By RJ Walters, Editor
Sixty-dollar jeans bagged? Check.
Over-priced food court meal finished? Of course.
Finger muscles sore from texting? The norm.
Stopped by that kiosk where God is alive and working like it’s a 21st century Zion?
I-75 is Michael Sawicki’s road to Jerusalem and Fashion Square Mall in Saginaw is his pulpit, where he is proving taking risks to save souls isn’t so radical, and giving away peanut M&M’s is never a bad choice.
The head pastor of FaithWay Church — a new faith community of the UMC in the Great Lakes Bay region — is living out his call to discipleship in what might be considered a less-than traditional fashion, but one he calls essential.
Instead of spending money on ad space in local newspapers and trying to run around from one social hotspot to the next, Sawicki decided that being a couple hundred feet from Macy’s was the perfect spot to begin his new ministry.
Sawicki uprooted his family (wife Patty Sawicki and their two children) from the comforts of Piegeon, Mich. where he was the pastor at a thriving church, but he believes the road less traveled is the trail once blazed by Jesus.
The transition has not been easy and a process that began more than two years ago was almost derailed more than once.
Nonetheless, the fruits of the Sawicki family’s labor and willingness to respond to God’s call has already prompted four preview services in a strip mall storefront, and 35 people attended the March 28 service, six months before the church is set for its’ “grand opening” on Oct. 10.
Called out
Michael Sawicki heard his calling loud and clear a few years ago —in his car on the way to a church conference.
“My wife and another passenger were in the car, and I’m on I-75 and I hear the Lord tell me there was a church that should be planted there,” he said. “And I said, ‘OK, God,’ and just chuckled. I knew one needed to be planted, I just thought maybe I’d leave it to somebody else.”
Roughly a month later he opened a letter from Eugene Blair — the current Flint District Superintendent, who was the Director of Congregational Development at the time — and in the envelope was an invitation to be the driving force behind a new church.
Upon reading that letter on Easter morning 2008 Sawicki knew his experience behind the wheel was not just a nudge, it was a full-out push.
It wasn’t an elementary kind of change though.
Patty Sawicki said she did not feel called to the new ministry and plenty of Michael’s friends shared their reservations about relocation.
