Our History
The history of Living Word Family Church begins with Pastor Mac Hammond of Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, MN. It was on his heart to start a church that would bring the uncompromised Word of God to the city of Naples and all of Southwest Florida. He called on Pastor Paul Foslien and his wife Maria, who had just returned from planting a church in the former Soviet republic of Belarus (see their story here).
The first service—with 17 people in attendance—was held on Sunday, November 21, 1998 at the Veteran's Park Community Center in North Naples.
In June 1999, Living Word hosted a grand opening celebration in the auditorium at Gulf Coast High School. Several hundred people attended and many new families were added to the church. The guest ministers were Pastor Mac Hammond and international minister, Rev. Jesse Duplantis.
In July 1999, the church was able to move into its own building, a 7,000 square foot church building and adjacent house in North Naples. Over the first three years, the church grew to three services and converted the fellowship hall into a youth room and converted the adjacent house from offices to the Nursery. In 2004 we purchased land and began the planning process to build.
In 2008 Pastor Paul's ministry grew as he stepped into his new role of Regional Director for the RHEMA Ministerial Association in Florida. He now ministers to a large group of pastors and ministers across the state.
Later in 2008, we broke ground on the property where our current facility is located to fulfill a much larger vision—a church campus that allows for years of expansion. Our campus is located at 10910 Immokalee Road, three miles east of Collier Boulevard, in the heart of a booming residential area, with thousands of homes, shopping centers, and schools projected to be built in the near future. This new facility will allow us to continue growing our outreach into the commmunity. We held our first service there on Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010 with over 1800 people in attendance between the two services.
