Our History
Radiant’s story doesn’t begin in Arizona, or even a church. Our story actually begins in an office in Seattle—a luxurious office, studded with cherry wood furniture, lit with fancy lamps—at the Microsoft Corporate Headquarters. Lee McFarland was going about his business as the Director of World Wide Operations when God called him into a whole new lifestyle: the ministry. Pastor Lee still claims that the 1st miracle of Radiant was that God chose him to be the Senior Pastor—but like so many great men of the Bible, Pastor Lee was exactly the man God was looking for: young, inexperienced, passionate about Jesus, and willing to make both big sacrifices and big leaps of faith.
Meanwhile, far away in Sun City, Arizona, God was also working on the hearts of Pastor Mel & Pat Holmquist of Evangel Church. They had a vision to reach the young families of the area, a demographic their current church wasn’t tapping into. Months after putting out a call for church planters’ resumes, only one came in: Lee McFarland’s. But like all God-orchestrated events, the timing was perfect, and Pastor Lee was unanimously voted in as the man for the job.
GETTING STARTED
So how do you plant a church? Well, it’s not as easy as it sounds. You have to scout out a place to meet & rent, and start building interest in the community. You have to coordinate a team of volunteers, and secure qualified children’s workers to keep the kids safe. You have to figure out who’s doing the worship part of the service and if you can afford to hire the staff you want with the small budget you’ve been given.
But before all of that, most importantly, you have to decide the identity of your church: Your Purpose. And Pastor Lee did just that a few months before Radiant began, at the Purpose Driven Conference at Saddleback Church in Orange County, California.
At one of the church-planting sessions, he first learned about the five purposes of a healthy church, and he instantly knew that it was God’s plan for Radiant. “I can’t tell you how much the switch got thrown,” Pastor Lee said. “It just clicked with me in a thousand different ways. The five purposes clarified what the church is supposed to be doing in such a great way that I really felt I knew what I was supposed to do to start the church.”
THE BEGINNING
Radiant’s first service was held on September 7, 1997 in the auditorium of Kingswood Parke Elementary School. The 147 people who showed up were treated with folding chairs, a pulpit on rollers, and an air-conditioning system that had broken the night before. Pastor Lee jokes that “It’s a miracle anyone came back the next week!”
But somehow, Radiant grew. Within six months, over 450 people attended each weekend, and the numbers increased exponentially over the next 10 years—the weekly attendance numbers, but also the number of baptisms and commitments to Jesus. Even today, dozens of people commit their lives to Jesus for the first time, or recommit each weekend. Pastor Lee says “It’s a constant reality check—we can’t let ourselves ignore the miracle that happen each weekend!”
COMMUNITY TIES
As Radiant grew, so did Surprise and the rest of the Northwest Valley. Our relationship with the city continued to develop, as we partnered in numerous outreach efforts such as our Christmas Adopt-a-Family, various Thanksgiving Outreaches, Back-to-School Backpack Drives, and our continual benevolence to families in need. Arizona’s local and statewide leadership have invited our staff, on numerous occasions, to participate in discussions on issues affecting Arizona like poverty and immigration. Over the past ten years, Radiant Church and its surrounding community have become integral parts of one another.
It didn’t take long for people outside our community to start noticing that something special was happening in Surprise. Radiant received the Church Health Award from Purpose Driven Ministries, and media outlets began to take notice. Various magazine-based publications, like Church Executive, have featured Radiant as an example of how to make church out-of-the-box. Even the New York Times Magazine put Radiant on the front cover one Easter Sunday, with a feature article on how megachurches are changing the face of life in the exurbs.
As Radiant’s notoriety grew, Pastor Lee has received an increasing number of speaking opportunities. He travels to different conferences, teaching and training pastors and new church planters who want to learn how to make their church relevant to their community. Last Summer, Pastor Lee traveled with Pastor Rick Warren to South Korea and Indonesia, preaching the Gospel and teaching the methods of Purpose Driven to hundreds and thousands of people. This Fall, they are planning a trip to Rwanda to meet the people and learn more about yet another mission field.
OUT OF THE BOX
Two years ago, ABC News 15 aired a story in which they dubbed Radiant “the blue jean church”. The nickname stuck and appropriately represents the casual approach to church the weekend services embody. The donuts, coffee shop, bookstore, and mall-type lobby create a very laid-back environment where anyone would be comfortable. “The atmosphere is by design”, Pastor Lee told Channel 15. “Where do people want to go and hang out? The mall… the park… the bar. Usually not at a church. But we want to change that.”
One approach to reaching the surrounding community is providing quality family-friendly entertainment on our campus. Radiant has hosted community concerts of all kinds—comedians like Jeff Allen and Tim Hawkins; speakers like Meadowlark Lemon and Troy McClain; and musical groups like Salvador, ZOEgirl, and Tammy Trent. Radiant has hosted Jump5 three times over the past ten years, and now that the group is on it’s farewell tour, they will perform a final time at Radiant this November. Our New Year’s Eve event last year featuring Living Illusions—a Christian illusionist act—was so successful in bringing in new people from the community, that the group is booked to return this January.
Holidays present unique opportunities to reach out to new people, and Radiant has always made the most of them. Just two examples are the “Alternative”, a party on Halloween night that gives community families safe options, and annual Christmas plays that provide hundreds of free bikes to families in need. At Radiant’s anniversary each September, the church celebrates with a giant picnic at Water World that begins with a massive baptism service in the wave pool. Definitely not your typical baptism setting, but it’s a powerful experience that’s become a favorite tradition within the church family, not to mention a great way to show newcomers how much fun taking God seriously can be! It’s also one of the only times each year that the whole church can get together in one place. Because of the four different weekend services, most people only see about a quarter of the whole congregation at once.
Perhaps the largest outreach event so far was last year’s Easter service—held at the University of Phoenix Stadium. Nearly 20,000 people joined together in one large service, filled with fireworks, guest artists, powerful testimonies, and an altar call that resulted in thousands coming forward to make a commitment to Jesus.
THE FUTURE
There’s no question that Radiant has had an action-packed ten years, full of rapid growth and the difficulties and excitement that growth brings. Has it always been an easy road? No way… and as Radiant continues to reach out to it’s community, we know more obstacles will present themselves. Pastor Lee said, “When you grow this quickly, logistical issues are bound to come up. It’s inevitable. The important thing is to stay focused on God, not the problems—He will help us through them.”
In spite of these obstacles, the growth boom is nowhere near over - three years in a row, Outreach Magazine has named Radiant the fastest growing Assemblies of God church in the country, and the fourth largest. New projects are on the horizon… new opportunities for growth.
So, what’s next? “Anything God wants!” Pastor Lee says. “God planted this church. It was his vision, long before I ever came on the scene. He has brought us this far, and I know he has big plans for our future. Surprise is still growing—there are a lot of people out there who need a church like Radiant to show them that being a Christian isn’t boring—that it’s the biggest adventure of all!”