In the summer of 2010, twelve disciples moved up to Portland, Maine to help plant a church. After handing out 10,000 fliers, they had their first service on September 12, with 103 people in attendance. There were eight baptisms in Portland that year, and along with some additional move-ins, 2010 was brought to a close with 26 disciples in the Casco Bay Church of Christ. With the job market being a lot smaller in Portland, mission team members like Ken Cole and Pat Mullaney, from churches in Massachusetts, learned very quickly how to be content on very little. Ken took any job he could at first to help stay active in the mission. Throughout his three years in Portland, he has worked in jobs ranging from room service to the restaurant business, UPS, landscaping, and insurance sales. Pat gave up a teaching job she loved in Massachusetts, knowing there would be no permanent job for her in Maine. Even as the oldest in the group, she still felt called to serve.
2011 brought a rough winter and an even rougher year for the church, and minister Glenn Petruzzi began to realize there were a few holes in the current plan. At times, there were up to 60 potential Bible studies, but the current members were only capable of reaching 30 of them. Glenn realized the reality of Jesus’ teaching that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
“Two things became clear to me,” said Glenn. “We needed to get more hands to help us grow the church, and through the One Year Challenge, we needed to send out a plug for people outside of New England to join our mission.” Glenn, along with Jesse Faller, who had been helping to lead the campus ministry, began to make announcements for a One Year Challenge in Maine at Boston devotionals and at the 2011 ICMC East in Athens, Georgia.
That year, eight people responded to the call of a One Year Challenge in Maine, and six more the year after. One of them was Steve LaFrance, a brother from Miami, who said, “I always felt like I wanted to go somewhere, and after ICMC Athens, Portland just made sense.” With the help of more disciples, and a commitment to listen to the Holy Spirit without hesitation, the church was able to raise money for more people to be on staff in Portland.
The church also saw a great need for revival and intervention. They met together in the spring of 2012, and publicly confessed their sins to one another. The church worked to get rid of and address their doubt and to repent. Every member also made a commitment to publicly confess Christ throughout Portland.
2012 saw 23 lives changed and brought to Christ in the Casco Bay. The church was recently even able to send four of their own, Mike and Kristen Balzer, along with two other sisters, to help reinvigorate the church in Burlington, Vermont. Today, the church in Portland has 60 disciples. From few have come many, but anyone there can tell there is still more to happen in Portland.
Click on these links to find out more about the Casco Bay Church of Christ and about the One Year Challenge.
