Church Planting

Several years ago, as we were content serving in a wonderful ministry in Alabama...

A common challenge that every church planter will be faced with is the challenge of making “mountains out of mole hills.” I am not talking about blowing a given issue out of proportion, rather, I am speaking of providing majestic mountains on mole hill resources.

Travel to northeastern Uganda, and you may stumble across the village of Kaliro where Pastor Kasajja Fredrick and his family live and minister. Since the time of his salvation and calling of God, his burden has been to see independent Baptist churches started in his community.

I snapped the picture above as we were recently driving into Los Angeles. And my heart was gripped by the numbers on it. Four million people in this one city—just seventy miles from where I pastor.

The story of Crown Point Baptist Church begins with the directive of the Saviour to simply, “Go.” At the age of fifty-four, Pastor Mark Irmler and his family surrendered to the call to start a new independent Baptist church in the city of Simi Valley, California.

For thirty years, Dean Herring spent his life ministering in South Georgia. During that time, he spent eight years as a youth minister, two years in evangelism, and twenty years as a pastor. He had the privilege of preaching at numerous youth camps, marriage retreats, and conferences across the country each year. But after a visit to Treasure Valley in southern Idaho, God began to impress upon the hearts of the Herring family that He wanted them to move to the area and plant a Baptist church.

As we began preparations to plant Huikala Baptist Church, I read dozens of books on church planting, subscribed to blogs and podcasts, and became a student of other successful and unsuccessful church plants.

Any reader of the divinely-inspired record of early Christianity written in the book of Acts will note the attention given to numbers. Those who were saved in the days after the coming of the Holy Spirit were “added to the church.”

For years, a small group of believers burdened for an independent Baptist church in the Oakland Bay Area prayed for a miracle.

An annual feature of the Spiritual Leadership Conference is the Church Planter’s Luncheon where church planters and their wives enjoy a meal, fellowship with other church planters, and teaching on church planting.

Thirteen years ago, Anthony and Angela King sold most of their possessions to move from Hawaii to attend West Coast Baptist College and to serve the Lord. Now, they are serving the Lord as church planters in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii.

What is a missionary? I have been called one for twenty-one years, and through those years I have heard many different people use the term—from well diggers, to doctors, to school teachers, to veterinarians, to church planters, to orphanage directors, and some whose sole purpose is teaching good hygiene habits.

Pastor Tavv Shaver planted Evergreen Baptist Church in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. After speaking at the West Coast Baptist College 2014 Church Planting Conference, he spoke with The Baptist Voice about church planting.

Fifteen years ago, a story began to unfold in Northern San Diego County as Coastline Baptist Church opened its doors for the first time. Though circumstances were not ideal, it soon became evident that this story was a testimony of God’s power and provision.

When it comes to planting churches, I think we romanticize the spiritual condition of our nation. Do you wonder how many Americans actually believe the Bible is accurate? Do you wonder which cities most need a gospel-preaching church?

When I believed God was burdening my heart to plant a church in my hometown, many people laughed or just shook their heads. You see, I am from Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1977, I planned to graduate on May 11, get married ten days later, and assist my pastor in building a recent successful church plant in Burlington, North Carolina. That year, however, God changed my direction towards planting a church in Las Vegas.

On July 11, 1982, my wife Josselyn and our four-year-old son Peter drove the last few kilometers of the Trans-Canada Highway into the vast metropolitan area known as Vancouver, British Columbia. We arrived rather naive, certainly ill prepared, lacking in training, and vastly underfunded.

Several years ago I was in downtown Iloilo City. After doing what I needed to do, I got in a taxi. The driver asked where I wanted to go and I told him to go to Iloilo Baptist Church in Jaro. Most taxi drivers know our place, so I did not think much about it and began to work on some paperwork. After about 20 minutes, the taxi stopped. I had not been paying attention to where he was going, because of my work. Then I looked up, there I was inside the compound of the largest Roman Catholic Church in our region of the country, the Jaro Cathedral.