Less than a year

By the grace of God, Grace Bible Church of Rancho will have its official launch service less than a year from now.

In preparation, my family and I spent ten days visiting churches sharing our plans, recruiting helpers, and requesting financial help. We gave out more than 400 of the brochures that are pictured in my last post, and we are praying that God will work through those means.

Our confidence is in Christ who alone can build His church and who has promised to do so. Our goal is to promote His fame through obedience to His great commission by means of church planting. We desire to be usable, and will trust Him to do what He wants with us.

Now continues the important work of edification and equipping at GBC Menifee, making contact and meeting with prospective people for GBC Rancho, and preparing ourselves and a team to go next year.

God has been connecting us with more people interested in GBC Rancho, and our goal is to meet with each of them to build those relationships. We also want to encourage as many as can to attend GBC Menifee at least some as they wait for the new church to meet.

The time table and other plans are in the brochure and past blog posts. We are grateful to be close enough to our target area to meet people and get to know the area gradually. The Lord will provide the people and funds that He knows we will need in His own way and time.

We desire to see a healthy church plant begun less than a year from now. As we prepare, our delight is to do what we believe is God's will and to rely on Him completely to promote His own glory through the local church particularly in Menifee and then Rancho Cucamonga.

Brochure--Plans, Requests

Above are pictures of our new brochure explaining the plans and requests we have for planting GBC Rancho. We are very grateful for the work of Justin Murphy and YCP for their excellent design work! Click here for a PDF of the brochure

Our prayer is that God's good hand would be upon us (cf. Ezra, Nehemiah) for His own glory through the spread of the gospel and the building of His church in Southern California.

A Providential Path of Preparation

If you were to plan the preparation of a church planter, you would likely include things that have to do with study and experience and would certainly have many options. But when you detailed the part about experience, what kind of experience would you consider most valuable?

Sure, you know that God can and does use experience from anywhere and any kind of ministry to prepare a church planter, but what is the preferred path? Ultimately it is the path of God’s providential choosing, and I’m convinced He has chosen well for me.

As I minister with Grace Bible Church of Menifee as part of the church, the leadership, and church planting team, my gratitude grows toward God who has put me in what I would consider a preferred path of preparation for Southern California church planting.

Rather than being in some other part of the state or the country, I’m here among the people that God is sending us to edify and equip long-term (Eph. 4). GBC Menifee is established enough in ministry to provide a wide range of ministry experience, but still new enough to be “practicing” church planting. The leadership and people I work with have just gone through what our next team is about to go through—providing fresh insights and warnings.

There are so many benefits to the present ministry, location, people, and projects going on at GBC Menifee that make me praise the Lord for the path of preparation He has chosen for me. GBC Rancho is and will be His work through GBC Menifee, but He is graciously preparing me to lead it, and His path thus far gives me confidence for the road ahead.

Update 6, April-July 2009

For this or past updates in PDF format, see the GBC website: resources.

How we plan to plant from a church plant, 2 of 2

Trying for a fast start that is bivocational seems possible to us for a variety of reasons. There are some factors in my preparation including assisting at GBC Menifee and Southern California experience that will help. We are going to have a year to pursue core families in Rancho Cucamonga and research the area. So much work has already been done for us. We have from GBC a philosophy of ministry, constitution and covenant, website, design and print materials, discipleship and evangelism materials.

GBC Menifee provides us with experience in Southern California church planting, facility research, equipment and sound systems, transportation and storage solutions, and legal and financial matters. Moreover, we will receive people, encouragement, accountability, and resources from GBC Menifee as well as from other Southern California churches. There will be mission teams, advertizing through programs like “phones for you,” and raising of startup funds. We will also gain some practice and experience from other church plants in nearby areas.

Our efforts over the next year will be focused on gaining and training team members from Southern California and elsewhere. We will develop a list of needs and try to find financial supporters. Finding a way for the lab to function without me as soon as possible will be an important job. We will do a lot of communication via trips, web, phones, and meetings.

Above all, as with any church plant, only God in Christ can build His church in Rancho Cucamonga. We will seek with all our hearts and diligent efforts to be growing Christians useable by Him. Our prayer and labor will be for the spiritual growth of our present church family and their becoming good parents for the new church plant. We are determined to trust God’s provision and guidance as we seek to live for His fame. Knowing His unique greatness, valuing it (Him) above all else, and living to make Him known to others will continue to be our mission.

How we plan to plant from a church plant, 1 of 2

When Grace Bible Church of Menifee was started, the people and nearly all of the resources came from outside of Southern California. Over the long term, our goal is that both the people and the resources for new church plants in Southern California would come from within Southern California (this is what we mean when we use the word “indigenous”). But this won’t happen all at once. As we prepare for church plant #2 in Rancho Cucamonga, we have to admit that we don’t have all of the resources necessary to accomplish this on our own. We will need outside help. But at the same time, we are doing everything we can to make this a church plant from within Southern California.

As part of this commitment, we decided not to go on the road for years of deputation. We want to be an active part of GBC Menifee, gaining experience in Southern California and building strong relationships with the GBC family. This not only helps to prepare us for the next church plant, but even more importantly it increases the ownership of the church family at Grace in Menifee. In other words, it really helps the GBC Menifee family feel like they are an important part of this next church plant – and that is a big step toward “indigenous” church planting.

This model is possible because of our dental lab making up the income we need. Right now, I’m able to put 2 days out of 7 into the Church (including Sunday). That will obviously not be sufficient ministry time once the next church plant begins. However, we are working on a plan in the lab that would allow me to spend more time doing church planting work. When we start, our goal is to spend closer to 4 days out of 7 on church planting by GBC Menifee’s help, new families, outside support, and a trained employee or employees in the lab. This goal requires prayer and hard work raising more outside support and getting the lab functioning more without me.

We will seek to have a “fast start” to the church with the goal of a self-supporting church (little to no lab work) in about a year. In some ways this model/plan will be easier for our family than years of deputation. It will be a better stewardship of resources and our time. We hope it will lead to a more healthy church because of the connection with GBC Menifee. In other ways this plan will be harder on our family and church because of the bivocational transition, time, and uncertainties. It could be a problem if the church doesn’t become self-supporting quickly because it could require a long-term bivocational situation. Another challenge to the church would be the pressure to start fast.

Why Rancho Cucamonga, 2 of 2

As a landmark, historic Route 66 runs through the middle of Rancho and there is a beautiful outdoor mall (Victoria Gardens) commemorating that road and providing a unique attraction. Rancho is bordered on three sides by major L.A. basin freeways: the 10, the 15, and the 210. The 175,000 people are within 10 min. of driving from any place in the city. So also is as much shopping as would make any woman smile and any man drop from exhaustion.

Unlike many surrounding cities, there is still about 1200 acres of open land for developing and many large sections of new homes. The roads are laid out in a very predictable and convenient north and south grid with many of the roads stretching for miles beyond the city in either direction.

Ten-thousand-foot Mount Baldy provides a beautiful and towering backdrop to the city built on its gradually sloping base. The housing has sections of enormous and extravagant as well as small and modest, brand new and rather old, decent-sized lots and postage-stamp plots. But nearly every neighborhood has above-average maintenance.

Many, if not most, houses are connected by miles of sidewalks, and because they are so close together, canvassing will be very productive despite being exhausting because of the sheer numbers and hill-side terrain. The cost of that housing is more intimidating than outlying areas which will provide a real challenge for us and others in finding good long-term options. However, it is less than many other areas in Southern California, and we are encouraged with the knowledge that God can and will provide.

To our knowledge, there are no other Bible churches in the city, few Baptists, and no really like-minded works. There are one or two in neighboring communities, but not in Rancho. The neighboring works encourage us that ours can meet a need in that setting and the lack of churches in that sized city emphasizes the fact that there is a need.

We want to go meet what we believe is the need for a local church characterized by careful Bible teaching, Christ or gospel focused ministry, caring church family, and vibrant traditional worship. But even though there aren’t other similar churches in the city, Rancho is within reasonable driving distance from other like-minded churches that would be willing to help as they can. It would become another link in a growing chain of local churches and pastors committed to planting more churches in Southern California.

Where we will meet is a factor that on one hand provides the normal challenges of cost, kind, location, amenities, etc. and on the other hand has great potential and many options. There are numerous city facilities that are accustomed to renting to churches and have reasonably priced and decently stable options. The commercial and retail space is abundant, older/dying churches are an option, and land is still out there if God did a miracle.

We are grateful for the Lord's guidance and are excitedly trusting His wise providence to plant and grow a new local church in this particular Southern California city.