Life Covenant Church started in June 2003 in Tim and Samantha Morey’s living room. About 35 people from several local churches came together that summer with the dream of starting an intergenerational church that would seek out the emerging generations in the South Bay. We spent the summer praying, planning, and dreaming, began monthly worship gatherings and small group meetings in September of that year, and in January 2004 began meeting every week for worship.

This church was born out of the prayers and dreams of a number of people. For years, Tim had felt called by God to plant a church that sought to reach and make disciples of the younger, more postmodern generations. When he, with his wife Samantha, moved to Los Angeles to serve as a college pastor in 1998, there was a dream that out of that ministry would come a new church. Over the years, the call became clearer, and God called out key leaders to join them. By the time Life was launched, a strong core of servant leaders also felt God’s call to step out in faith and launch a missional congregation in the city of Torrance.

Life started with some great DNA. Several months before its launch, a significant source of funding disappeared, and a decision had to be made on whether we believed God was in this or not. Future members of this church stepped up and made financial sacrifices to see the launch happen, and God provided an amazing source of funding through a one hundred year old church in Northern California farm country that had been praying God would allow them to impact the next generation. Scott and Karen Buetzow stepped out in faith, choosing for Scott to come on part time as Associate Pastor even though there was not yet a foreseeable paycheck. This spirit of faith and sacrifice has continued as members of Life give generously of their time, sweat, and financial resources to see this church be a place where faith is lived out.

Since the church began, God has provided above and beyond our needs. Space is hard to find in the South Bay, but every time we have moved God has provided wonderfully (for each of our five moves). God has brought together amazing people in this church. Life has a beautiful diversity among people of different ages. While the largest portion of the church are young people, we have been blessed beyond belief with “mothers and fathers” in the faith – those seasoned in life and ministry who have chosen to invest themselves in this community. Life wouldn’t exist without these amazing servants! Life has a phenomenal team of leaders – pastors and elders (our Vision Team), ministry team and small group leaders (our Frontlines Team) – and scores of amazing servants eager to give themselves to the work of ministry. God has graced us with amazing community. The bond between people as they serve, worship, eat, play, and pray together has been amazing.

God’s provision has also been seen in the faithful giving of this church, as we have been able to go beyond paying the bills to launching microenterprise development in the African nations of Malawi and Mozambique, as well as providing significant relief to villagers in India after the 2004 Tsunami and to survivors of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Life was deeply blessed to plant its first church, Catalyst (Culver City, CA), in January 2006, and is scheduled to launch Restoration Covenant (Redlands, CA), in January 2007.