The Church of the Nazarene has held a small presence in the state of Utah, but that’s beginning to change. Chris and Lynlee Moser have planted the fourth Church of the Nazarene in Utah, with plans for many more to come.

Even before heading to Utah in 2019, the Mosers had been familiar with the process of church planting. Although a few opportunities had come up earlier, they pursued their urge to plant one in Utah.

“We’re entrepreneurs by heart,” Lynlee said. “Being able to be a part of something that was truly going to be a groundswell of growth and at that grassroots level…really compelled us early on to move here.”

The Mosers had just gotten settled in Utah, and like everyone else in the world, they too were blindsided by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. During that summer of 2020, they found a community with whom they could share God’s love. That community was Sunset Vista, a manufactured home community on the western outskirts of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. 

They started by driving through the community and passing out ice cream, followed by a back-to-school giveaway. They gave away over 100 backpacks, which were filled with school supplies. The property manager loved what they were doing for the community and asked them to keep doing more. Word started to spread among other similar properties about what was happening, and the Mosers were invited to those communities as well.

“It really started clicking that maybe this is something we could do,” Chris said. “We could see a movement of the planting of a network of these manufactured home community churches.”

The property manager eventually gave them access to their community center, where they began holding church services. While the adults gathered indoors, the children met outside at the community gazebo. Now, in their services at 11 am, anywhere from 40-45 people show up.

When they got started in Utah, they knew the mission field was going to be difficult and different. “The Church” holds a different connotation there, which can turn many people away. So they had to go about planting a church in an entirely different way, and it’s beginning to pay off. One of the men attending their Sunday service last week told them that, “This is really different, but in a good way.”

The smaller community-based churches are just one part of the vision God gave them for Utah. The Mosers hope to plant many smaller churches with people from different backgrounds as their target. Their focus is not just to plant a typical church one would expect, but a coffee-shop-style church — community churches like the one at Sunset Vista as well as many multi-cultural churches. The Mosers noted there are over 122 different languages spoken in Salt Lake City, and they have a Samoan family that has approached them with interest in helping plant.

In addition to bringing in young leaders and future planters through their residency program, they also believe that God is going to raise up leaders and pastors through the “priesthood of all believers.”

“We have people in our seats that are going to be called to be church planters [who] may not wear the typical pastor hat,” Chris said. “But they’re going to help us plant churches.”