A Call To Church Plant

Many of you may have heard a little bit about our plans, but some may not have…so we’ll start at the beginning.
In August of 2006, while serving as youth pastor in Southern Illinois, God began to nudge our hearts about a call He was placing in our lives. God began to open our eyes to the great need for the Gospel in our own nation.
It was easy to see the need once we stopped and looked. Whether it is education, media, government, or entertainment, our nation has slipped from its once “Christian” status and has become what writers are calling a “post-Christian” nation.
God began to burden our hearts for our nation and our generation. And as we sought the Lord and His will for our lives it became clear that He was calling us to join and play a major part in a movement that seeks to plant young, missional, Gospel-centered Churches that will seek the transformation of a city and eventually a culture. Over the past few years we have gone through many of the steps of preparing for church planting. We have gone through the Acts 29 church planter assessment and boot camp. The Acts 29 Network (www.acts29network.org) is based out of Seattle, WA and is a network of church planting churches that wishes to plant relevant churches all over the World to transform culture for Jesus.

Whats Next...

As one of the youngest couples to ever go through the process, we have been accepted as ready for church planting after a thorough assessment process and challenged to take the next step.
The next step is to work with another Acts 29 church for 12 months to learn the ins and outs of church planting. At the end of that year, we will launch a new church. The calling and mission are still the same from when God initially laid this on our heart. We have been called to plant a missional church that will be a beacon of light in a darkening world. This church will be Bible centered, theologically solid, Gospel driven, people loving, Jesus worshipping, Holy Spirit yielding, and relevant to an increasingly progressive culture.

We are so excited to take this next big step of faith and happy to announce that in a few days we will be moving to St. Charles, Missouri to team up with Matthias’ Lot Church (http://www.matthiaslot.com/).

In this next year it is our goal and desire to learn the ins and outs of church planting; we will be starting new ministries, meeting new people, building a core group, networking with other church planters, deciding on and researching a location and developing the vision God has put in our hearts.

Moving Forward...

We know that we are called to do this, and because we are sure of that calling we are certain that God will provide for it. But because God chooses to use His people instead of a cosmic debit card, we must let His people know of the need and the opportunity.
This is a vision for a church, not an income. This is the vision for a ministry that within a few years will be a self-sustaining movement of God that will be impacting a community for Christ. It will be a full-fledged, functioning church with tithing members.
At this moment, it is a vision. It is a dream in our hearts and, we fully believe, a dream in the heart of God.

The Challange...

It has been one of my (Noah’s) greatest fears to ever have to ask people for money. But, if we are to be obedient to the Lord, we have to follow His call. I can’t apologize for that. Would you pray and ask God if He would use you to be a part of this work? All gifts are tax deductible and go directly to the work we are doing. We can promise you this: your giving will be a part of a movement of God that sees the Gospel preached, the lost evangelized, the poor fed, the Church grown, disciples challenged, and the bound set free.
We would also ask you to pray. We know that not everyone can give financially. But we need people to commit to praying that God would bring to completion what he has started in our hearts. Our lives belong to Jesus and we are going to spend them advancing His Kingdom. We believe, according to Matthew 16:18 and other scriptures, that God’s plan until the return is the Church. We believe that He has called us to plant a church that is representative of His call in Scripture.