Dennis and Pam serve in Shiawassee county, a rural area of Michigan. The heart of the county is the Owosso area with a population of 20,000 people, while the rest of the county is comprised of smaller cities and villages. Most residents hold blue-collar jobs, and many are shop workers from the surrounding factories. While the area is very “churched”, it has seen a period of spiritual lethargy for several years.
One of the greatest needs in the area is building up a true, intimate community where people live and invest in each other. The methods of evangelism and discipleship used by the local church need to be reevaluated, along with retraining and refocusing on reaching the unreached in the community. Much of the need in the area can be met through deeply Christ-centered counseling and discipleship as well as competent Biblical literacy training.