by Dave Reynolds
Alliance Council 2017 in Columbus, Ohio, was filled with many Spirit-empowered moments. One that especially stirred my heart was when Pastor Mark Ashton challenged our 2,000 U.S. churches to either plant a church or help plant a church by Council 2019.
Wait a minute! some may have thought. My church doesn’t have enough ________ to plant another church! Usually that blank is filled with words like “money” or “people” when we are tempted to think that God can’t use our imperfect church.
Do Something
Pastor Larry Sundin, who planted Rock Springs Church in a retirement community in Eloy, Arizona, felt convicted at a Greenhouse Training to do something. He chose to partner with Regeneration Church in Ocean Beach, California, to help them reach addicts and the homeless in their community.
In summer 2016, Larry and his fellow church leaders discussed how to support Mark Porter, pastor of Regeneration Church. They believed God wanted them to bless this church plant with $500 a month. “This was an amazing step of faith for us as a church, since we had just become self-supporting after one year of operation,” Larry says.
In March 2017, the church took a special offering to fund their first mission trip to Ocean Beach; well over $2,000 was raised. Larry assembled a team of five couples and began training for the trip, which was planned for October.
Blessings through Relationship
“The purpose of our trip was to be a blessing to the people of Ocean Beach and Regeneration Church,” Larry explains. “We designed the trip to be relational so we could get to know some of the people Mark serves with on a daily basis.”
On their first evening there, each couple from Rock Springs Church had dinner with an individual or couple from Regeneration Church to get to know them and encourage them in their work. During the rest of the trip, the team distributed socks, protein bars, and water to the homeless in the community and heard their stories.
While there, Larry took one homeless man, Joe, out to dinner and learned how Regeneration Church had given him a new start. He had been abusing alcohol since college. After finding Joe drunk in an alley one night, Mark told him about Jesus’ love for him. Mark continued to invest in Joe’s life, and he chose to accept Christ.
“Because of what Jesus had done for him, Joe now has this driving passion to help reach others in Ocean Beach who are just like him,” Larry says. “I was moved by his joy for Jesus and his burden for lost people.”
Gary and Shelley Miller, a couple on the team, became the adopted grandparents of the children in a family that had moved from Iowa with Mark to start this church plant. The Millers are already planning their own trip to visit their newly adopted “grandkids” and bring coats for Mark to distribute.
Since arriving back in Arizona, one man has taken a leadership role in the church, and three women have started leading groups designed to help people grow closer to God and reach out to their own community in Eloy. “This trip served as a tremendous catalyst for ministry back home,” Larry observes. “Each person who participated now realizes that the most important part of missions is taking the time to get to know someone who is not like you.”
What Will You Do?
Any congregation can do something to help a current church plant. Our Alliance family grew from one leader and one small group of committed, obedient believers in the late 1800s. Where will the next great movement of The Alliance start? Will it come from an unlikely church that takes faith-filled risks? And if so, why not yours?