Leap of faith: New church embarks on weekly services

Jed Selke puts the finishing touches on Christmas decorations at Sacred Heart Church at 291 Union Ave., Laconia, on Dec. 21. Selke, Warren Cline and Cory Johnson teamed up to beautify sanctuaries in the Roman Catholic St. Andre Bessette Parish. (David Carkhuff/The Laconia Daily Sun)

By DAVID CARKHUFF/THE LACONIA DAILY SUN

LACONIA — Pastor Shaun Dutile once again will dip his toe in the water in a spiritual quest this Saturday, which includes tackling the city's opiate-addiction crisis.

Dutile will welcome the public to the first Christmas Eve service for Water's Edge — A Church of Christ, the church that Pastor Dutile and his wife, Marci, launched in Laconia less than three years ago. The service is at 6 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 24, at Pitman's Freight Room, 94 Salem St., Laconia.

"It's been a three-year journey to get to where we are right now," said Dutile.

The past year has marked a series of firsts for the church and its affiliated drug-recovery outreach program, Celebrate Recovery (http://www.watersedgecofc.com/weminstries).

In 2016, 72 people came through the doors for Friday groups with Celebrate Recovery, Dutile estimated. On Dec. 2, the program marked its one-year anniversary.

"We use the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, and we specify the higher power as Jesus in our program," Dutile said.

Celebrate Recovery offers healing from not just drugs and alcohol but also from pornography, co-dependency, anger, food addiction, fear of abandonment, anxiety and depression.

In 2015, Dutile launched the program by working out of the Belknap County Jail.

"The longer I did it, there the more I was convinced we needed a like program in Laconia," he said.

On Wednesday mornings, Dutile continues to provide counseling at the jail. Separately, Dutile, who holds a master's degree in professional counseling, provides individual counseling. For the general public, Celebrate Recovery group meetings are Friday nights at the LifeQuest Church, 115 Court St., Laconia.

The Celebrate Recovery program began in 1991 at the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and is now a ministry in over 27,000 churches worldwide, according to its website.

Part of the process of starting a new church involved establishing ministries or programs "that meet urgently felt needs," Dutile said.

"The ministry started before the new church," he noted, an unusual reversal.

The name "Water's Edge" is based partly on the region's four lakes, but also on the idea that coming to the water's edge means "you're on the edge of something, the edge of something starting."

Dutile grew up in Plymouth, but he said Laconia is home to five generations. He and Marci, who also is from Plymouth, have five children. They spent nearly 10 years in New Jersey pastoring a church in North Brunswick, and then they moved back to New Hampshire in 2014.

"The hope of the new church is to reach people who have no church home, perhaps have no church background at all," Dutile said.

Water's Edge conducted monthly "preview services" in the fall, when about 60 people attended on a regular basis.

"We don't know what it will look like on a weekly basis," Dutile said, but after the Christmas Eve service, he said the plan is to launch weekly services starting Jan. 8.

Counseling and the church, "all of it's really tied together," Dutile said. Dutile also emphasized that Water's Edge is not trying to replace any of the missions of existing churches; "it's not replacing that, it's simply adding to the mix of churches already established in Laconia."

The question that Dutile would like to answer after the next decade: "What will the city of Laconia look like in 10 years because of the church and its work in it?"

Shaun and Marci Dutile launched Water's Edge — A Church of Christ, which will hold its first Christmas Eve service 6 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 24, at Pitman's Freight Room, 94 Salem St., Laconia. (Courtesy photo)

Warren Cline adjusts lights on a Christmas tree at Sacred Heart Church at 291 Union Ave., Laconia. (David Carkhuff/The Laconia Daily Sun)