Ever since Levi began in ministry he felt that God would eventually call him to plant a church. When he was a youth pastor at Calvary of Albuquerque, he and several friends from the student ministries would talk of one day starting a church together. When he moved to Southern California to direct the student ministries at Ocean Hills Church, the dream lay dormant but it was not forgotten.
Several years later the Senior Pastor at Ocean HIlls resigned and Levi was appointed as the interim teaching pastor. Levi was excited to see God using him but after six months he sensed the time had come to do something a little reckless. He had spoken at an outreach in Montana earlier in the year and decided to move there and start a church. When Levi told his friends what he was thinking, to his surprise, many in New Mexico and California said they were on board. Sensing God’s call they were willing to leave careers, families and ministry positions at mega-churches behind. Most of them never even visited first but moved to Montana having never been there before.
A few months before the move, Levi was in the Salt Lake City airport, and was trying to decide what to call the church. He remembers praying that God would do a fresh work and the idea of calling it Fresh Life came to him. God provided a location through someone who had been praying for God to move in Kalispell and offered the use of his storefront building for a year in exchange for one dollar. Fourteen people came to the first service on Sunday morning, January 14, 2007 and the church was born.
Two years later, Fresh Life Church had grown to over a thousand adults, and was holding it’s three weekend services at the retrofitted, ninety-year old Strand theatre in the heart of the downtown. Levi and the whole team have been amazed to watch God change lives and they are especially stoked about the hundreds of people who have made first time decisions to follow Christ. They are quick to point to the hunger people have for the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit as the factors that have lead to the church’s growth. Levi says that God has blessed the church because with every breath they want to make Jesus famous.
Visit Fresh Life Church online.
Here are a few news stories on the church:
Blue Jean’ Jesus Comes to the Strand
Fresh Life Finds Flock in Kalispell
Creative-arts pastor has eye for design
Growing Church Purchases Second Theater
NBC story on fresh life’s expansion into the Liberty Theater
Still Growing: Fresh Life Expands to Another Downtown Building
Collide Magazine Church Spotlight: Fresh Life Church
Stoked to Save
Kalispell church uses technology to reach younger worshippers