This Is Joy

Joy was founded in 2016 by Pastors Jake and Bethany Schmelzer, with a small group of friends and a mission to reach the lost people in our community. We quickly outgrew our pastor's living room and God opened a door to meet at our local community center.

God added to our numbers people who were being saved, as well as people seeking church family. We moved from the community center to Regal Cinemas at Valley River Center. It was a fantastic place to invite people to attend church--plus the chairs were super comfy! From here we served our community and saw many more people come to know Christ.

In 2019, God gave us an amazing opportunity to purchase the former Skateworld building in Springfield.

Through a series of miraculous events and the generosity of many, we now have a beautiful facility, complete with an indoor playground!

The playground officially opened to kids on November 5th, 2023. Since then, they've been having a blast, and we are all thrilled to watch the kids enjoy this greatly anticipated additon to Joy Church!

God has done many incredible acts to bring us to where we are now, and we can't wait to see where else He takes us as we Love God, Love People, and Make Disciples.

We believe in GOD—the maker and sustainer of all things, who created us for relationship with Him. That relationship was broken because of SIN. Sin brought death into the world—death in our physical bodies and death in our spiritual being. Sin separated us from God and broke our relationships with others. But God sent His son JESUS to become a man, live a perfect life, and offer Himself for our sins. By repenting and trusting in Jesus we can become right with God and enter into relationship with Him. We have been gathered into God’s family, the CHURCH, and given a mission to make disciples of Jesus. We live our lives as an act of WORSHIP, seeking to love others like Jesus loves us. We celebrate that through Christ’s sacrificial and substitutionary death we have been granted eternal LIFE and will spend eternity with Him.