By Deb Strubel

Seven years of prayer and planning and an unfinished auditorium floor covered with names resulted in an outpouring of God’s blessing on opening Sunday for one church location in York, PA. Leaders and worshipers had prayed and prepared for 500 to attend opening day—and instead 1,995 adults and kids showed up.

Lives Changed By Christ (LCBC) is one church with multiple locations throughout central Pennsylvania. The York campus is LCBC’s fourth location, which was launched with two services (9 and 11 a.m.) in March 2012. The overwhelming response can be credited to the intentional prayer efforts prior to the launch.

Writing Names and Praying Them

In “One of our core leadership principles is to pray about everything,” says John Zeswitz, executive director of ministries. “It’s more than a mantra—it is a part of how we engage every initiative and decision.”

About 150 people came to the unfinished York space one Sunday afternoon in February 2012 and wrote hundreds of names on the floor—parents, neighbors, relatives, and  friends. Every name represented prayers by those who were planning to invite them to services.

“There was even an ultrasound picture of a baby yet to be born,” Zeswitz says. “It was touching and sacred.” Although those names are now covered with carpet, prayers continue to permeate the meeting space.

Prayer events prior to other campus launches were similar. For instance, participants in Harrisburg wrote on the walls the names of people they were planning on inviting. In Manheim, before the auditorium was built, names were written on wooden stakes. Putting a stake in the ground represented a commitment to invite that person who was far from God.     In Lancaster City, LCBC leases the auditorium on Sundays and does not own it, so instead the people wrote names on a large banner.

Responding to the Thirsty

Senior Pastor David Ashcraft said, in an email to the LCBC family, that the York launch “pretty much proved that we may have ideas but God may have other plans!” With three times the number of people anticipated showing up that first Sunday, many had to be turned away because York’s auditorium and parking lots were packed.

Those showing up in overwhelming numbers included people who hadn’t been in a church in 17 years. One person had not attended church since the Vietnam War. Others with broken lives agreed to come with friends who invited them.

Here’s how one email to the church described the people of York: “York isn’t just thirsty, we are dehydrated and starved.” A third service at 1 p.m. has been added to help quench that thirst.

Deb Strubel is a freelance editor and writer from Lancaster, PA.