When the congregation at Harbor Fellowship in Warsaw, Missouri, agreed to host a Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief team following a tornado in the area, they had no idea that it would be an answer to prayer and result in a revolutionary change for the community. As would be expected, the team was quick to remove downed trees and clean up debris left by the storms. But the MODR response ultimately led to so much more.

As the MODR Central Regional Coordinator, Tim Murdock, Missions Pastor at LifePointe church in Sedalia, Missouri, was one of the first on the scene. What he found was a caring congregation that was struggling to keep the doors open. The irony was that LifePointe had been looking for a way to expand into the area. It immediately looked like an answer to prayer for both churches.

“There’s no room for us to expand our Sedalia campus any more than we have already,” explained Rusty Thomas, lead pastor at. On the other hand, we already had nearly 150 people who were driving to our Sedalia campus from Warsaw, Coal Camp, Windsor Junction and the surrounding areas. So, that was one of the areas we had been looking to expand. We also knew that the only way to expand through a second campus was for God to give us a building.”

At the same time, Tom Renfro, pastor at Harbor Fellowship, was desperately trying to keep the doors open and looking for help. It was only after Tim Murdock responded to the need for a chainsaw team following an EF-1 tornado that the two churches were brought together.

“We were to the point where we could barely pay the bills,” Renfro explained. “I came in as revitalization pastor six years go and we were actually growing and having new baptisms for a while. However, we were hit hard by Covid, which really set us back,” he continued. “At the same time, we had people move, others were on fixed income, and some were resistant to change. As a result, we were down to just 35 people or less on most Sundays.

“The elders and I had even talked about selling the church building and using the money to move into something smaller,” he added. “Yet, everyone had a heart’s desire to keep that facility, since so many families had given their tithes, offerings and time to reach others for the Lord through the church.”

Still, there seemed to be little hope of keeping the doors open if God didn’t provide a solution. As a retired public educator who is also on Social Security, Renfro had even been serving as the pastor without pay in recent years. That presented another problem since he had a goal of retiring at the end of 2026.

“We had gone months without even being able to do any church maintenance or updates,” he said. “I knew that if I did retire, the congregation would never be able to afford to hire a pastor.”

Consequently, the opportunity to partner with LifePointe church was an answer to prayer on both sides.

“Until the tornado, which brought Tim and me together, we didn’t know that LifePointe was praying for a place in which they could expandand they didn’t know we were looking for a way to keep the church alive.

“Even then, it was through an act of God that the disaster relief team was staying at our church,” he added. “They had been staying at Baptist Ridge Camp, but there were campers coming in the next week, which meant the DR team needed a new place to stay. That’s when the director of missions asked if they could stay here, which led to the conversation with Tim.” 

Renfro explained that since the two churches came together on a plan, the LifePointe church has already spent over $100,000 on the property and are still catching up on building maintenance. It’s also been renamed as the LifePointe Warsaw campus.

“We held the first service there on August 3rd with 293 people in attendance,” said Thomas. “Right now, we’re also rotating pastors from our Sedalia campus to serve the congregation.”

Thomas explained that they also didn’t want to lose Pastor Renfro as a resource. Consequently, he has been named as an elder in the church and assigned the role of pastor of senior adult ministries for both campuses. He will also help with hospital visits, etc. as needed until he decides to finally retire. 

“I’ve thought for quite a while that the only way Harbor Fellowship was going to survive, and grow was to get somebody in here that is younger than me,” Renfro explained. “So, we were fortunate in that the remaining members had a heart for reaching people for Christ and were willing to give up control of the church in order to work toward that goal.

“There are so many churches in Missouri that are dying because people in the church would rather see the church close its doors than they would to change or give up control,” he lamented, admitting that a change in worship style isn’t easy. “But I think you have to ask yourself, ‘What kind of church will my grandchildren want?’. I’m not talking about changing theology or our teaching from the Bible. We’re still preaching the word of God, but how do we reach the next generation with that message. We’re just blessed that a tornado blew in the answer to our prayers.”