Arrows Church Gets a New Home
Arrows Church is one of our newest churches in Converge Heartland. Launched on Easter 2022, Arrows Church has always met at Papillion Lavista South High School in Papillion, NE. Since its launch, Arrows has welcomed new people, made connections in the community, and seen many people come to Christ!
Lead Pastor Robert Conn said, “The school was exactly what we needed, exactly when we needed it.” It has been a great place to meet. The administration has been very accommodating and helpful.
Unfortunately, the school district’s policy is that no one entity can have a rental contract for more than a year. The school broke the news to Robert at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year. They graciously gave Arrows an extension to the end of 2023, but that left only four months to find a new home!
The church got to work immediately! Leadership compiled a spreadsheet of all the possibilities they could think of for holding their Sunday gathering and started to make their way through the list.
One day, Robert decided to drive around Papillion and start knocking on the doors of businesses to see if they would be interested in hosting a church. One of those businesses was a cheer academy that trains cheerleaders for competition. Little did he know he would be walking into a divine appointment. In Robert’s own words, “It was a God thing!” The manager was a believer and involved in his own church, which had been meeting at a golf club in Omaha. It had been a good fit, but the church was pursuing a permanent location and had purchased land of their own. He highly recommended the Tiburon Golf Club to Robert as a possible location for Arrows.
Robert called the Tiburon Golf Club, set up a visit, and liked what he saw. The golf club was a little farther than Robert had hoped but was a great venue, and management had experience working with churches. Arrows had a new home!
Initially, Arrows thought they would start meeting there after the new year, but the more they thought about it, the more they realized what an opportunity the Christmas season provided to invite new people to church. Robert and his team decided to make the move early. Arrows’ first Sunday at Tiburon was November 19th.
“The first Sunday was scary,” said Robert. “We had set up just enough chairs. It was packed out!”
Over the next few weeks, Arrows was able to work out some of the kinks that come with moving into a new space. They changed the room’s configuration to allow for more chairs, subdivided another space to accommodate children’s classes, and moved the older children into a space in the lobby. The church has responded well to the new location and changes. Most everyone who came to the high school is willing to drive farther to the golf club.
Arrows Church is adjusting and excited. “We did something different for Christmas,” said Robert. “We couldn’t have a Christmas Eve service because none of the golf club staff was available to open the building. We decided to have a Christmas Eve Eve service instead on the 23rd! We hosted a big gathering with songs and candlelight.”
Robert hopes their new move will also reach more people. Their new location is closer to Gretna, NE. Robert said, “Gretna has churches, but they are more of the traditional type of Lutheran, Catholic, and Presbyterian. Only one other church is more like us, and they are excited to have us in the area! There is a great opportunity for us to reach people!”
Please pray for Arrows Church as they bring gospel transformation to their community.