What Happens When The Largest Church and the Smallest Church in Orange County Work Together?

About ten years ago, my wife and I started serving the people who live at the California Studio Inn on Segerstrom street in Santa Ana, California. At first, our only goal was to love people and to bless them in the name of Jesus. We didn’t market our church, we didn’t preach any sermons, we simply showed up with a bounce house, and ice cream for the kids, a short puppet show, and sometimes free groceries and clothes. Our hope was that people would start to wonder, and then to ask us, “Why are you coming out here every month to bless us like this?” We were hoping to create a desire in them – a divine curiosity – to understand our motivation. And when they did eventually ask us that question, our answer was, “Because Jesus loves you, and we love you, too.”


At first, my vision for ministry at the motel was grand. We were going to have large gatherings where I would preach the gospel and people would be saved, delivered and healed. We’d have dramatic stories to tell of how hundreds came to Christ and lives were transformed. But, as I soon learned, God’s plan was different.

The first thing God said to me was to simply love and befriend one family at the motel. He challenged us to embrace them, to welcome them into our home, to have them over for dinner, to let their kids play with our kids, and to let their challenges and their struggles become our own.

Over time, we did begin to see dramatic transformation and deep spiritual growth. But that growth, and that transformation, was mainly being done in my own heart, and in my family.

We learned that when we can’t, God can. We learned that getting burned and taken for a ride was the best way to develop our instincts for how people survive in this environment. We learned how to love people, even when we knew they were trying to play us. We learned how to bear the burdens of people who had never known the love of Christ. We also learned when to stop carrying the burdens of some people so that they could learn to lean more on Jesus than on us.

Eventually, someone from Saddleback Church contacted us about wanting to start a Sunday morning church service at our motel. Over time we began to work together to facilitate this weekly service.

Ron Wilbur was the main person I dealt with on a regular basis. He and I became fast friends and we both learned to work together as we began to see God at work in this motel.

People started making professions of faith in Christ. Baptisms started happening in the swimming pool, or in people’s homes. Residents of the motel started volunteering to help set up, post flyers at the motel, serve the food, even teach on Sunday mornings as needed. Slowly, we started to see God at work in the lives of the people here, and we realized that He cared much more about this than we did.

Just over a year ago, however, things changed dramatically. After a particularly loud Sunday morning worship service in the parking lot, the manager shut everything down. We thought it was over. But, as we were soon to learn, God had everything under control. See, this particular motel is actually two motels in one. While we were kicked out of the first motel, the manager at the second motel – herself a committed follower of Jesus – gave us carte blanche to re-start the Church on her side of the fence.

In the process, we made a few changes to the format. Rather than have teachers come and share the “sermon of the week” with us, we decided to have everyone read the same scriptures together during the week and discuss those verses when we gathered together on Sunday morning. We started off with the Gospel of Mathew and the Sermon on the Mount.

Over the next few months we witnessed a dramatic change in the lives of the residents. They were actually growing in their faith. They were reading the scriptures and they were coming on Sunday morning to share their insights, their thoughts, and their questions with everyone else. The participation factor was much higher, and as a result, we started to see them becoming disciples of Jesus – real followers who were grappling with the words of Jesus and working to live out His teaching in their actual lives.

Now, after just about a year and a half of this new format, we’re seeing new opportunities emerge. On Easter Sunday we planted four new motel churches in Anaheim, and two of those motel churches were led by members who came out of our little motel church. We’re starting our first weekly Bible Study soon, too. Led and hosted by the residents themselves, not Ron or myself. In fact, one former motel resident, who is now part of our house church family, and who was recently baptized himself, wants to join the Bible Study group. So, it’s all coming around full circle.

I’m amazed at what God has done. It blesses me so much to see what happens when the largest church in Orange County and the smallest church in Orange County come together to let God build His church in a little motel. The key has been working together, laying down our own agendas, and letting go of our need to own or brand the process. Ron has been a joy to work with. His humility and his transparency are phenomenal. I’m honored to serve alongside a brother like him.

Now, we get to see what God has in store for this little church in the next few years. I can’t wait.

-kg
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