Easter, a celebration of rebirth, also marks a beginning for The Chapel’s newest branch in Kenmore.
Led by a millennial couple from the Akron neighborhood, The Chapel Kenmore is holding its first public Sunday service at 10:30 on Easter morning.
Though the church is new to the general public, it’s been tucked away in Kenmore’s hilly streets for months. Pastor Jacob Ley, along with his wife, Alicia, established a “missional” community there last September that converges in their home.
On designated days, about a dozen toddlers and their parents pour in through the Leys’ side door, earning their home the nickname of “side-door ministry.” Chatter and laughter fill the bright red living room as the parents meet for dinner to casually discuss life and religion.
Alicia said the last major piece to launch is the service on Easter Sunday, held at First Glance, a youth center and ministry at 943 Kenmore Blvd.
Seeking guidance
The new church in Kenmore is a product of what the Leys describe as “a calling from God.”
The Leys had been volunteering at First Glance for years before a pastor at The Chapel, an Akron-based megachurch, sent Jacob out to establish a church campus of his own.
Already living and working in the community, the Leys initially thought Kenmore seemed like an obvious place to plant a seed.
However, the couple said they didn’t simply want to rely on “what seemed natural.”
“We really want to be people who seek God and allow his spirit to lead us, and so we try to set aside time to just pray and fast and ask the Lord [for guidance],” Jacob said.
As the couple prayed for a sign leading them in the right direction, tragedy struck at First Glance when an 18-year-old girl’s mother died in April. Taylor Buchanan, a teen mom in one of First Glance’s programs, and her 3-year-old son, Troy, were left alone.
The Leys found themselves facing two major decisions: Where should they start a religious community, and how could they help the struggling teen mom?
Jacob, feeling restless and unsure of the next step, decided to confront the night in search of a sign from God.
He strolled through the same dark streets of Kenmore that children walk day after day on their way home from school, hoping for a vision that would confirm his initial instinct. Passing modest houses, Jacob reached his favorite spot on Sixth Avenue that overlooks the city of Akron in full. Still, nothing came.
He continued to walk and pray, feeling something was missing.
Then, his feelings changed.
“All of the sudden, God just broke my heart for this girl. The best way I can describe it is I felt like in a moment, God gave me a father’s heart for her,” Jacob said. “I just have this sense from God, and in that, I felt like God said, ‘I want you to stay here, I want you to make this girl a part of your family, and I want you to start a church.’ ”
After sharing his vision with Alicia, the couple decided not only to become fully ingrained in Kenmore, but also to add to their family. The couple, both 31, took permanent custody of Taylor, claiming her as their daughter and her son, Troy, as their grandson.
“I like to joke that we’re the youngest grandparents,” Jacob said.
“All that to say, there’s a spiritual aspect of being called here and why we’re doing what we’re doing in the Kenmore community,” his wife added.
Branching out
To reach out to Kenmore’s diverse population, the Leys chose to take a different approach to ministry by establishing casual communities instead of a new church building.
“Our hope is to establish and build communities of Christians that love each other as a family, who grow together as disciples of Jesus and then who seek to engage as missionaries into the world to make disciples,” Jacob said.
The Leys have hosted family dinners twice a month along with Bible studies in their home since September.
“The majority of our community isn’t going to just walk into a church building,” Alicia said. “But if we’re a community of people that actually live in and love the community, that are here building relationships and being our broken selves loving other broken lives, that’s on more of a relational level.”
The couple is already working on establishing two more missional communities in addition to the one in Kenmore.
“It takes 1,000 more pounds of pressure to get an airplane off the ground than it does to sustain it in the air,” Alicia said. “We are for sure in the pressure phase of it, but the best part is inviting people in.”
Many of the Kenmore church’s members have been affiliated with The Chapel for years.
Brenda and Bruce Adams have been at The Chapel for 36 years, spending many of those years working with the youth ministry.
“I love The Chapel, but so many people today do not go to church,” he said. “Kenmore reaches out to people.”
Decentralizing
The Chapel Kenmore serves as an initial stepping stone on the new path The Chapel is traveling. Since November, the church has been moving toward decentralizing its three existing campuses, along with the new campus in Kenmore.
Initially, The Chapel’s campuses in Green and Wadsworth were built around a centralized model, maintaining identical methods of ministering as well as sharing common resources.
However, as The Chapel continued expanding, the campuses found they needed the freedom to adapt to their communities for more effective outreach.
Each campus is now moving toward “communicating a never-changing message using ever-changing methods,” said Josh Kass, the director of communications at The Chapel. They will each begin ministering in ways that appeal to their community while conveying the same theological message.
The leaders of each church campus will not only have the freedom to reach their demographic in a way they deem appropriate, but also to choose where the church will go.
“We don’t want to ever insert ourselves into a spiritually strong community already,” Kass said.
Theresa Cottom can be reached at 330-996-3216 or tcottom@thebeaconjournal.com.