ABOUT LIVING FAITH
If you are contemplating attending one of our services, we want you to know that you will be welcomed and loved at Living Faith Tampa. It is our desire that you will feel warmly accepted by our church family. However, we do not want you to be comfortable! A genuine encounter with Almighty God is never comfortable. That is our pursuit when we meet together every week - to encounter the living God and allow him to change us as He pleases. It is also our pursuit to challenge every attender to become a minister. No sitting on the sidelines here - every believer is called to be an active minister! We are still a small church family and there are a few things you can expect from a small church like ours - there is a lot of love and sometimes a little awkwardness! Larger church families might try to hide or cover up their awkwardness, but we embrace it. We're not trying to be impressive or "showy".
A few things you can expect at Living Faith are:
- The Word of God preached BOLDLY and EXPOSITORILY
- Praise offered to God SIMPLY and UNASHAMEDLY
- People who are seeking God GENUINELY and PASSIONATELY
- Be challenged to live MISSIONALLY and INTENTIONALLY
- Children and youth taught LOVINGLY and CARINGLY
We look forward to meeting you at one of our services!
We believe that every member is called to be a minister!
The work of the ministry was never meant to be relegated to a select few members. At Living Faith, it is the responsibility of every member to get their hands “dirty” and “blistered” in the hard work of the ministry.
To accomplish this, our mission is to mold each member into the image of Jesus Christ and to minister the Word of God to the world (see Missions).
We believe the best way to reach the world is the same way Jesus did it – one disciple at a time. Nothing fancy; no fanfare; just investing the Word of God into one life that will invest into another life and so on.
Living Faith Tampa was birthed out of our sending church, Midtown Baptist Temple in Kansas City, MO. A small team began in Tampa, FL in August 2013, starting bible studies and one on one discipleship relationships. Initially, we also met on Sunday mornings in a home to encourage the team and gather disciples. As of December 2016, LFT started gathering in a new location (7029 Van Dyke Rd, Odessa, FL 33556). On January 1, 2017, Midtown Baptist Temple commissioned Living Faith as a new church at a service in Kansas City, and we held our inaugural service on January 15, 2017 in Tampa, FL.
Pastor Mark grew up in southern Missouri, where he came to the Lord at the age of 9. He graduated from Missouri State University with a B.S. in Business Administration in 1993 and moved to Kansas City shortly after, where he met his wife (Astrid). They were married in 1996. While in Kansas City, Mark was trained for the pastoral ministry in a 4-year Bible institute through their local church and was ordained to the pastoral ministry in 2002. That same year, he and his family moved to Ocala, FL where he served on staff at a church for 9 years. After spending 2 more years back in Kansas City at Midtown Baptist Temple, Mark was sent out by MBT to plant Living Faith in Tampa. Mark and Astrid have 3 children, Syera, Dylan and Nykki. The Schaffer family came to Tampa in 2013.