Refined by Fire

Daniel Quinby sat in his car, watching the church burn. Not 30 minutes before, he had been there and all had been well.Yet while on the road, the now 32-year-old pastor of Sent Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa, received a call from a congregant — “The church is on fire!”

Upon arriving at the burning church, Quinby thought, Jesus, I can’t do this.

The response he sensed from the Lord, that he, indeed, couldn’t do it on his own but that the Lord was going to carry him, was immediate.

Together with his wife Emily, Quinby was in an intense ministry season, in addition to parenting their four children, Jane (6), Abram (4), Caleb (3) and Lily (1). The days had been full and stressful, and the fire became what Quinby describes as “a piece pulled of the Jenga set of my faith.” Anxiety plagued him. “Even in my preaching, I struggled. I was only 31 years old and was already fatigued from the challenges of church planting,” he says.

Yet moving from the fire in February 2024 into 2025, he saw Jesus prove true to His word, and the struggles became “a very transformative time for me as a man and as a leader, learning to trust the Lord again.”

The heavily damaged church building had to be partially bulldozed, including the lobby and sanctuary. Yet in the end, it worked in the congregation’s favor, as they would have shortly outgrown their previously existing facilities. They also experienced great favor with the insurance company who handled their case.

ZERO DOLLARS AND A STIRRING OF SPIRIT

From 2015 to 2019, the Quinbys served with Chi Alpha at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). During that time, they also attended Grace Community Church. In 2020, Quinby and Emily felt Jesus direct them to plant a fresh work. That same year they launched Sent Church — a congregation of around 50 of the approximately 100 Chi Alpha students from UNI, along with four other families. Quinby’s brother, Derek, a career associate with U.S. Missions, then stepped in as director of UNI’s Chi Alpha.

The newly formed Sent Church met in a Hilton Garden Inn, and for 16 months prayed for their own building.

Quinby recalls, “We saw a church building come up for sale for one million dollars. And we had exactly zero dollars.”

New Hope AG in neighboring Urbandale learned of the situation and gifted the congregation with a down payment on the building. The church was purchased, and the congregation burgeoned to around 250, maxing out the new facilities. Quinby learned that to do necessary expansions and remodeling, well over one million dollars would be needed.

During that time, Quinby says he began to feel stirrings in his spirit, even experiencing dreams. Grace Community, where he and Emily had attended, maintained a good relationship with the Quinbys. He began to pray the church would approach him about merging, a step that would blend older and younger generations into a multigenerational congregation.

Around one week later, he received a phone call from Mike Sullivan, a former board member at Grace Community. He and Quinby met, and Sullivan was direct. “God is stirring in our hearts to merge with you.” In December 2023, the Grace Community congregation voted with a 95% majority to merge with Sent Church, numerically growing Sent Church’s congregation and bringing a younger group of congregants to Grace Community’s church body.

BEAUTY FOR ASHES

Following the excitement of beginning renovations on the larger building (formerly Grace Community) to accommodate its blending with Sent Church, and the relief of moving into the larger facility, the fire in February 2024 was indeed what Sullivan calls “very perplexing.” Following the crisis, the newly merged group shifted back into the smaller building previously inhabited by Sent Church, a good temporary solution but also a messy, overcrowded one.

Yet following recovery from fire and because of the merger, Sullivan says, “We are better and stronger as one Church in the Cedar Valley. We are reaching more people for Christ, are better serving our community, are maximizing our church facilities in a prominent location, and are diligently working to further expand God’s kingdom. To God be the glory!”

Sent Church now runs around 500 people each week, reaching a wide range of people including families, empty-nesters, college students, and more. “We are really excited to see the multigenerational dynamic,” Quinby says.

Sent Church also remains in close partnership with Chi Alpha. Derek Quinby says, “The story of our church has always been marked by one theme: Only God. I’ve had a front-row seat to how God has worked both on campus and through our church over the last five years. Today, over 200 Chi Alpha students gather at UNI weekly, many encountering Jesus for the first time, finding deep community, and stepping into a call to ministry or missions. We’re now preparing to send out our first AG World Missions missionaries. A major reason we’ve seen this kind of fruit is the strength of the partnership between Chi Alpha and Sent Church. This relationship has created space for students to serve, grow alongside older generations, and catch a vision for life with Jesus after graduation.”