Embrace Church, which is based in Sioux Falls and consistently named one of the 100 fastest-growing churches in America, will launch a Twin Cities campus this fall.

Embrace is a United Methodist church that began in 2006 with 40 people; it now averages close to 3,000 people in average worship attendance across three physical locations in South Dakota and an online community.

The Twin Cities campus, Embrace’s fifth, will be in Lakeland, about 35 miles east of Minneapolis.  Austin Walker, who has spent the past eight months leading the Embrace 57th Street Campus in Sioux Falls, South Dakota,  is part of the Minnesota Annual Conference and will return this fall to lead the Twin Cities campus.

Photo: Austin Walker prepares for a video shoot outside the church campus in St. Croix, Minnesota.  Photo from Embrace Instagram.

“I am so excited for the possibilities that lie ahead and to reach the next person for Jesus,” said Walker, a native of Hastings, Minn. He spent eight years as youth pastor at Hastings United Methodist Church before joining Embrace in January.

Embrace’s new campus will be located inside what is now St. Croix Valley United Methodist Church. Church members voted to discontinue and give their building to Embrace so that Embrace could launch a new campus. Read more about the campus building here.

The idea of starting a Twin Cities campus emerged about a year ago when Bishop Bruce Ough, who leads both the Dakotas Annual Conference and the Minnesota Annual Conference, invited Embrace leadership to consider doing so. This summer, they said “yes” to that invitation.

“The launch of a campus of Embrace in the Twin Cities stretches all of us to think outside the box, outside our borders, " said Rebecca Trefz, Dakotas Conference, Director of Ministries.  "The places that God call us to reach are contstatnly changing. This is a good example of how God is stretching Embrace and all of us. It is His challenge to 'go beyond' for God's Kingdom."

"This is an idea that wasn't ours," said Adam Weber, lead pastor at Embrace, "It was brought to us and at first we said no. But it became clear that this was something we needed to do. It has been amazing to see all the pieces coming together."

Embrace’s Twin Cities campus doesn’t have a specific launch date yet but will open by Dec. 1. Sunday worship services at the new site will be offered at 10 and 11:15 a.m. A “children’s church” and a nursery will be available during both services.

The new Embrace campus joins two other faith communities that are launching in the Dakotas Conference this year: Grace Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and a faith community in Watford City, North Dakota. 

St Croix Campus from Embrace Church on Vimeo.