About Living Faith
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Living Faith's mission is to (1) create disciples of Jesus Christ and teach them how to live a life of faith through the scope of scripture, the Cross, and grace and (2) encourage family centered and individual transformation toward a life of faith. The demographics of North Hartford includes an average age of 39 years old. Children and teenagers make up 13% of the resident
demographics in North Hartford. 20 and 30 somethings make up the larger population group in North Hartford with 35% of the total count. Residents who are 60 years of age and older make up 20% of the population. In addition, 46% of the population is married. What we have accomplished since 2015
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After determining the demographics of North Hartford, Living Faith embarked on a specific strategy to systematically launch several locations that aligned with the demographics of the community. In June 2015, we launched our first ministry location - Living Faith at Horace Bushnell. This ministry was specifically designed to serve residents who are 60 years of age and older. At this location, we have come across a number of senior adults who have not been to church in a long time due to their immobility or lack of transportation. This plant was designed to remove these barriers. We currently serve 10 on a weekly basis who have accepted the right hand of fellowship. We have the capacity to serve 45 adults and plan to continue to work to maximize our capacity of service. According to Dr. Russel Moore:
"So it is easy to even build a church that is taking, or to build the ministry, that is taking what the culture is doing for mammon worship reasons. Again, we talked about yesterday, you want to reach that target demographic when they're 18 to 34 because that's when they're moldable. Those are the people who really matter. And to turn that into a vision of the church very, very easily without ever knowing that you have adopted the principles of Madison Avenue rather than the Principles of the Kingdom of God. Having a sense in which the elderly are honored and the disabled are honored not as acts of charity but as image bearers of God, so that that woman with Alzheimer's who does not even recognize anyone else, ministry to her is worth it. And the ministry that you are having to that baby with AIDS who is not going to survive, that ministry is worth it. It starts there." Shortly after launching Living Faith at Horace Bushnell, we launched a church focused on youth and young adults - Living Faith at Young Life - in September 2015 with the goal of introducing these kids to Jesus, along with food and fellowship. This ministry was launched with five young people. Currently, this ministry serves 50 young people a week. After prayer and planning, the Living Faith team has decided to begin offering the right hand of fellowship to these young people with a goal of baptizing 30% of them by June 2017. As we've processed our lessons learned and re-assessed the demographics of North Hartford, our planing team has determined that our next logical step is to launch a third location with a focus on serving married couples and families with children. This population is the ripest for engagement and discipleship because of their demographics in North Hartford and because of the number of churches in North Hartford that do not specifically serve residents in North Hartford or who do not have an indigenous congregation that lives within a 5 mile radius of their churches. We believe that we can serve these families and be a church that is "in the city, for the city" so they do not feel neglected and can rely on the fact that there is a church that is committed to serving them and their families. We do not have a launch data as of yet but plan to set one after the new year.
