Located at the southeastern entrance to the city of Madison, just north of the intersection of the Beltine and Stoughton Road, Evangel Life Center is home to a stunning variety of ministry activities that belies the relatively small size of the Assembly of God congregation. Small, that is, when compared to a handful of other churches in the Madison area which regularly attract more than 1,000 to their weekly services.
Weekly attendance averages around 325, according to senior pastor John Clark. But the church is home to a small French language congregation (probably the only one in Madison), a professional quality recording studio, a food pantry (operated in conjunction with eight other congregations), a small art gallery, an annual Christmas musical extravaganza entitled "Oh My Stars," a 24-hour prayer center, a thriving mid-week program that starts off every Wednesday night with "dinner for a dollar," and much more.
Evangel hosted the four Touched Twice clinics in 2004 and 2005 that offered free medical care to the community. Even though volunteers from more than a dozen churches participated in the clinics, people remember where it was held. "We get people at least once a month if not more who call and say, ‘when are you having that free medical clinic again?’" Clark says.
Because of a desire to better serve events like Touched Twice, as well as bring in-house a thriving youth ministry that had been renting a nearby warehouse for meeting space, the church last year added a new wing. The addition went up surprisingly fast.
Ground was broken at the beginning of summer. The structural steel was delayed but finally arrived in late September. "The steel went up and it was just a blur after that," he said. "It was ready about five minutes before we opened the door for All My Stars, that first performance on Friday night, December 15th."
The new wing has several meeting rooms on the first floor, including a "Great Room" with a fireplace and its own kitchen. It’s become a popular place for meetings and at least one wedding is scheduled there. The French language congregation has it’s own room for Sunday afternoon services across the hall. Attendance is made up mostly of African immigrants, some Europeans, and a couple Canadians. Clark called the International Bible Society to get Bibles for the congregation and was told "We’ve never had a request for French Bibles." But the society donated a shipment of French study Bibles to the congregation.
At the end of the hall is the food pantry. The pantry is jammed on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Clark said, as people are allowed to come in and shop for themselves from the shelves of donated food.
Across the hall is the prayer room which, like the food pantry, has its own separate entrance. Each of the church’s 88 official members has a key and is expected to put in at least one hour a week praying for the church and its ministry.
"The people here are really connected, they don’t just come on Sunday," pastor Clark says. He doesn’t like to hear people say, "I go to this church." His attitude is, "Don’t just go here. Make a difference, serve God here."
"It’s way too easy to go, sip your latte, make a comment or two, and that’s it," he adds. He believes church membership is about making a difference and calls for a commitment.
"You can’t be a member of this church unless you’re already serving the Lord," he says. "I find that people who have had to sacrifice in life, to get an education or start a business, they are never offended by a message that calls for a commitment. They know what it takes."
On the floor above the prayer room and the pantry is the youth center, a large room with a stage and sound system. Last Wednesday it was filled with tables set for a formal dinner. On the agenda was a program called "How to go on a date." Youth pastor Adam Clausen randomly paired boys and girls, told them to dress formally, and invited them to come and learn the finer points of social graces. In a loft off to one corner is a game room equipped with several television monitors (for video games) and a pool table.
Next to the youth center is an acoustically designed music room attached to a state-of-the-art recording studio. "There’s nothing like it in Madison," says Clark, who happens to be a classically trained double bass virtuoso who played with the Salt Lake Symphony Orchestra before he was called into the ministry.
Pastor Clark is enthusiastic about the new addition. But then, pastor Clark is enthusiastic over just about every ministry-related activity. The new space has added a lot of flexibility that will allow the congregation to do more ministry activities. It complements the newly expanded church kitchen, which has its own restaurant license, as well as the busy gymnasium, where lots of youth activities are held.
Weekly attendance at Evangel Life Center is now more than double the attendance when the congregation moved to their current location almost ten years ago. When Pastor Clark and his wife Julie arrived in Madison in 1992 to assume the pastorate at their former location on Diamond Drive, attendance had fallen to only 29. But the ministry has been trending up. And by all indications the trend will continue at this lively and loving congregation.