Recharge Church opens

A new church in Streeter has its members all charged up.

Recharge Church, a nondenominational ministry that meets at 6:45 p.m. Sundays, already has an attendance of 70 to 100 people every week, even though its official grand opening was last Sunday.

“It’s very much an atmosphere of come as you are,” said John Erbele, a member of the church’s leadership team. “We’re very open and loving and very down-to-earth, relevant.”

John does much of the preaching for the fledgling church, which began with meetings of its core group in December.

Many, though not all, of the people on its leadership team are members of the Erbele family — John’s wife, Heather, runs the children’s program, and his father, Dr. J. Dale Erbele, whose doctorate is in ministry, helped get things started. So did John’s cousins, Tim and Ronda Erbele, and Gabe and Shannon Erbele.

According to John, people had wanted a place more geared toward children and youth ministry.

The group began meeting at Hope United Church of Christ, which had closed.

“We are a Bible-believing church and we believe that … the Bible is the authoritative word of God,” John said. “… we really want to make an impact in the community. We want to make an impact on people that don’t go to church and make a positive impact on people that are struggling.”

The church has communion once a month, and does adult baptism and baby dedications.

Recharge also has a worship band with a contemporary feel, but the congregation also sings some traditional hymns as well. Coffee is available throughout the service.

The service begins at 6:45 p.m. There’s a break, and then at about 7:45 p.m. the group breaks up, with children heading downstairs for their teaching time and adults remaining upstairs for theirs.

Services are “relaxed, relevant, and relational and real,” John said.

The church has already had some events for young people, and more will follow.

At 7 p.m. May 1, the Strength Team will perform feats of strength at the church and share their stories. High Voltage Kids vacation Bible school will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 29 through June 2, also at the church.

“Honestly, it grew way faster than we anticipated,” John said. “There’s so many people who’ve just wanted something like this in our area, so they’ve just been coming out. It’s been pretty cool.”

For more information about Recharge Church, visit its website, www.rechargechurch.com, call 701-491-8658 or email info@rechargechurch.com.

Sun reporter Kari Lucin can be reached at 701-952-8453 or by email at klucin@jamestownsun.com

Tags: life, religion