New facility for Lifespring Church brings new life to mission

ALBANY — A new location for the nondenominational Lifespring Church is meant to bring new life into its mission to reach out to the community, church officials say.

The church was previously located at 3014 Sylvester Road. Mark Knight, Lifespring’s senior pastor, said the church gained possession of its new facility at 1211 Stuart Ave. on June 1 before beginning services there on July 9.

“We were in the process of building a property over here and this property became available,” Knight said. “We knew we needed a directional change to impact our city.”

Knight said the “directional change” at least partly involved the need to expand, as the understanding was that it is vital to grow in order to be able to expand.

The expansion was believed to be necessary to meet the church’s calling, church officials said.

“We believe that God has a plan and a purpose for everyone and we would like to show them what that is,” Michael Brewer, the church’s worship arts leader, said. “We also preach God’s word and his message to everyone.

“Church is a very segregated place, and we would like to change that.”

Reaching out to the next generation is important in any church wishing to expand its mission, and the staff at Lifespring said they embrace that through their children’s and youth ministries.

The church’s reach to youngsters is not expected to end there.

“We want to reach into our school system as a place to draw to the ministry and to the house of God,” Knight said.

Officials said the congregation is “ecstatic” about the new facility and the potential that the church’s resources will allow.

“The whole church is excited about the new vision and the new mood,” Knight said. “(The vision and mood involves) becoming a church anyone would love to attend.”

Jonathan Cude, the associate pastor, said the intention is to minister to people “from the cradle to the grave” in the church’s mission to draw them closer to God.

Over time, the hope is additional opportunities will be made known to Lifespring’s staff on how that can be done.

“As we grow, we are looking for a way to grow and serve the community,” Cude said. “We would love to be able to (see) expansion opportunities to serve into the future. That is part of the growth mindset to reach out.”

In the long-term, church officials said, the hope is that Lifespring can impact the city of Albany in a variety of ways, and to see the city grow as the church grows. This goes back to its passion for youth.

“From every walk of life to every nationality to every age group, our focus is on the next generation coming up,” Knight said. “We have the facilities that (accommodates this). We have a gym and a basketball court to draw in kids that do not have a place to play (and we want) to house a youth ministry that is effective.

“What makes us unique is that we love God and love people, but a lot of churches do that, so I don’t want to compare.”

Lifespring’s services are held at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, and 7 p.m. on Wednesday. For more information, call (229) 446-0209 or visit www.lifespringchurchalb.org.