The history of Nfluence began in a small town in northwest Ohio where former Bible college professor, Louie Weber, had been born and raised. After having spent several years teaching and training up students to become ministers, many of his students would confide in him that within a few short years of a career in full-time ministry, they had become disenfranchised with it and were ready to leave their life’s calling.

As a result, Louie came to the conclusion that perhaps traditional seminary was not equipping these young students to be successful in real world applications of their faith. This led him to ask the question, “What if ministers were trained in ministry the way the early disciples trained its pastors – within the context of the local church?”

The answer to that question led Louie to resign from his position at (then) Kentucky Christian College, and move to his hometown of Wauseon, Ohio, to plant a church and develop an in-house ministry training school in the late 1990s.

In 2001, Pastors Lucas and Krissy met Pastor Weber at a youth conference where Pastor Weber was the keynote speaker. After confiding in Louie that they had developed many of the same sentiments as the young bible college students Louie had worked with every day, he invited them to visit his church in northwest Ohio to simply get away and get refreshed.

After that brief encounter weekend Pastors Lucas and Krissy looked at each other on the way home and said, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if this was our church?” They knew there was something special about the relationships people had with one another there and the freedom they experienced in worship. This led them to move to Wauseon, Ohio in 2002 to begin attending church at Nfluence and to enroll in their ministry training school program.

It was in northwest Ohio where Pastors Lucas and Krissy met Jerry Grieser – one of the bible school teachers at Nfluence. Unknown to them at the time, Pastor Jerry had been listening to Andrew Wommack teaching tapes for already close to 20 years, and it was Jerry who introduced Pastors Lucas and Krissy to the Gospel of grace.

For two years, Lucas would help Pastor Jerry work on his family’s lake cabin, and Krissy would sit with his wife Jill as they taught each of them about the true nature of God and his unconditional love.

At the end of ministry training school, students were encouraged to seek the Lord on what their next step might be. After reading a passage in Ezekiel chapter 3, Pastors Lucas and Krissy were sure that God was calling them to move "home" to plant an Nfluence Church in Granger. 

Pastor Lucas continued to be heavily involved with ministry of the Oasis Network of Churches in Ohio, and travelled frequently on behalf of the network carrying the message of grace to hundreds of pastors wishing to affiliate with like-minded churches.

In 2007, after Pastor and visionary leader for the Network, Louie’s, health began to fail, he asked Lucas to become the President of the Nfluence Network of Churches.

For several years, Pastors Lucas and Krissy continued to pastor the local church in Granger while simultaneously leading trips through the Nfluence Network, until 2015, when the Lord gave them a vision to combine the local church ministry with the outreach arm of the Nfluence Network. The result would bring the various aspects of each of the ministries under one umbrella, now referred to as The Nfluence Network For Churches.

Although Nfluence has been in Michiana for over 12 years, in many ways, it’s still yet to be seen what Nfluence Church and The Nfluence Network will someday be. But one thing will always stay the same -- Nfluence will always be a place where real relationships happen, a place where people receive life-changing messages, and a place of radical grace.