The First 20

Hello, friends!

When ACF started, we met in an apartment. We were 5 students and 1 staff who came together for dinner and a bible study. I’d head over to our student Lyndy’s place to cook around 5ish, hoping that everything was ready to go by 7. We’d eat dinner, sing a few songs, study the word, and be done by 9. I’m pretty sure that first year the most students we ever had was 8 inside that little apartment.

By year 2, I knew we needed a new space. The apartment was great but if we were going to grow, we were going to need somewhere to go. Thankfully, right next to Lyndy’s apartment was a church who’s pastor just happened to be the old pastor of my aunt’s church in St. Louis. He said that our building was open for us to use whenever we needed it and our relationship with the International Community Church was born.

As we transitioned from the apartment to the ICC, slowly the numbers grew. One week it was 10 students. The next week it was 13. Soon we had 16 or 17 students coming regularly. It still wasn’t a big group but it felt like we were moving in the right direction.

Then it happened. During dinner, I counted like I always did and when I’d finished counting, we were at 21… It may not seem like a big deal now but at the time, I was ecstatic. My planting coach had told me that once you get to 20, it’s hard to go back down. That word held true for 6 years. Between that week in Year 2 until just this past fall, ACF never had fewer than 20 students show up to an ACF Wednesday. There were some weeks when it looked dicey, only to have a few students show up in the middle of worship. Whenever we hit that 20 count, I remembered God’s faithfulness and how he was intent on taking care of ACF.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam