Destiny Church opens its doors Feb. 9

 

Last updated 1/28/2020 at Noon



Penny LeLeux

For The Record

Growing up in Orangefield, starting a church was nothing Johnny Asevedo saw in his future.

“I was a drug addict and alcoholic,” he said, referring to his teen and early adult years. “I was eating about 12 Xanax a day, drinking all day, smoking all day.”

He said it got to a point he knew he needed to stop and didn’t know how. He asked God for deliverance from his addictions. “Like that,” he snaps his fingers, “it was gone. Not a single urge, nothing.”

“I didn’t go to a 12 step program; I had an encounter with God and was delivered.”

He has since devoted his life to Christ and has been an associate pastor at other churches, but felt he was being led to start his own.

“God’s going to use imperfect people to talk about his perfect son, Jesus,” he said. “Church isn’t about judgment. It’s not about what I’m doing wrong or what I’m doing right. It’s about building a relationship with Jesus.”

After praying for guidance they started putting things together in December, 2018.

“That’s when Destiny Church was actually birthed,” said Asevedo. “We’re not launched out of any other church or other assembly. We are 100 percent nondenominational. We are starting all out on our own.”

He filed for 401 (c) (3) nonprofit status in February 2019 and started searching for a building. He found a location on Border Street in Orange and was set to open June 1, 2019, but delays with the building kept pushing the date back.

In November, the week before Thanksgiving, the landlord told him they had decided to sell the building.

The whole time they were facing delays, there was another building that was being vacated and renovated in Pinehurst Asevedo wasn’t aware of. Sometimes what looks like is a step backwards is just a step sideways and a pause, like a train moved to a side track so another train can pass through.

“As soon as we walked in we knew this was it,” said Asevedo. The new location is 3423 Martin St. and is located directly behind Hair and Co. on Strickland Drive.

Their first service will be held at 10:30 a.m., Sunday, Feb. 9. Asevedo is excited to get the next phase of his life underway.

He wants to focus on children’s ministry, especially special needs and youngsters with Autism. “Dreaming out, we are highly invested in our kids and nursery.” I feel our youth and children are very essential in not just church growth, but in changing the culture. We want to change the culture in our region.”

Asevedo also plans to partner with another local organization “Wells of Agape” to help those released from jail make a new start, offering counseling and help getting jobs.

We’re very exuberant,” said Asevedo on his style of ministry. “I’m very excitable, I get loud, I shout, I guess we are kinda like Pentecostal when it comes to our praise and worship…it’s just passionate is the best way I can say it.”

“To me passion doesn’t look boring and passion isn’t stifled. Passion is loud, passion is in your face and that is what we are like in the worship experience.”

“My wife is our worship leader. She has already written seven songs,” said Asevedo. He wife’s name is Karen. She is co-pastor and also handles a lot of the administrative needs of the church. “That’s another part of our heart. We want to sing new songs. It’s a prophetic element the Lord showed us. We want to sing songs that have never been sung before. To do that you write new music and that is what my wife has done. She plays keyboard, I play drums.”

“That’s what I’m going to charge [the worship team] each week, to write a new song. We’re not trying to write the next best song played on KLOVE.” Asevedo plans to ask, “What is God singing over Orange right now?”

“To me praise and worship is one of the biggest parts of church. We want it to be very authentic and coming from our heart.”

Other members of the worship team are Johnny’s younger brother David Asevedo - worship pastor; Marissa Pitman -missions coordinator and worship leader; Jessica Coopman - children’s pastor.

Their website is: http://www.dctx.church. “People can find out more about our vision. We wanted to make our website super easy and accessible.” They are also active on Facebook and plan to expand a YouTube channel. They hope to live stream services in the near future.

Asevedo invites anyone in Orange County and beyond to come join them at Destiny Church.

 

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