We planted our church about seven years ago. About five years ago we started an event called Party in the Park, with our whole goal being to reach out in our community in a live and active way and be really real. The party is completely free and has a zero-dollar budget to this day.
The first time, we had 600 people, which was a mega-event for our town of only 13,000. [bctt tweet=”Last year we had over 1,200 people at this event, which for our town is unheard of – Michael Houle” quote=”Then, this last year, we had over 1,200 people at this event, which for our town is unheard of.”] It was amazing, but that’s not the cool part. The cool part was to see all the families, the youth, the kids there.
This one lady came up to us, and I thanked her for letting us put on this party to thank the community. And she said, “No, this isn’t from you, for the community. You are the community. This is an event we would never miss. Your church is part of our town.”
It has been such a blessing to see how God is moving in our town and using us for his purposes.
Michael Houle, Pastor, Valley Vineyard, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
