The last year and a half of my life has been immersed in planting a church. Not an easy task to say the least. It has been an adventure full of disappointments, frustrations and triumphs. The challenge of church planting was not something I was fully prepared for, yet it has been richly rewarding. Several amazing things have happed in the last few months that could only have been orchestrated by the hand of God. Allow me to share them with you not as a means of gloating or bragging, but to humbly acknowledge that we serve an amazing and sovereign God. And if you are a church planter or part of a church planting team, hopefully this will be a means of encouragement.
After much preparation and very little success in recruiting people to buy into our vision and love for church planting, the nine of us that made up the core team of New Beginnings Christian Ministries decided that rather than a public launch we would just launch out of my home on Sunday mornings. We had already had several unsuccessful “trial” services along the way, but on Sunday, September 4, 2011, NBC Ministries was official launched out what we called “The Living Room” with a total of 19 people in attendance. For the next four weeks we averaged 15 people. Yet, even with low attendance numbers there was a sense of excitement in the air that God was about to do something amazing. At the end of September I placed an add in a small local paper advertising our services. Two weeks later ten visitors showed up and the majority of them stayed!! At that point we were averaging about 25 people and my little living room became jam-packed!
Here is where this gets even more exciting for us. We were now in need of a building. However, I was having trouble locating one in our area that was big enough for what we wanted to do, yet affordable. Of course God already had the right building for us, we just didn’t know it yet. About the middle of October I was having lunch with Barry Pinnix, one of the new families that showed up as a result of placing that add in the Byram Banner. After lunch Barry said, “Come on I want to show you something.” He drove me over to a building that was located on his property. He preceded to tell me that he had no idea if NBC Ministries would be interested in this building or not, but he and his wife had been praying and they both felt that God wanted them to let NBC Ministries use it rent-free as long as we needed it! It is a building that could easily seat 85-90 people comfortably. Needless to say, NBC Ministries gladly accepted the new building!! Wow! God had just provided us with about 10 new people to help us with this vision and he directed one of those families to provide us with the building to house our new growth! God is awesome!
On Sunday, November 13, 2011 we had 26 people in attendance. Three of those people were first time visitors. Following the morning service we had our second and final meeting for our first membership class. Nine people committed to become members of NBC Ministries. And one of those was a homeless guy! This to me is one of the most amazing parts of our story, because this was a part of our vision from the start. We desire to be a church that is active in our community and is proactive in loving “The Least of these”. So how cool is it that one of our church members went down town to pick up a homeless man we had been ministering too, and on his first Sunday with us we happen to have our first membership class, and now one of our very first members is a homeless man? That’s pretty cool! Nothing thrills my heart more than that! As a pastor it is so exciting to be able to see the vision that God has given me and this core team come to fruition!
I have no doubt that there will be more bumps and frustrations along the way as we continue to grow and reach the Jackson area for Christ. We do have an enemy that does not want to see the church succeed (John 10:10). However, I also have no doubt that God will continue to add to our number daily those who are being saved (Acts 2:47), and he will continue to do amazing signs and wonders among our group creating moments of “Awe” like the first century church encountered as they were planting churches (Acts 2:43).
The greatest lesson I have learned from church planting is simply - obedience! When God tells you to act on something then act on it! He is always faithful to fulfill his promises! And I am thankful for all of those on the core team who have been obedient to God’s call, and who have prayed, fought for and believed in this vision! So I say thank you to each of you – you know who you are! I love you and I am proud to serve along side of you!
