Generations Church is working to accomplish this goal by starting small groups in every community that meet weekly, providing a safe place where people can study the Word of God and build meaningful relationships with others.
“Gaining the trust of people in our rural communities is a challenge, but we desire to be a blessing to them, even if they never attend our church,” Randy says.
Currently, attendance at The Generations Church averages 70-75 each Sunday. In 2021, 25 people accepted Christ and 8 were water baptized. Four more believers were baptized at the third anniversary service on September 11, 2022.
Pastor Randy baptizes four believers at the third anniversary service of the church in September.
A group of 12-18 men meet each Wednesday in Pastor Randy’s garage, which is called the ManCave, for food, fellowship, and Bible study. Several months ago, Justin, age 30, came to a Sunday service at the church in order to impress a girl, but responded to the Holy Spirit’s drawing and accepted Christ in that service. He has been water baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit and is now co-facilitating the men’s small group with Pastor Randy. He recently took his first Kansas School of Ministry class to help him grow in his faith. About 20 women meet for their small group.
Jennifer came to the church the same Sunday as Justin and rededicated her life, and was water baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. She had attended the church when it launched in 2019, but had moved away and become involved with drug abuse. Now she is participating in Life Recovery and receiving healing.
Through the small groups for men (ManCave) and women, The Generations Church is helping people in the community grow in faith.
“The Generations Church is planning now for our second campus to open in early 2023 in WaKeeney, Kansas, a city of about 1,800 in Trego County,” Pastor Randy says. WaKeeney is located about 40 miles north of Ness on Interstate 70, halfway between Kansas City, Mo., and Denver, Co. Campus pastors for WaKeeney already live in that community and have begun vision casting meetings and are praying about a location for the church. Some of those who attend small groups on Wednesday night in Ness go to WaKeeney each week for Bible study, hoping to be a part of the launch team there.
Randy and Lisa served as missionaries to Mexico with Assemblies of God World Missions (2006-2012) and as U.S. Assemblies of God missionaries (2013-present).
The Generations Church in Ness City, Kansas, is one of 672 churches that have been funded with the help of AGTrust Matching Funds, which help a new church quickly get established and begin winning people to Christ. YOUR GIFT TODAY to AGTrust will help us continue our mission: To establish a healthy church marked by spiritual and numerical growth in every community across America.