By Sharon Mager
BERLIN, Md.—Sonrise Church brought its three campuses together for an anniversary celebration Oct. 7. Praise bands from each campus, Berlin, Salisbury, and Princess Anne, led worship, and the music and singing filled the warehouse. There were also video testimonies and a time of group prayer over each campus.
The auditorium was filled with praise during the annual October celebration at Sonrise Church.
Twice a year the campuses gather for joint worship services. The October services are especially exciting because they celebrate the beginning of all of the campuses — each strategically launched in October. This service was even more special because it took place at the Berlin campus’ new facility, located off of Route 50 on just over 22 acres of land.
“Yesterday, to the date, Oct. 6, 2002, we launched our public Sunday worship at Sonrise…at the horse track. That’s a cool thing actually to have as part of your history,” said Senior Pastor Daryl McCready.
“God began even then to do things I could not dream, fathom or imagine. He began to move, to draw people to himself. People’s lives were getting radically changed as they came to know Jesus and trusted in Him, as he began to transform them,” McCready said. “They started bringing everyone they knew who didn’t know Jesus. From 13 people meeting in my living room, we began to grow. Over the last sixteen 16 years, we’ve become a church with three campuses, in three counties with an average attendance of 900 a week.”
Three campuses came together for praise and worship at Sonrise Church’s anniversary celebration.
The church launched its second campus in 2014 in Salisbury with Pastor Bryan Lloyd, and in 2016 their third campus in Princess Anne began, led by Pastor Mark Thomas and Pastor Nathan Deisem, a multi-site launch catalyst. Last year the church started a Saturday night venue at the Berlin Campus with Pastor Carl Moyer.
McCready said one of the church’s core values is multiplication. “The purpose of God’s church is to multiply, to grow His kingdom, to reach people with the Gospel and to multiply our efforts to train and raise up other people and pass along what God has given us to others. There’s a constant reproduction happening in this church at every level.
“We were praying from the very beginning, ‘God, allow us the privilege to equip workers for the field, workers for the harvest. Would you honor us by raising them up from within the church, that we would be a place that is a multiplication factory of leaders who have hearts, which are sold out, who are willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to reach people with the Gospel?’ God answered that prayer.”
McCready said God has moved in some miraculous ways. In addition to providing Berlin’s current land and facilities, He also provided financial help for the Salisbury campus.
Salisbury was trying to deal with high rent, three times the rest of the other campuses at the time. “We thought we might have to find a new place. But God moved, just He like provided this 22-acre land,” he said.
Daryl McCready planted Sonrise Church in 2002.
McCready said the Board of Education called Lloyd and said they were re-working the Salisbury campus’ lease. They actually cut the rent in half “This is a miracle,” McCready said.
The Princess Anne campus recently moved from the school’s cafeteria into the auditorium to accommodate growth.
McCready said God has now resolved all of the facility issues and the church is ready to move forward and reach the lost.
Since Sonrise’s beginning, they’ve documented 890 people who have made professions of faith, and they’ve baptized 881 believers. “These are individuals that needed to find hope, healing, freedom, salvation,” he said. “We are passionate about discipleship,” he emphasized and attributes the number of salvations and baptisms to that emphasis
In addition to the conversions and baptisms, the church has also assisted 20 church plants with prayer, support, and financial resources.
Worship bands from all three campuses took turns leading worship.
Continuing to strive forward, McCready challenged the congregation individually to ask God to find one person to help lead to Jesus this year. “Commit yourself to Him. Say, ‘Lord God I make myself available to you today. If there’s someone you want me to share my faith with today, don’t let me miss them.’ Imagine with me what this celebration would be like next year if everybody would help bring someone to faith in Jesus Christ. What kind of revival would we ignite across the shore? It would be unbelievable.”
McCready issued another challenge. The church plans to launch a fourth campus in 2020. They’re awaiting God’s direction about a location. McCready asked the church to pray that God would raise up a campus pastor, and a team and he urged members to pray about being part of that team.