In addition to celebrating their first birthday as a church, they also celebrated their partnership with Michael and Ally Van Waardhuizen. The Van Waardhuizens are being sent by Redeemer Church in Cedar Falls to plant a church in Denver, Colorado. Including this upcoming church plant, Restoration Church is currently supporting 5 Send Network church plants. What an encouragement to see that, even though Restoration is just a year old, they are already committed to supporting other church plants.

Restoration Church was about 7 months old when COVID hit. In some ways, this was easier for a new church plant because they are more flexible. But in most ways, it’s harder. “We pretty much had to ‘relaunch’ all our ministries when we re-opened because our ministry rhythms were still so new. We also changed meeting locations so that required a lot of readjustment.” Other areas of challenge and opportunity were worship and tech. “The pandemic has made us learn some things we didn’t think we would have to learn this early. We were not intending to live stream services in the first year. But the Lord is faithful to equip us and stretch us and it’s a huge benefit now that we have finally been able to meet in person again.”

Social distancing has been especially challenging for Restoration in relational evangelism. Restoration’s ministry focus from day one was building relationships and that has been the hardest thing to do in the midst of the pandemic. “We felt that our biggest thing was taken away from us. It’s no longer as simple as saying, ‘Let’s grab a coffee and talk about that.’ On the positive side, it has given a lot of leaders in our church the opportunity to grow personally as shepherds. While we try to find the new norm for evangelism, we are patiently waiting for God to do his work and are excited with what He is going to do in the future.”

This whole year has been full of surprises for Restoration Church and in spite of the challenges, they have a lot to be thankful for. “What are we most grateful for in the first year? That we survived!” said Pastor Eric, only half jokingly. “We had just enough time to get some traction but we weren’t locked into anything so we were still flexible. Another thing that really helped us is that we set out to keep our ministry simple but do everything with excellence. We wanted to be the best at doing a few essential things and that meant that we were pretty lean to begin with. For example, we have an awesome kids ministry. We have a volunteer leader, Leslie Banwart, who is super passionate about kids ministry. For me as the pastor to know that I don’t have to worry about whether our kids are hearing the gospel is huge.”

What has been the biggest surprise? Pastor Eric says, “Almost every day we hear from our church members and even community members that, ‘There’s just something different about Restoration Church.’ I get goosebumps every time I hear that. And we realize it’s not that we’re doing anything special but that simply that God has shown up and has done something great in our midst. Everyday I’m surprised by that.”