Rejoice! Community Church is a result of a Reformed Church in America (RCA) church planting ministry. In February, 1998 a small group of six families began meeting in a person’s home in Le Mars, linking with RCA church planting missionary, Rev. Don DeKok. In June, 1998 an informal meeting for starting a church was held with several families present. Over the next 8 weeks a Bible study was held, and at the conclusion, 22 family units signed cards of commitment that they would actively help start a new church. An initial worship celebration was held on February 7, 1999 in the former Westmar college library. On December 5, 1999, 80 people became Founding Members of Rejoice! Community Church. In March, 2000, Rejoice! called Rev. Steve Brouwer to be its Founding Pastor, starting April 1, 2000. At the end of April, 2000, 23 people from Rejoice! went to Sioux City, Iowa along with church planting missionary Rev. DeKok, to start another church. Their initial worship celebration was May 6, 2000. In mid-2002 Rejoice! was able to purchase approximately 10 acres of land from the City of LeMars on the former Westmar College campus. Included in this purchase was a single story 24,000 square foot building, which Rejoice! renovated over the course of 2 months. A worship celebration, additional ministries, and new office space were initiated from this locale in October of 2002. In 2006 Rejoice! took a leap of faith by adding a staffing component to its ministry and mission. We started with volunteer staffing and now are moving and growing into adding paid staffers to assist us on the mission field. In 2007 Rejoice! added an Office Manager, Business Administrator and Worship/Creative Arts Leader as paid staffers. We continue to have volunteer staffers in Adult, Youth and Children’s Spiritual Formation, but hope to soon have paid staffers equipping these vital ministries. To date God has brought over 200 people on this faith adventure with us. The journey has not always been easy. We continue to live out our commitment to Christ through small groups that reach out to those are not experiencing God’s love. Empowered by God’s Word and the Holy Spirit, we continue to prayerfully follow Christ’s example. This is an amazing, humbling, and encouraging journey for all as we continue to live out what it means to follow Jesus Christ and God’s purposes for our lives.