Editor’s Note: Every investment in Orchard Alliance is a seed planted in fertile ground. The funding you provide through your investments doesn’t just build buildings — it fuels movements. It empowers churches to stretch their reach, deepen their roots, and multiply their impact in communities hungry for hope.

The story of Irish Hills Community Church is just that: a group of people who, having experienced Christ’s loving embrace, come together to see their community healed and transformed by His presence and power.

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Irish Hills Community Church (IHCC) started the way many great things do — with a handful of people and not enough chairs. In 2001, five couples left the church they’d attended for decades to start something new in southeastern Michigan.

 

 

“The church started in a couple’s living room in 2001, and they met there for five weeks. And all of a sudden, people started showing up,” explains current pastor Curt Bowman, who came in 2018. “So, they had to find somewhere else to meet because they ran out of space.” The congregation migrated to a hunter’s lodge, then a school auditorium, where they stayed for six years. The church then purchased 20 acres of land, a mile north of town, with plans to build a new facility.

A Providential Opportunity

In 2007, a local businessman was selling a 19-acre property that housed a par-3, 9-hole golf course, complete with mini-golf and a clubhouse. Knowing that the church was hoping to build on the land they had previously purchased, the businessman contacted the IHCC’s leaders to see if they might be interested in buying the 19-acre property. He wanted $750,000, which was way more than the church leaders were able to spend.

 

 

But through a series of God-orchestrated negotiations and land swaps between the church and the seller, IHCC ended up with 19 acres of lush, green property, along with the clubhouse—which would then be renovated for the church’s new facility—for $350,000! Then, in 2019, they sold 15 acres back to the seller and his business partner. The church retained the remaining 4 acres, with great potential for future growth and ministry expansion.

A Community That Needs a Church

Irish Hills is the kind of place people love for all the right reasons: 40 lakes, scenic countryside, a laid-back culture shaped by generations of Irish immigrant families, and the roar of engines from nearby Michigan International Speedway. Onsted, where the church is located, is a small agricultural village of about 1,000 — a blend of long-term locals and newcomers moving away from urban centers, like Detroit, Lansing, Ann Arbor, and Kalamazoo.

 

 

But beauty and community don’t immunize a place from hardship. Lower-income families quietly battle substance abuse, broken relationships, and economic uncertainty. More affluent residents often drift toward comfort rather than connection.

“For a lot of people, church isn’t even on their radar,” notes Pastor Curt. “They’re not anti-church or anti-God, but spirituality is not something they think about very much. There are families with lives full of dysfunction. They really don’t know where to turn, and they don’t typically see the church as a place to find help and encouragement.”

Renovation Woes

Renovating the 4,000-square-foot clubhouse into a functioning church facility proved harder than expected. Building codes required a new egress and stairway before the lower level could be opened to the public. A contractor built one to match the existing stairway’s specs. Then the inspector arrived.

 

 

The stairway didn’t meet code. The lower level remained off-limits. “We were really defeated for a while,” Pastor Curt lamented. “We had a stairway we can’t use, so we couldn’t really access the basement. We felt like we blew all that money on renovations that didn’t solve the problem.”

Now What?

Setbacks have a way of clarifying what matters. With equity in the property and a renewed sense of calling, the church treasurer began seeking the Lord about additional borrowing to fund the new renovations. Church leaders gathered to pray — and sensed a green light.

 

 

They returned to a familiar partner. “We didn’t even consider any other banks,” recalled Pastor Curt. “We already had a loan through Orchard for our previous property purchase, and so it just made sense.”

“Our goal was to provide a welcoming space for the people of Irish Hills — and we were trusting God for the timing and the provision. We couldn’t have done what we did without Orchard. Knowing that Orchard uses funding from its investors to help churches like ours expand our ministries makes it a no-brainer when it comes to choosing a lender. And that’s something I need to share more with our church: that there’s an opportunity for them to invest in Orchard so that other churches can see their ministry dreams fulfilled as well.”

The Fruits of Partnership

With the renovations complete, things began to move. The church launched a midweek prayer group. It hosted its first VBS (with two more in the years that followed). More young families and youth began attending, and the church recently held its first youth-led service! It also held its first wedding in over seven years and had its first baptisms (six) in over a decade. Men’s and Women’s ministries formed. A few members joined a short-term missions trip to Ecuador. Church attendance increased by over 50%, and ministries that had been on the drawing board for years finally came to life.

 

 

One day, as Pastor Curt was praying about how the church could better serve its community, God gave him an idea. “We knew we had an opportunity to do something with all this extra land on the property. I grew up playing soccer and basketball, and did some coaching. And I thought, ‘We have four acres that all we do is mow. There’s got to be some purpose for it.’ So, I reached out to the local recreational program, and they jumped at the opportunity. They even removed several of the trees from the property and have been using the field in the spring and fall ever since. It’s been a great partnership.”

This August, the church plans to host an event for soccer families — a chance to deepen relationships and open the door a little wider.

 

 

“Since hosting the soccer events, we’ve had several families join the church,” adds Pastor Curt. We’ve also had a chance to minister to several athletic directors involved in the program and make some great inroads into the community. So now we’re kind of known as the soccer church. And I’m good with that.”

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This year, Irish Hills Community Church celebrated 25 years of ministry to its community. Orchard Alliance thanks our investors for making ministries like this possible. Your investment funds the loans that enable and empower churches like Irish Hills to lay deep roots and broaden their ministry impact in communities that need a vibrant gospel presence.