Why church plant in SoCal with GBC Menifee? - summary

Because of three great commission priorities

Church Planting: Acts records how Christ built His church through the disciples’ aggressive church planting, which was the primary method for obeying the Great Commission in the early church. So if God's plan is to save people for His glory; and there are 20 million people in Southern California; then we have a lot of church planting to do!

City: Metropolitan Southern California is huge, with more than 20 million people in the Los Angeles Basin, San Diego, and the Inland Empire all running together in one mass of people. The New Testament shows that as the apostle Paul planted churches, he prioritized cities. Every city that Paul visited in Acts was a place of importance and influence. Surely this was not accidental.

Team: The apostle Paul prioritized team ministry. He names at least 15 coworkers. Though he could have been a "lone ranger," Paul worked hard at building teams. We believe that team is a biblical priority. God has already been building a team at Grace Bible Church in Menifee, and we are excited to be part of that.

What better place than Southern California with its more than 20 million people for these Great Commission priorities: church planting in the city with a team?

New Web Page; Thanks!

A special “Thank You!” is due to Justin Murphy at Your Creative People for all the work that he and his company have done for GBC Rancho and Menifee. He and his company have designed our logos, website, print materials, and the new GBC Rancho web page. His interns Chip Wiginton and Andrew Brooks are due particular thanks since they traveled to CA with Justin on different trips to help with the hours of design and programming work.

We hope the new web page will give us a "foothold" in Rancho Cucamonga and provide contacts for starting the church. Justin and YCP have done an excellent and attractive job for us for which we are very grateful!

Please feel free to look at our new page, our current church website, and their company site (links above) to see if they may be of help to you. Our church and Justin pray that God will use the attractiveness and quality of the work to help spread the gospel and build His church in Southern California.

What is my mission?

My mission is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. As a member and minister of Christ’s church my mission is: to glorify God by making faithful followers of Christ. Faithful followers of Christ will glorify God by knowing His unique greatness, valuing this/Him above all else, and living to make His greatness/Him known to others. In other words I am “Living for the fame of the true God.”
That mission statement is the mission statement of our local church and drives what we do in terms of ministry priorities. It is behind our outreach goal of starting another local church in Southern California and fuels even the beginning of a blog like this.

Why a new blog?

My reasons for starting this blog are
1. To spread God’s fame through “indigenous” church planting in Southern California
2. To help GBC Menifee plant the first of many churches in Southern California
3. To help us follow the Pauline model of church planting in the city with a team
4. To make contacts in the city of Rancho Cucamonga and communicate with them
5. To attract and communicate with team members
6. To expand national awareness and support of what we are trying to do in Southern California.

In future posts, my initial plan is to continue answering questions to acquaint you with the burden of GBC for church planting (e.g. Why a new church? Why church planting? Why Southern California? Why church plant from a church plant? Why Rancho Cucamonga?).

May the Lord use this blog in some way to promote His glory on the earth and our contentment with and joy in Him.

Who am I?

My name is Eric True, and I am an assistant Pastor at Grace Bible Church in Menifee, CA. I was born and raised in California. After being out of state for school, I am excited to be back in Southern California with my wife Alicia and our two boys: Brandon and Jonathan. My formal education and burden is for pastoring while my current occupation is dental lab work. Alicia and I want to see more healthy local churches in Southern California and have come to GBC Menifee as participants in their commitment to be a reproducing church. We love the philosophy of ministry at GBC Menifee and the long-term vision of an indigenous church planting movement in Southern California. I am preparing to pastor Grace Bible Church of Rancho Cucamonga in 2010.

For more information on Southern California church planting and our plans in Rancho Cucamonga see Pastor Tim's blog and or our LA hope site.