HISTORY OF DESPERATION CHURCH

The following is what I read in my final sermon. It is the history of Desperation Church, as I remember it. I was hoping this would be put on the internet so that it would not be forgotten.  "The Lord answered me: Write down this vision; clearly inscribe it on tablets so one may easily read it." (Habakkuk 2:2).

HISTORY OF DESPERATION CHURCH

as of July 2013

At 2:00am one morning in the summer of 1994, a singing evangelist by the name of Gene Leutzinger couldn’t sleep and was up reading his Bible. Hebrews 11:16 jumped off the page, “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them”. Gene and his wife Debbie would travel and sing to a multitude of churches in a multitude of cities, so the idea of God preparing a specific city for them was odd. Not long after this night, Debbie approached Gene with a question; ‘Have you ever thought of planting a church?” Within a month, another pastor by the name of Dan Slater, phoned Gene and asked if he’d ever considered planting a church. Gene felt that if the Word had spoken to him, his wife had spoken to him, and a fellow brother in the Lord had spoken to him… perhaps God was speaking to him. They traveled to the Kansas City area and began driving through many different suburbs with a realtor. As they drove through the suburb of Liberty, on Mill Street near Franklin Elementary School, Gene felt God speak to his heart, “Plant the church in this town”. Gene leaned forward to the realtor and said, “Don’t show me another house outside of Liberty because this is where we are going to plant the church.”

The Leutzingers purchased a home and began to hold services in their living room. Nobody came to the first Bible study. One lady they had met, who had told them she planned to attend, was honored with a surprise birthday party and ended up not being able to make it. They were a bit discouraged. However, the next week she came and brought some friends and family. Liberty Celebration Center was born.

Within three months around 30 people were filling Gene and Debbie’s living room, so they rented the Spirit of Liberty Building (where Starbucks is currently located). The official grand opening held Palm Sunday in 1995 brought approximately 75 people to the small 700 square foot room they were meeting in. Two months later the church recruited Michael and Kelli Craft to help as youth pastors with the few youth who were attending. Gene had known Michael from a previous youth ministry position in Ottumwa, Iowa back in 1993. The church purchased a small building near William Jewell College, which had been the former Jehovah’s Witness Meeting Hall, to begin meeting in. Michael and Kelli served alongside the Leutzingers for almost two years, until May of 1997, when Gene and Debbie felt a call to minister elsewhere, as worship pastors in Norman, Oklahoma. Michael was asked to be the ‘interim’ pastor and began serving as such on June 2^nd, 1997. This ‘interim’ would eventually last sixteen years.

Michael stated, “I felt unready to be a senior pastor, and I think there were others who felt that way too. A few made dramatic exits and stormed out the very first week. In that first few months I had miraculously grown our church from a consistent 60 persons to a consistent 35 persons.”

The ex-Kingdom Hall the church was meeting in fit the needs fine, but for there to be any numerical growth, there would require a change. The church leadership began to seek God for direction, and ended up selling the building to William Jewell College. Liberty Celebration Center then became the first church in the city of Liberty to meet in a public school building on the weekends. Ridgeview Elementary School’s gymnasium became the church’s home for 2 and a half years. During this season the church began to grow in unity, as never before. Setting up and tearing down every week has a way of bringing people together, and although numerically there were not many being added, the church was becoming a family.

In September of 2001, when the infamous ‘9-11’ took place, the people of Liberty Celebration Center urgently wanted to meet and pray. Everyone was scared and everyone wanted to just be together. However, that was an impossibility. It was the middle of the week, and the church’s meeting place was only rented on the weekends. Trying to fit 100 people into the Craft’s home did not go well. This became the catalyst for the leadership to pray yet again for a place to call home. One day while getting the car washed in an industrial part of Liberty, Pastor Michael saw some old warehouses. One of them had a 4,400 square foot space available to rent. Not everyone loved this idea, but after some casting of vision, and the willingness of the congregation to take a major step of faith, a lease was signed. There was a major ‘catch’ to the lease: The church would have to spend its own money to fix up the warehouse, and when the lease was over they’d have to leave all improvements that had been done. This was a major risk and huge step of faith, because since the church’s beginning it had only been able to save around $40,000 dollars. After a time of prayer and fasting, the body of believers prayerfully decided to ‘invest’ this into the warehouse. It took two months of working every night and every weekend to turn a dusty, old warehouse into a meeting place that could seat 150, with an office, and two small nurseries.

Since the Leutzingers had left, for nearly seven years, attendance had wavered around 80-100 persons. Pastor Michael worked two jobs, as the church continued to struggle and see many people come and go. It was during these seven years the church seemed to draw a number of middle-aged men who wanted control. Each had been in leadership elsewhere, and each had an unhealthy, controlling attitude. There was also an insurgence of those who were deeply entrenched in the ‘hyper-faith’ teaching. The Lord would give an increase in numbers and then there would be a pruning, as a balanced teaching of the Word of God was strictly held to.

In May of 2005 Pastor Michael woke up in the middle of the night and went into his living room to pray. His prayer was for the church and specifically for his role in it. “Father, I’m tired. The church isn’t growing. I believe You’ve called me to this place. I love these people and I love our church, but I feel as though I am not being authentic - I’m not really being who You’ve made me to be. Help me to just be ‘real’ and to bring You the most amount of glory with my life and ministry.” Through tears and sobs Michael felt the Lord whispering that he was indeed a square peg in a round hole, and that he’d been trying to fit into someone else’s idea of ministry, but not into God’s idea of ministry for him. He had indeed been serving Liberty Celebration Center, but it was another man’s vision for what the church should be that Michael was living up to, not God’s vision. Gene Leutzinger had envisioned this church making a mark in this community and he had prayed about a name and mission statement to help accomplish that goal. However, those things reflected Gene and his calling, not Michael and his unique calling. That night was the beginning of something new. Michael went to bed encouraged and determined to redirect the church to better reflect the unique vision that God had given him… or go down trying.

This led to Pastor Michael quitting his secular job and becoming pastor full time. It also led to the changing of the mission statement and eventually the changing of the name, from Liberty Celebration Center, to Desperation Church. Talk about raising eyebrows! It seemed no one understood why this particular name would be chosen. Negative comments from within the church and all over town were heard, but there was a confidence that this was the Lord’s leading. At the time of the name change, there was another major shift, Pastor Michael was taking classes from a Messianic Synagogue and began preaching from a Jewish Roots perspective. The church began to steadily see numerical growth. Soon Desperation Church was averaging 200 people on the weekends. There were a number of trials, but also a number of wonderful things happening. The church was able to afford its very first ‘associate’ pastor, and they hired Dan Bennett – a long time Liberty resident and member of the church. Then, shockingly, Dan suddenly passed away four months after being hired. They then hired Bil Brown, another long time church member and resident of the area. Bil began ministering as the pastor of worship and creativity and the church was led into a new season of excitement and life. Along with a host of volunteers, other associates were added to the mix over the years, including Jon Peteresen and Jeanne Hewitt, as well as a part time counselor, Andrea Simpson.

The church has seen its share of trials: From long-term sicknesses, deaths, breaking away from a denomination, law-suits, and even occasional unpleasant and rather disgusting ‘gifts’ left on the church doors, various groups of people coming to the parking lot and actually casting curses, damage to the property by vandals, and of course numerous hate letters and emails. All of these have been difficult to deal with, but have also been part of the journey the Lord has had Desperation Church on in order for Him to mold and make them what He desires for them to be. The hard times and the trials have only served to encourage the body and be a reminder that one of the church’s jobs is to upset the enemy, so maybe they are succeeding. 

After further growth, a donation of $150,000, and over a year of volunteers within the church working endlessly, Desperation Church now owns a 16,000 square foot facility that they can call home. As of 2012, the church has averaged as many as 750 persons on the weekends. Easter of 2012 saw over 1,100 people in attendance. 2013 has seen the overall numbers decrease a bit, but one thing has remained obvious; The Lord has had His hand on this particular body of believers from day one. Although there are only a handful of original members that are still here from the church’s first years of ministry, the heart for seeing God do incredible things in this area is the same. The church is now known in the city as a safe place where truly desperate people are welcome. Jesus is the center of attraction, as new Christians and life-time disciples, drug addicts and drug dealers, lesbians and gang-members, abuse victims and those involved in satanic covens, and many who’ve simply been wounded by ‘the church’ all come together consistently to love on God and encourage one another in this journey.

Desperation Church has a unique identity in the city of Liberty, Missouri. God has called it to be refreshingly authentic in a world that wants more than anything for someone to step up and be genuine. DC has found that when it is all said and done, people are more drawn to sincerity and passion than the glamour of the show. The key hasn’t been marketing, advertising, or even perfection in the platform ministries. The key has been a true love for Jesus and for others, regardless of their past or their walk of life. ‘Authentic’, ‘genuine’, ‘passionate’, ‘intimate’, ‘weird’, ‘misfits’ and yes, ‘desperate’ are some of the words used to describe what God is in the midst of doing at Desperation Church in Liberty, Missouri.

God is ‘in the midst’ of doing something awesome. This means that He is not finished. Desperation Church has a bright future, because it will continue to love everyone unconditionally, and have Jesus, the Light of the world, as its center attraction.