meet our Pastor

LEAD PASTOR | SPENCER BARNARD

Pastor Spencer Barnard leads Life Center with over 24 years of experience in church ministry. His leadership style is intentionally personal, believing that healthy relationships energize the church to work together to accomplish God-sized dreams and goals. His passion and purpose are to "preach the gospel and equip the saints to reach the world."

Spencer has served in local church ministries in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, and he loves the Church. He often says, “The Church is not a building. The Church is the people.”

 Spencer and Leah have four children: Hannah Grace Lorenzo (husband: Luca), Jordan, Solon and William. Spencer loves to fish and hunt. Resting on a lake with a fishing pole in hand renews him and provides cherished moments of connection with his Creator. Leah is a full-time educator at East Robertson High School. She loves to renovate and remodel and has exquisite taste in decorating. Both of them authentically love God’s Word and God’s people.

The executive board, along with Pastor Spencer, provides strategic, operational, and financial leadership to the church.

Executive Board

  • Spencer Barnard

  • CHAD BEARRY

  • TROY DONALDSON

  • LEE STINSON

  • John Mansfield

Our Mission

LIFE CENTER CHURCH EXISTS TO BE A COMMUNITY FOR EVERYONE TO BECOME FULLY ALIVE THROUGH A RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS.

Our Vision

BE KNOWN AS A LIFE-GIVING CHURCH FOR OUR COMMUNITY.

Our desire is to be a life-giving, community-centric church that PURSUES, CONNECTS, and GROWS 2% of the population within a 12-mile radius of Life Center Church by 2026.

2 x 3 Vision

There are 81,000 people living within a 12-mile radius of Life Center Church. 70,000 of those people are unchurched. We want to reach 2% of those people in the next three years with the Gospel and build a church center that will facilitate new life in this community. Two percent of 70,000 is 1400 people.

How will VISION become REALITY?

PURSUE - CONNECT - GROW

PURSUE THE LOST

God is the initiator of spiritual pursuits (Psalm 53:2; Romans 3:10–12). The Bible is one complete story of God pursuing us. In Luke 19:10 Jesus said, “I have come to seek and save that which is lost.” We want to be a church that pursues the lost and produces disciples who are consumed with pursuing the lost.

CONNECT THE DISCONNECTED

The purpose behind pursuit is connection. One of the biggest issues we face is isolation. We want people to connect in three ways at Life Center Church:

- Connect with God on a personal level (salvation).

- Connect with others through LifeGroups.

- Connect to ministry inside and outside the local church.

GROW DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRISt

The great commission involves pursuing, connecting, and discipleship. Discipleship takes on the responsibility to walk deeply with other believers with the intention of growing their relationships with Jesus. It’s “follow me as I follow Jesus”. It’s reproducing who we are in someone else. Jesus walked with and invested into twelve and today there are over 560,000,000 Christians on the planet. Part of growing is going. We want to send disciples out to change communities, ultimately impacting the world for Christ.

OUR FUTURE

  • Create a clear Pursue, Connect and Grow Strategy that brings life to 400 new attenders.

  • Create a successful setup and teardown strategy for the next three years.

  • Facilitate growth at East Robertson High School by renovating auditorium, bathrooms, and library.

  • Sell our 43 acres on HWY 25E to purchase a smaller, more strategically-located acreage.

  • Find an architect to design a church facility that will be community-minded and easily duplicated in other rural, suburban areas.

  • Pursue, Connect and Grow a total of 1400 attenders who are ready to move into a new facility built in our community, specifically for cultivating life. Our community needs a Christ-centered facility where the glorious Gospel is proclaimed seven days a week. So, we want to build a facility that equally serves the needs of our faith family and ministers to the needs of our community seven days a week. (This could include: coffee shop workspace with internet access for community use, basketball court for local teams, and afterschool tutoring spaces.)

  • Create a sustainable model of community ministry in our area that can be duplicated over the next several years in other rural areas.

  • Add one church campus in another location that has a similar demographic to duplicate our community ministry.

  • Add two more church campuses in other locations that have similar demographics to duplicate our community ministry.

  • Blaze a trail in rural America that transforms entire communities.

OUR Values

We are passionate about all ages experiencing life change, starting a relationship with Jesus Christ, taking the next step of baptism, and connecting with others to lead them to Jesus.

Our hearts beat for where we live. We believe God has strategically placed us in this community to see it come fully alive in Jesus.

Psalm 34:8 says to “taste and see that the LORD is good.” He is the only One who satisfies our hunger for purpose and meaning. He uses the Church like a table where a large group is individually fed. Setting the table is our responsibility so that others experience Jesus Christ.

We invest our time, talents, and treasures into those coming behind us because they carry mission and vision into the future.

We gain to give away, learn in order to lead, and seek to serve in every opportunity. We are the Church and we exist to live in life-giving action.

Before we take action, we first seek God’s favor and direction.

Our

Beliefs

  • God the Father is the creator and sustainer of all things, and He created the universe in love. He eternally exists in three persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is three persons; co-equal; co-eternal.

  • Jesus Christ is eternally God. For our redemption, He left heaven and became flesh by the Holy Spirit through the virgin Mary; therefore, He is forever one Christ with two natures - God and man - in one person. Jesus lived a sinless human life and offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all people by dying on a cross. He arose from the dead after three days to demonstrate His power over sin and death. He ascended to heaven's glory and will return again to earth to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

  • The Holy Spirit is God, the Lord and giver of life. He resides inside all believers and is the teacher of spiritual truth. He empowers His church for service and witness, cleanses people from the old nature and conforms them to the image of Christ.

  • We believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and it clearly defines a plan of salvation. The blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross, provides the sole basis for the forgiveness of sin; therefore, God freely offers salvation to those who place their faith in the death and resurrection of Christ as sufficient payment for their sin.

  • Baptism by immersion symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and is a public declaration that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Baptism does not save you, but shows the world that you have already been saved. While baptism is not required for salvation, it is a biblical command and demonstrates your love and obedience to Christ.