My name is Mike Kurrle, and I am a Christian involved in leading a church plant in Larchwood, Iowa. Larchwood is a small community of about 800 people in the northwest corner of the state. By many worldly measurements or metrics for success, Larchwood is not an ideal place to plant a church. It is a small community that is not booming with population growth. It is considered a quiet bedroom community where many residents drive elsewhere for work. There are not many meeting places to gather, and there are no public schools in town.
So why Larchwood?
Because as Christians, we are not led by metrics and statistics but rather a merciful and loving God who seeks and saves the lost (Luke 19:10). There are many who are lost and hurting in Larchwood.
At first, I did not sense a specific call to this area. While I was growing in my understanding that God was calling me to church planting, I also assumed that He would place a passion or desire in my heart for the specific community to which He would call me. I did not have that for Larchwood—at least not at first.
What I did see, however, were several pastors and Christians in surrounding communities with a heart for Larchwood. They were doing prayer drives and speaking of Larchwood as a place they believed the Lord wanted His church to reach. I even attended a couple of those prayer drives with them.
A few years later, several people from my church—Faith Baptist Church in Rock Rapids, Iowa—spent an extended season of about 14 weeks praying and visiting surrounding communities to discern what God was doing and whether He was calling us to move beyond our Jerusalem and into our Judea (Acts 1:8). There were four outcomes from that season together, and reaching Larchwood with the gospel of Christ was one of them.
Shortly after, I began visiting Larchwood with my wife. It started with simple prayer drives through the community. Those drives eventually led to a conviction that I needed to get out of the car and begin engaging people in conversation. The only place where I consistently saw people gathered was a small gas station in the middle of town. So I began visiting that gas station every week during the lunch hour.
I read how Paul asked the church in Colossae to pray that doors would be opened for him to share the gospel (Colossians 4:3-4), so that became the foundation of my visits. I would park, pray for opportunities to share the gospel, and then walk through the doors expecting the Lord to give courage, boldness, and specific people to engage for His good purposes. Soon after, a couple others from my church began joining me.
For the next two years, our pattern remained the same. We parked in the gas station lot, prayed for opportunities to share the gospel, and then entered the building expecting the Lord to guide us. As a result, my love for the community of Larchwood began to grow.
As I mentioned earlier, I did not have a particular passion for the town at first. I always knew there were lost people in Larchwood, but it was not until I met them, knew them by name, and became acquainted with their hurt that my compassion for them grew.
Let me tell you about Teresa.
We organized an outreach at a local park and invited several people from the gas station to join us. One of those people brought her friend, Teresa. Teresa is a sweet woman who grew up in Ecuador, moved to the United States, got married, and settled in Larchwood. We enjoyed getting to know her that evening, but after we all parted ways, we lost touch with her.
For several weeks afterward, our group continued to talk about Teresa. It was clear that the Lord was placing her on our hearts, but we had no way of contacting her. One day, as we parked at the gas station, we prayed, “Lord, we believe You desire us to reach Teresa, but we do not have the ability to find her. Please coordinate a meeting with her.” We said amen, got out of the car, and walked inside. As we opened the door, there was Teresa.
She had taken a position at the gas station, and her shift had recently been changed to cover the time of our visits. After hugs and conversation, we grabbed our lunch and sat down to eat. During a short break, Teresa came over to our table and said, “I have questions about your faith and what you believe. Could you share with me sometime?” What an incredible work of the Lord! We gladly said yes and later met with her in the park over dinner, where God provided an opportunity to share the gospel. Teresa responded wholeheartedly and has been on board ever since.
Over the course of two years, God granted us the opportunity to get to know 27 people and learn where they stand before the Lord, sharing the gospel with 16 of them. We learned that Larchwood is overwhelmingly unchurched, with many people struggling with addiction. We also saw a heart within the community to reach the youth. Through the help of Christians and two local pastors in town, the Lord gave us clarity that He was calling us to plant a church, begin a Bible study, start a youth group, and establish an addiction and recovery ministry.
Our group of three eventually grew to eight, and we began to feel the pressure of finding a place outside the gas station to gather regularly. We prayed for a Christian couple who would open their home to us, since most of us lived outside of town. In the meantime, we searched for rentals but our leads came up short.
During that season, we became aware of a building for sale along the main road running through the center of town. We did not have the funds to purchase a building and would have preferred to begin with a rental, but we prayed, trusting that if this was the Lord’s will, He would provide.
Within several weeks, the Lord provided $115,000 through four generous donations—without our group ever asking anyone for money. He also connected us with the team at Church Investors Fund, who were an incredible help throughout the loan process. By the grace of God and the faithfulness of His people, we now had a place to gather for worship.
Then we met Joshua and Maciah.
Our pastor at Faith Baptist Church, Jeff Poppinga, contacted me about a couple he had met who lived in Larchwood. He knew we had been praying for a Christian couple who would open their home to our group. I quickly scheduled lunch with them to hear their story. Joshua shared that they had recently moved to the community and sensed that God wanted them to attend church in town. Finding none, they had begun praying about the possibility of starting a church plant.
I was floored. I was meeting in the home of the very couple we had been praying for, and their house was right next door to the building we had just purchased. Our building quite literally blocks their view to the south—sorry, Joshua and Maciah! What’s more, Joshua is a teacher at the high school attended by many of Larchwood’s students, and he feels led to invite students into fellowship with the Lord. Joshua and Maciah have been an incredible blessing to our core group and have opened their home to us while we renovate the building.
Over the past several months, many people from our home church have invested countless hours re-siding the building, painting, cleaning, and installing flooring. We are now within a couple weeks of being able to meet inside for Bible study and begin additional outreach and ministry efforts. Our small group has grown to 18–20 people who gather weekly in homes as we eagerly await the day we can worship together in the building.
We want to give the Lord praise for His abundant grace and provision. While the process has been trying at times, it has consistently been a joy to fellowship with the Lord as He gathers people into His presence. We are also deeply thankful for the team at Church Investors Fund, not only for their expertise in the loan process, but for their partnership in the gospel through their prayers on our behalf.
Please pray for the people of Larchwood. We know there are more whom the Lord is gathering for His glory. Pray for our faithfulness to Him, to one another, and for unity as we seek to plant a church according to the Lord’s design and purposes.
“But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.’ He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” — John 11:49–52
On behalf of our group, thank you for your partnership in the gospel work in Larchwood.
Mike Kurrle
The Grove Baptist Church
Larchwood, Iowa
