On November 3, 2005, Pastor Terry met with a group of 18 people to share and cast the vision for what is now the NorthStar Church. They met bimonthly until launch day which was Easter Sunday 2006. They grew from 18 to about 40 after about six weeks. The group had a high attendance of 78 during these 26 weeks with an average of about 45.
In January 2006 about 35 people traveled from their meeting place at the Lee County Baptist Association to look at our current building (19,000 square feet) to envision and pray for God’s direction. It was hard to imagine at this time filling up such a large building but the people had vision and they secured a lease on the building and began construction.
The group’s highest attendance was on Palm Sunday in the partially finished building with 92 people. They had been talking about the goal to launch big with over three hundred in attendance at the first service. Because the vision of the people was so strong and definite, they never thought they would launch with less than what had been envisioned. The people shared this vision and worked toward what would become a reality on Easter Sunday 2006.
After much prayer, vision, preparation and hard work, NorthStar Church launched Easter Sunday 2006 (April 16) with 356 in attendance. The passion and vision of the church is to reach the unreached people in Lee County and the surrounding area and region. NSC is located in Saltillo, MS which is a rapidly growing area in Lee County. NSC is located approximately 4 miles from the Mall at Barnes Crossing and 1 mile from the new shopping center in Saltillo. The target demographic is the 17-35 year olds in the county. Currently there are 12,500 people in this demographic, who attend no church. The church began with one full time paid staff and seven non paid staff. The church now has four full time, one three quarter time paid, and three part time paid.
NorthStar was a church plant of the Longview Heights Baptist Church in Olive Branch Mississippi. Their partners for the first two years were LVHBC, Lee County Baptist Association and the Mississippi Baptist Convention. Funding ended from the MBCB after two years (January 08) because of the stability and self sufficiency of the church. The funding of LCBA also ended at the end of two years. (December 08) The church never used funding from these entities to pay their bills or pay salaries; rather they used the funds to do ministry, buy chairs and do publicity, etc.
NorthStar soon outgrew its original facility and began looking for the place that could house them through what would be phase II. The building that was selected was twice the space of the original facility (40,000 square feet) and offered the room to grow through phase II. The church made its second journey to look, envision and pray. While they took approximately 35 to look and pray the first time, on April 15, 2009, they took over 250 to envision the building they felt God lead them to purchase and renovate.
On May 6, 2009, the church confirmed its great vision for the future and unanimously voted to obtain the funding to purchase and renovate the prospective building. The church also entered a building campaign entitled The Door to the Future. This building is Phase II in the life of NorthStar Church. The church's sights are on this phase but also looking beyond to phase III which will be the purchase of land and construction. The church is passionate about their vision and mission to reach more people for Christ, disciple them in the faith, to reproduce themselves and look forward to the years to come.
On Sunday, August 14th, 2011, NorthStar Church opened its doors for worship for the first time at 112 Bahaus Drive and had over 1,146 people attend its three services. On October 2nd, 2011, NorthStar held its Grand Opening event. Easter weekend 2012, NorthStar had a record attendance of 1530 and saw over 70 give their hearts to Christ.
