Launching with Energy & Excitement

Church Planting Pastor Parker McGoldrick said their first service was full of energy and excitement. “Honestly, it was just a lot of fun. You could feel the energy in the room due to it being our first service.” There were about 95 in attendance, including many kids in the children’s ministry. In addition to new guests from the community, the Ankeny Gospel Church launch team members invited many friends and neighbors to the service. “It was exciting to see many friends and supporters in attendance. But I think I was most excited to see several families who had just heard about the launch on social media and decided to attend.”

Gospel-Centered Worship Service

For the launch of their worship services, the Ankeny Gospel Church elder team decided to study and teach through the Gospel of Mark. “We started a teaching series in Mark a month ago with our launch team and we will be continuing it through the Easter season. We chose Mark because, if we have the word ‘Gospel’ in the name of our church, what better way to start than studying through the life of Christ in one of the Gospels!” The sermons are available on the Ankeny Gospel Church website and podcast.

The worship music style at AGC is contemporary but also incorporates a lot of hymns. “Our music director has put together a small but very talented team. With a few instruments and a few vocalists, the sound has a ‘stripped down,’ acoustic feel but sounds excellent and worshipful.”

Mission-Focused Partnerships

During the planting process, AGC has had several key ministry partners. Pastor Parker said, “Our partnerships are the reason we are able to be here at all. It has been the most encouraging thing to see how selfless the other churches have been toward us. It shows that we are all on the same mission. We have prayer and financial support and I have several pastors that I can call on whenever I need help or advice.” Two key supporting churches for AGC are located in Ankeny, the very same city where AGC has launched. Pastor Parker did a church planting residency at First Family Church and one of the three AGC elders was an elder at Keystone Church. “It is awesome to see all these Ankeny churches coming together to support new churches in Ankeny. We all recognize that Ankeny is growing fast. And, contrary to popular belief, not a lot of the people moving to Ankeny are involved in a gospel-centered church.”