The Seeds

In the summer of 2009, Bryan Sloan began meeting with a couple friends every week for a year-long discipleship program in hopes of being equipped to make disciples more faithfully (Downline Ministries). During that time, the Lord put it on his heart to consider planting a church, which was later confirmed by others, as well. In the spring of 2010, a few families began meeting weekly at Cassidy and Nichole Moore's home to pray and study the Bible together. They hoped to learn what it would look like to live on mission together. The Fields Church was born out of this desire to make disciples of all nations and to be a church in the world.

The Fields

During this time, Bryan was on staff as the Student Pastor at Lamar Baptist Church in North Arlington and began sharing his heart with the leadership of the church. Together they made a plan for Bryan to continue serving through the summer and transition out in the Fall. In October of 2010, The Fields Church was planted and began meeting weekly on Sunday nights to worship and study Galatians at Bryan and his wife Joy's home. After 6 months of weekly gatherings and monthly vision nights, an opportunity arose to move into the Cooper St. YMCA.

Why the Y? We had been praying and looking for a place to plant our church and partner with during the week to show and share the Gospel with the community. Having looked at daycares, schools, theaters, rec centers, and rental space, the Y seemed to be God's perfect fit. The Y is a type of local "well," where our local community gathers regularly. There is a wide diversity of age, ethnicity, languages, education, socio-economic levels, and religious backgrounds represented at the Y. This seemed like the perfect place to live on mission with the gospel for our community.

But, the current cost didn't meet our budget. Nevertheless, after much prayer and consideration, Bryan met with the director of the Y to share his heart and desire to plant a church at the Y. We didn't want to just rent the space but partner with them to help fulfill their Christian mission. After a short meeting, the Lord's hand was clearly at work, and they agreed to move forward even with our very limited budget. On Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011, we had our first worship gathering at the Y as The Fields Church—and we've been meeting there ever since.

The Harvest

Bryan began preaching through the book of Colossians and in the years since, we've walked through many books of the Bible, parts of the Psalms, John, and Revelation, along with several topical series. We launched our what became our Discipleship Groups early on in the life of our church. In 2013, we formally established elders/pastors in leadership and in 2015, covenant membership at The Fields. Around that time, Graham Jones came on staff to lead our church in worship. Over the years, he's written original music to help us better worship Christ.

Since 2011, we've made it our mission to serve and love the staff and members of our Y. We show up to every Y event we can with volunteers, crafts, activities, give aways, and gospel centered resources to pass out to everyone. In addition, we've also helped several other local churches get connected with and planted in other local YMCAs. We are also partnering with other local, national, and global pastors and Christian leaders in the YMCA to build a network of churches in the YMCA (CITY Movement). We are so grateful to our friends at Antioch Community Church and The Gathering Church in the Countryside YMCAs of Lebanon and Mainville, OH who helped us greatly in connecting with and serving at our YMCA.

From the start, we have set aside time to pray for the nations every single Sunday. Since then, we've prayed for every nation in the world, most major cities, unreached people groups, missionaries, agencies, and world religions. We've also been committed to giving at least 20% of our offerings to mission and church planting efforts. In additon to repeated and regular mission trips to places like Latvia, Uganda, Vietnam, and Utah, we have also had the privilege of sending several of our own members to live on the mission field in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

We hope and pray God gives us many more years to grow as a church, serve on mission at the Y, and fulfill our vision to be A Church in the World.

_________________________

Watch this video from our 7th anniversary for a glimpse at what the Lord has done in the life of our church!