Northview Stories

By Heather Goble-Sorrells


After moving from Dallas, Texas, to Fishers, Indiana, in March of 2018, Suzanne Kishindo and her family found Northview Church’s Fishers Campus in the midst of an ‘At the Movies’ series. The ‘At the Movies’ series is not a typical church experience. Clips from popular secular movies are shown alongside a healthy dose of popcorn and afterwards, there is a sermon that coincides with the movie to relate it to biblical teaching. Together with her husband Tony, and two children, Hannah and Andrew, the Kishindos have been attending Northview ever since.


Beyond the volunteers welcoming her family in, great worship music, and Lead Pastor Steve’s level of conviction during sermons, she said they keep coming back “because of the sincere commitment that the Northview community demonstrates to serving the Lord.”

After being challenged in a weekend service led by Pastor Steve Poe, Suzanne went through the Growth Plan that Northview offers. The Growth Plan is a 90-day discipleship resource designed to help deepen Christians’ relationship with God by intentionally focusing on an area of faith to focus on and continue growing.


At first, Suzanne went through the Growth Plan on her own. Because she tried to tackle it on her own, the resource itself was overwhelming to her and she felt like she was just going through the motions rather than getting much out of the experience.
Suzanne found that the second time through was when she was really able to be intentional by focusing on one specific area to develop her faith in. This second time, her Growth Plan Accountability Partner was Jeanne Smith, the Northview Kids director at Northview’s Fishers Campus. She met Jeanne when she was the Northview Kids Coordinator at the Fishers Campus.
Suzanne and Jeanne met every week for 3 months. This was Jeanne’s first time going through the Growth Plan and has since went through it again as well. Jeanne said, “It was good to have an accountability partner. Suzanne has a kind, caring, no-nonsense way about her. That really helped for us to be open.”
Suzanne said that Jeanne “was a wonderful accountability partner, but unfortunately our paths went different ways” when the Kishindo Family decided to start attending Northview’s Carmel Campus.


While going through the Growth Plan with Jeanne, Suzanne chose to focus on the area of sharing her faith through words and deeds. Since she has a natural inclination toward being an introvert, she knew that sharing her faith with others could be a challenge.


By going through the Growth Plan the second time, she realized that one way she could share her faith could be by praying for other people, and that she did not have to share in the same way that other people do. When asked what kind of transformation she felt like she experienced, she said, “My prayer life is much stronger, and I feel that I have drawn closer to the Lord through prayer.”


Suzanne said she continues to focus on ways to serve others either by prayer or serving people. “This will always be a focus for me as it is a real challenge,” she said.


If you are reluctant to try the Growth Plan or tried it once and it did not feel like it worked for you, consider finding an accountability partner and starting (again) today. When you do, Suzanne shared the following tips that might help you:


Give yourself grace because God gives us grace.


Take it one day at a time and do not be discouraged if life gets in the way. Pick up where you left off and keep going.


Narrow your focus to one area and utilize the resources that are provided. There are many to choose from, so use the ones that work for you.


For more information on the Growth Plan or to get started, check out https://www.northviewchurch.us/growthplan.