Thank you for taking the time to read these updates from our church planters. I hope you will take a few moments praying for each of them, and maybe even reach out to them with a word of personal encouragement. (We’ve included their contact info in their updates.) As you might imagine, this is a hard time for church plants, which tend to be much more vulnerable than established churches. I have been impressed by the resolve and innovation of our planters. I think you will be too as you read.
The work of our Network continues. I am especially pleased that the long-awaited church plant in the Villages continues to make progress. There are a number of other exciting potential projects in the works for this year and next. All of that despite the challenge 2020 has proven to be thus far. So, rejoice with me in that!
My focus over these past few months has been on making sure our current church planting projects have the support and resources they need to meet the challenges of the current disruption. I have also been investing time into long-range strategies for church planter development that I believe will strengthen our work in the future.
Thank you for your continued financial support of the Florida Church Planting Network. Now is the time to have faith and push forward, not to shrink back (Heb. 10:39). Your faithfulness and generosity make that possible.
Drew Bennett | Executive Director
Christ CHURCH BEACHES
JAX BEach | Kevin Bigelow
LAUNCHED: September 2019
EMAIL KEVIN
This spring and summer, being very different than anyone expected, has presented opportunities and challenges for Christ Church Beaches. Beginning in March and heading at least part way into the summer, we broke into small men’s and women’s groups and have been doing the Gospel Fluency study together. This has been a sweet, rich time of going deeper with the Gospel. Through the pandemic we gathered via Facebook Live and beginning on June 14 we began gathering physically for worship outside in the courtyard of the chapel that we usually meet in.
Related to COVID19, as well as a personal update, we’re motivated and encouraged by the Gospel opportunities this season has presented. The human heart has been cracked open and the need for long truths has significantly accelerated. Both of these are fertile ground for the news about Jesus.
The last week of June our family is taking vacation in the small town we grew up in and then the first week of July Kevin has a reading week scheduled to tackle some longer term planning, specifically around how the cultural shift has created Gospel opportunities as well as how to accelerate young leader development and mobilization in Duval County.
There are three simple ways you could pray for us during this season:
1. Pray that Jesus meets with the Bigelow’s (Jenn and Kevin) during the summer so that the mission of the plant flows out of an overflow with Jesus.
2. Pray for our current committed members/people that we continue to go deeper and deeper with the Gospel and that is shapes more and more of who we are.
3. Pray that we would know how to follow Jesus as we pivot into new ways of doing evangelism and outreach, praying that Jesus would establish the work of our hands and build his Church in Jax Beach.”
NEW CITY CHURCH
PALM BAY | BEN HARRIS
LAUNCHED: October 2019
EMAIL BEN
New City has survived and at times even thrived during these crazy times. During March, April and May we enjoyed "live stream only" for worship services and our 3 City Groups and Youth Group met on zoom calls most weeks. After 3 months apart, what a joy it was to finally see one another and worship together. In June we were able to resume meeting in person for worship but had to change location and days of the week. Normally we worship at Bayside High School on Sunday mornings but schools just re-opened for rental in July here in Brevard County. So our sending church, Covenant Palm Bay, has blessed us with the use of their fellowship hall on Saturday nights. Our church adapted to the change very well and we returned to near normal attendance for the month of June. At the end of June our congregation recorded its first two positive covid tests and so out of caution many families have returned to joining the live stream from home. Praise God our first member with a positive test is fully healed and the second is doing well at home.
We have wrestled with the obvious questions of how to love people and share the gospel and reach out when we are literally supposed to socially distance. We haven’t; figured it all out, but we are trying. Like many churches we have found that despite our technical ineptness that God has used the livestream to share the gospel with many new people we would otherwise not have met. During covid we have seen 5 new families call New City their new home. In June, we helped organize and lead a prayer rally for racial reconciliation in the city representing 20+ diverse churches with probably 200 people in attendance. This month, we put together care packages for the homeless in our community to distribute to those in need when God provides those divine appointments. We also have taken our savings in rental costs for our normal rental at Bayside High and financially supported several mercy needs in our congregation, public schools feeding children, our local chaplain ministry at the Brevard County Jail and most recently the MNA Ethnos Coalition relief fund for minority churches in the PCA hit hardest by covid job loss.
Pray for us as we continue the mission of being and making disciples in these uncertain times. Pray for wisdom for how to proceed in August and September with covid complexities abounding. Pray for us to be able to continue with weekly worship services despite lacking severely in volunteers who are unable to serve during covid. Pray for us to view our daily circumstances through the lense of the Word of God and with the joy that comes from knowing Christ our Savior.
GREATER HOPE CHURCH
MULBERRY | Stan McMahan
LAUNCHED: December 2017
EMAIL STAN
God continues to bless the work in Mulberry even though this year has not gone as we planned! We’re still unable to return to the Mulberry High School auditorium for worship due to COVID-19, but we’ve been able to resume in-person worship services on Sunday evenings at Christ Community Presbyterian Church. We’re thankful for their hospitality as we wait to for a safe return to the high school. Our services are available via livestream on our website and Facebook page for those unable to return. We’re looking forward to giving away books to elementary students in Mulberry at the Back to School Bash on July 25—this year’s event will be a “drive-thru”!
Please pray for Greater Hope Church during these uncertain times. Ask God to continue to make us faithful (that we would use this time to grow deeper in a sincere relationship with Him) and fruitful (that we would be creative and energetic in loving God and our neighbors) for the sake of Mulberry. Pray that God would provide for our tangible needs and guide our steps. In particular, we would appreciate prayer as we continue to work through the regathering process.
GOOD SHEPHERD CHURCH
LAKELAND | Jeremy Kemp
LAUNCHED: January 2018
EMAIL JEREMY
Abide in me, and I in you (John 15:4). Good Shepherd Church started out the year with this as our vision verse for 2020, little did we know how God would call us to live this out in ways we never though possible. Nevertheless, He has cared for us well during this unprecedented time. We have continued to meet together via Zoom for church, which has been overwhelmingly positive for our momentum and social connection (and provided rest from the setup and tear down grind of doing church in a school). We have also been looking for ways to connect with and serve our community in this unique moment for gospel impact and two opportunities have bubbled up. First, we have almost completed our first ever Abundant Life seminar, a 10-week class on emotional health from a Biblical perspective, live on Zoom, which has been very beneficial for our congregation and those they have invited in. Second, we are beginning to serve with a local ministry called The Hub in Highland City. They run a food pantry, weekly summer food distributions, and a homework club after school during the year. We are excited to see how the Lord may use this as a connection point for our church in this largely unreached pocket of our target area. Personally, our family is looking forward to a few summer vacations to recharge our batteries and get out of the house we have been stuck in since March!
You can view our livestream at gsclakeland.org/livestream and previous Abundant Life seminars at gsclakeland.org/AL.
3 ways you can pray for us:
Pray for our people to abide in Jesus as we deal with the continued toll of doing church amidst a pandemic.
Currently we are looking for a new place to meet that would lessen our setup and tear down needs. Pray for the Lord to open a door.
Pray that the Lord would use our church community to draw others in to see Jesus as their only hope in times of need.
GRACE COMMUNITY CHURCH
NORTH LAKELAND | Josh Floyd
LAUNCHED: September 2018
EMAIL JOSH
Grace Community Church is continuing to meet virtually for online worship with plans to reopen for in-person worship services in August. Our Community Groups have been continuing to meet (some in-person and some over Zoom). We are excited to announce that when we reopen, we are moving our Sunday worship services to Trinity. Before coronavirus, we were meeting in an elementary school and then briefly at the Y. Being at Trinity will allow us to focus more on living missionally as the church and befriending neighbors where we live, work and play and less time on setting up and tearing down each week producing a worship service. Personally, the Floyds are doing well. We moved to the Lake Gibson side of N. Lakeland a month ago. We are getting to know our neighbors, we have already been invited to a few gatherings and I am planning an outdoor whiskey tasting on our street soon. Please pray with us that our people would continue to grow spiritually and trust the Lord during these uncertain times. Please pray that even though some of us are still distancing physically that all of us would prayerfully consider creative ways to be a blessing to our neighbors. And please pray that the upcoming move to Trinity would really free GCC up to have a lot of fun focusing on friendships both old and new.
WAYPOINT CHURCH
PONTE VEDRA | James Brignac
LAUNCHED: SEPTEMBER 2016
EMAIL JAMES
Church planting in the midst of a global pandemic has been interesting to say the least. I struggled with putting into words exactly how this experience has been for me personally and for Waypoint. The word that continually has come to my mind is adapt because it’s what we’ve been doing throughout this chaotic season. We’ve had to adapt to a new normal, new ways of reaching people, and even adapt our plans for how to be the church during this season. We’ve experienced some highs and lows during this season, but we are amazed at God’s faithfulness to us in the midst of the storm. Our ministry has not looked “normal” during this season, but we do believe the planning and strategies utilized during this season will be helpful in the future.
Some of the highlights of this season has been our transition to online service (only option for a season) and how that has ministered to our congregation and community. We found we were reaching a greater number of people who were viewing our service than our normal weekly attendance which was encouraging. We have continued and plan to continue to live stream services going forward which we believe will better serve our own people and our community. We’ve also seen how this crisis has opened doors for our church and specifically our people to reach friends and neighbors with the gospel as many are searching for answers and support during this time. We pray these will lead to fruitful opportunities to build relationships that will have kingdom impact.
We are blessed to be able to meet in our building again and have seen a strong desire from the congregation to worship together in person. Our first Sunday back after being closed was one of the highlights of my personal ministry as many expressed their joy in being back together once again. We continue to meet in person and live stream for anyone unable to join us in person. We look forward to the time when we can all worship together again!
BERAKAH COMMUNITY CHURCH
DAVENPORT | Dony St. Germain
LAUNCHED: Fall 2018
EMAIL DONY
This is very difficult time in the life of the Berakah Community Church. 85% percent of our families lost their jobs. As you know, they are working in the hotels industry, restaurant, Disney world. Because of Covid-19, we are using Zoom to continue train our leadership team on Tuesday and Thursday. All of our meetings, small group, prayer, youth and children are on zoom. We opened a zoom account that allow us to continue minister as we can see each other and pray together. However, on Sunday afternoon, we used also my facebook MERH for our live services. We also have daily devotion and teaching on in order to help them continue to grow in the word. We have also developed WhatsApp group where we communicate daily with the members.
Continue to pray with us as we plan to build a facility on the land we have purchased in Davenport. We have an engineer working on the plans. Pray that God will open doors for us to raise the necessary fund to build this building. Pray for the families who lost their jobs and can't support themselves and heir love ones in Haiti. Also, pray with us as we are in a process of starting another church in Winter Haven Florida. We have signed a contract to buy an old Methodist church building in Winter Haven. Pray that the Lord will provide all the resources needed for that work.
Thanks for your partnership in the ministry of the Gospel. Praying that God will continue to empower you to reach many for His Glory.
STEPHEN SPEAKS | EMAIL STEPHEN
The Villages, Seven Rivers
After successfully moving into our new house in Wildwood in June, we are beginning to meet neighbors and folks in the community. Rebekah, my wife, started a new job at the Villages Charter School working with their after school programs. We are planning a gathering with 30-40 previous and new contacts for the end of August, depending on Coronavirus issues, in order to discuss with them our vision for planting the first PCA church in the Villages, and in September, in conjunction with Seven Rivers’ adult education class schedule, we are planning a study in the Villages on our future hope as Christians.