Faith Life's Ranch campus attracting new residents

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Faith Life Church officially has planted roots in the East County.

More 1,500 adults, including many from out of state, gathered Feb. 5, at Faith Life’s first service at its new Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park location.

“We had a lot of people from everywhere,” Associate Pastor Dave Vaughan said. “It was exciting. The people were really excited to be here.”

The Rev. Keith Moore broadcast live from the church’s Branson, Mo. campus Feb. 11. About 400 people attended at the Sarasota location’s second service.

Moore and his wife, Phyllis, started Faith Life Church in March 2002 in Broken Arrow, Okla. The church grew quickly, especially after starting to broadcast its services online two years later. It moved in 2007 to its present-day location in Branson, Mo. Then, in October 2010, the Moores announced they would open a second church location in Sarasota.

Many couples, such as Zella McPherson and her husband, Gene, of Virginia, plan to move to the area to help the church get started. The McPhersons already have hunted for a place to live and plan to move sometime in the next few months.

“We’re not the only ones doing this,” said McPherson, adding she met another couple moving from Orlando while visiting this month. “There are a number of people moving in, and probably more will be coming. The church will be a blessing to the area.”

McPherson said she became acquainted with Keith Moore’s teaching after listening to a CD one of his sermons.

“(His teachings) were so clear,” she said. “He used so many scriptures.”

The McPhersons, in 2009, already had begun watching Faith Life’s Friday night services online and later began listening to broadcasts on Sundays after church, because of the time difference.

The couple was visiting the Branson church in 2010, when it announced it would open a Sarasota campus. The McPhersons decided they would move to the East County to help.

McPherson said the Branson campus has Bible study groups and also has service teams to help with details such as parking, cleaning, flowers and more.

“(Keith Moore) encourages people to become active and to serve and to reach out,” McPherson said. “I believe they are people of integrity and they do what they say is important.”

Vaughan said the church likely will have a similar structure to the Branson campus but still is working on logistics. More details, he said, should be available in about a month.

Church attendees said Keith Moore said the offering from the church’s first service is being donated to other ministries, in observance of the giving of its “first fruits.”

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].