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God on a Mission in Salt Lake City

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by | 1 December, 2010 | 2 comments

By Brent Storms

Kyle Costello was born in Provo, Utah, while his parents were attending Brigham Young University. He was raised in a small town on the Utah/Nevada border. Because his family was Mormon, they made frequent trips to Salt Lake City.

As a 19-year-old, Kyle prepared for his two-year “mission.” He began to anticipate some of the questions people might ask him when he knocked on doors. His quest for answers began innocently enough. He really wanted to know how to defend his faith.

But the more he explored, and the more he raised questions with his father (now a bishop) and his grandfather (then a bishop), the less convinced he became.

Kyle decided to leave the faith behind. He moved to Las Vegas for college and started working in business. He remembers, I wasn”t putting God first. I was putting Kyle first.

A girl invited him to church. Motivated purely by interest in the girl, he went with her to Central Christian Church. Over the course of a few years, God finally got through to Kyle. He discovered the good news of God”s grace available through Jesus. He committed himself to Christ and was baptized. (This was ironic for Kyle, as he had been baptized hundreds of times before!)

The gospel revolutionized Kyle”s life. For the first time, he saw faith was based on God and his goodness, not on man and his supposed goodness. He joined the staff at Central Christian Church, completed a seminary degree, developed a teaching curriculum for understanding Mormonism, and moved to Portland to serve at Imago Dei Community, a new urban congregation.

God had given him a new life, a beautiful wife (Joy, the girl who invited him to church), a clear purpose, a loving church family, a heart for people far from God, and increasingly, a desire to plant a church.

A Heart for the City

Some of us met Kyle when we came to Salt Lake City for a meeting of church planters and church leaders called by Doug Crozier of the Church Development Fund. The purpose of the gathering was to discuss the possibility of starting churches along the Wasatch Front in Utah.

We from the Orchard Group quickly discovered how closely aligned our approaches to ministry were. Obviously, Salt Lake City has its own cultural uniqueness, with which Kyle is very familiar. But Kyle”s specific interest was in planting an urban church, right in the heart of the city. And with more than 60 years experience planting churches in New York City and the Northeast, we had a heart for urban church planting.

After an extensive process of interviews, assessments, and site visits, Orchard Group hired Kyle to plant a church in Salt Lake City. Several churches joined together to form the partnership: Crossroads Christian Church (Texas), Central Christian Church of the East Valley and Chandler Christian Church (both of Arizona), and Parkview Christian Church and West Side Christian Church (both Illinois). Imago Dei Community generously supported Kyle and Joy, even blessing a few families who chose to leave their jobs and homes in Portland to move to Salt Lake City to help the new church.

Kyle and Joy moved into their home in Salt Lake City in January 2010. Their home is less than a mile east of downtown and the Salt Lake (Mormon) Temple, and a mile west of the University of Utah. This is the area the new church will be targeting.

A Connection with the People

Kyle spent the first few months meeting people, making connections in person and through social media contacts. Those relationships led to dinners in the Costello home, where people started meeting one another and learning more about the plans for this new church””Missio Dei Community.

The name was chosen with great sensitivity to the cultural context. The word church evokes a different reaction in Utah than in lots of other places. Also, in the minds of many Salt Lake City residents, a mission is something man goes on. The idea that God is on a mission, part of the gospel message, may be a surprise to most people in their neighborhood.

But it is also good news to many, a message that attracts them to this new work. There are already more than 60 people meeting weekly in homes””worshipping, praying, and preparing for the official launch of the church this fall. Three new believers have been baptized, and more are considering committing their lives to Christ.

A Faith In Spite of Obstacles

Many people in Salt Lake City are intensely hostile toward faith and reject all “organized religion.” Kyle can relate well with these folks. But some are slowly warming to the transforming message of God”s grace for us through Jesus.

One of the biggest obstacles Kyle and Missio Dei Community have faced is finding a space for services.

The church was very close to signing a lease for a great space in an old meatpacking building downtown, but one of the owners decided he didn”t want to rent to a church. The church had an informal agreement to rent space at a performing arts theater. When it came time to sign the agreement, the owner backed out of his commitment. No explanation.

The church is now speaking with representatives of a rock concert venue downtown about renting space each week. Since Sunday mornings aren”t a coveted time slot for rock concerts, maybe this one will work out! In the meantime, the church keeps growing as it meets in houses and develops leaders. Sounds familiar, does it not?

They devoted themselves to the apostles” teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:42-27).

Brent Storms is president of Orchard Group in New York City.

2 Comments

  1. John C. Dunn

    PTL! I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article. I think that the ending is great. I see the church as already being planted. Keep working those home groups or house churches. Don’t worry about having a weekly meeting space for everyone. You might think about renting once a month or a quarter. You can also connect through video link over the web. I would take the money you save and use it for evangelism both local and international. Keep up the good work.

    God Bless,

    John C. Dunn

  2. Pastor Theresa Hatcher

    Hi Kyle and all the group:

    What a great story! Praise the Lord for you. Our desire as Christians is to see all mankind saved. We certainly don’t look down on anyone’s belief, but know in our hearts that “all roads do not lead to Heaven.” I am so grateful to God that in His wisdom He saved someone who has inside information on the Mormon faith. May the Lord exalt you, and use you mightily in His Kingdom. Please place us on your mailing list.

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