THE LEVENGOOD dinner table is a lively place, with two parents, six kids, and — frequently — guests. They have an open table, Billy Levengood said, and they almost always have food to share.
The Levengood family is just as lively and just as generous in their everyday lives as they are at dinner, and are almost always together. Billy planted and pastors a church, runs a business, and serves with the chamber of commerce, while his wife, Jodi, homeschools their kids and teaches voice lessons on the side. In the afternoons, they can be found with their children at baseball practice, dance practice, or basketball practice. As much as they can, they do life as a family.
“If I’m helping coach a baseball team, my older kids are helping with the younger kids,” Billy said. “We almost always do church things together, so if we’re doing some sort of outreach, our kids are jumping in to do that with us.”
It is true with Billy’s work, as much as his volunteer activities. If he is going to a meeting or a ribbon-cutting, one or more of his kids may come along.
“I want them to see and be exposed to people in the community and learn from them,” Billy said. “If we’re going to do a thing, they’re just coming with us.”
The main reason the Levengoods homeschool is to spend time together as a family, Jodi said, and to be the main influence in their kids’ lives.
“We want to be able to teach them how to have good character and how to be kind and loving to other people,” Jodi said. “I want to be the one who guides them as they go along and they learn how to live in the real world.”
Billy’s church, Encounter Life Church, operates on a similar principle: doing life out in the community. The Leven- goods wanted to go and build relationships with people who weren’t going to church, and to help people honor God and care for their neighbor where they lived, worked, and played.
“We wanted to be a part of a church and help start a church that would engage in the community, would try to serve, would not view Sunday as the pinnacle of ministry,” Billy said. “It’s more about how those people who come on Sunday go about engaging in ministry and life through the week.”
Relational networking is the most valuable thing Billy has found through the chamber of commerce, and his website and branding small business follow the same principles — focusing on the people they serve. The chamber has a great team, Billy said, and so many of its members have been influential to him in becoming better. Now he tries to do the same for others, and gather others to continue that work — in the chamber, in church, in work, and out in the community.
“We want to give ourselves to continuing to serve people well, to care well for our community, to lead our church to do that, to use our business for that,” Billy said. “Hopefully, we influence our children to do the same thing.” GN
