Zach Kinsman is having a big month.

Within the next few weeks Kinsman and his wife will close on a home in Newtown, he will reach a milestone birthday, and he will also celebrate the opening of the newest faith community coming to town.

Kinsman will be the pastor of New Heights Baptist Church, a new worship community being planted in Newtown with a mission, as described on its website, to reach the community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to establish a healthy, New Testament Church.

A Launch Service is being planned for Sunday, April 3, at 11 am, in the Alexandria Room of Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street. All are welcome, Kinsman said last week, to join him, his family, and his New Heights team for their first service.

A time for food and fellowship will follow.

Kinsman and the team will also head that afternoon to Suite D-2 in Plaza South, where New Heights Baptist Church will conduct its regular services through the end of April, for a short dedication and prayer service.

Weekly services will be on Sundays at 11 am and 1 pm, as well as 7 pm each Wednesday.

Beginning in May, services will be conducted weekly at Newtown Meeting House, 31 Main Street.

A sandwich board will be placed outside each Sunday, and nursery care for children up to age 5 will be provided each weekend.

Kinsman and his family — wife Catharine and 16-month-old son Luke — are moving this month from Danbury to their new home in Sandy Hook.

He has felt, he said, since he was a teenager that he was meant to pastor a church.

“I didn’t know what that would entail, whether it was taking a church that needed a pastor, which I’ve had opportunities to do, or if that was starting a church,” he said.

Through several years of prayer and contemplation, Kinsman said, “and in my opinion, seeing the need that’s around here, me and my wife both feel the Lord has confirmed that rather than taking something somewhere else, we want to establish something here.

“We firmly believe this is what the Lord wants us to do,” he said. “There is a need in New England for churches for families, for children, for youth, for kids, to connect them with Christ, the Gospel, give them a strong foundation they can build their life on.

“It’s funny,” he added. “You travel down south and different places and there are churches on every corner. It’s very far and few in between up here. I believe there is definitely a need in New England.”

Good Momentum

Kinsman has a passion for the region he grew up in, he said. In praying with his wife, “The Lord opened the door for Newtown, and kind of made it clear that that’s where He wanted us to be,” he said.

New Heights will be an independent church, he said.

“We’re not under the umbrella of anyone else,” he said. Kinsman and his team are “starting from scratch,” he said, “getting incorporated through the State of Connecticut, the whole nine yards that goes into starting an organization.”

Kinsman grew up in Brookfield, and graduated from Brookfield High School in 2010.

He studied pastoral theology at Hyles-Anderson College in Indiana, graduating in 2014 with a Bachelor’s in Pastoral Theology.

Zach and Catharine have been serving at Northeast Baptist Church in Danbury, their home church, for nearly eight years, he said, “serving as a youth pastor and outreach in the community.”

Catharine has been a Sunday school teacher, and Zach has been in an assistant pastor role, he said.

In addition to Zach and Catharine, the New Heights launch team includes Brandon and Brittany Capelo, Mark and Marianne Kinsman, and Nick and Megan Maloney.

Focused fundraising has been underway since August, and the group is working with StartCHURCH to make sure all bases are covered.

“They’ve been helping us with everything — bylaws, 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, everything,” Kinsman said. “We’ve been doing really great with fundraising. We have good momentum going into it financially.”

All fundraising has been going to New Heights, he said.

“All of the money we’ve been raising, 100% of it goes to the church. Nothing is for my family,” said Kinsman, who continues to work remotely from home. “I have a sales job and I also have my real estate license. We’re not raising money for my family. It’s all for the church.”

The Launch Service on April 3, Kinsman said, “will highlight who we are and our main focus of showing people how they can have a relationship with Jesus Christ,” the pastor said. “There will be singing, worship music, and also a 20-25 minute practical sermon from the Bible.”

Food will be served, and guests will be offered visitor bags — a Thank You, said Kinsman, “for coming and attending with us.”

Those who want to continue the celebration will be invited to join the Launch Team at 226 South Main Street “for a prayer dedication, and the opportunity to see the building,” Kinsman said.

Following its Launch Service at Edmond Town Hall on Sunday, April 3, New Heights Baptist Church will celebrate services weekly at Plaza South Suite D-2, 266 South Main Street, through the end of April. In May it moves to its permanent home at Newtown Meeting House.

For additional information, call 203-300-6474, visit nhnewtown.church, or find New Heights Baptist Church on Facebook (NHNewtownChurch) and Instagram (@NHNewtown).

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.