We are long overdue for an update. The dust is finally settling after the long months of the pandemic. Churches are again gathering for worship, though with decreased numbers. From talking with many of you, the numbers in the churches in Florida mirror those across the country. Most churches are averaging about 65-75% of their pre-CV19 attendance with many new people joining during the past year. In some cases, this means that close to 50% of those in local churches have not returned as the pandemic recedes. You can read more about some of these trends here and here:
What impact has this had on our church plants? My friend, Tim Rice, used a helpful analogy in answering this question. He said, imagine a fully grown man with no boxing experience or training taking a punch from Mike Tyson. It would cause a great deal of damage. But what if a five-year-old boy took a Mike Tyson uppercut? What if an infant sustained that kind of blow? Covid was a knock-out punch. In many cases, it more acutely affected church plants (and planters), which went into the months of quarantine and restrictions smaller and more vulnerable than most established churches. As a result, both Grace Community Church and Good Shepherd have ceased normal operations, and the planters, Josh Floyd and Jeremy Kemp, are currently looking for a new call elsewhere. This is, obviously, sad news. However, as Paul reminds the Corinthians, we do not labor in vain (1 Corinthians 15:18). The core group of Grace Community is continuing to meet. They are hoping to find a new pastor/planter. Please pray earnestly that the work there would continue. And pray for Josh and Jeremy and their families as they make the transition to whatever new assignment the Lord would call them to.
Friends, there is much to grieve regarding the past eighteen months. We do well to do so. However, there is also much to be encouraged about. Here are just a few of the things that come to mind:
We are going to hit our goal of catalyzing three new church planting projects in 2021. One of these new planting projects will be a cross-cultural work aiming to reach the overwhelming number of Spanish-speaking people in the Kissimmee/Poinciana/Davenport area.
The Villages church plant, being led by Stephen Speaks, is planning to launch public worship services in October.
Covenant of Grace, a Russian-speaking congregation in North Port, continues to enjoy a fruitful online ministry to believers living in Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe. They are piloting an English service this Fall.
Christ United Fellowship (in downtown Orlando), pastored by Mike Aitchison, particularized in March. City Church St Pete also particularized in May. I had the pleasure of celebrating in person with Justin and Angie Woodall and their new leaders.
Parakaleo Florida continues to expand its ministry. It has become the model for similar strategies throughout the country.
Our Network is financially strong and making strides towards becoming a genuine state-wide church planting ecosystem.
One programming note. On October 22-23 we will host a Ministry Readiness Seminar. It will be held at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Lakeland. The Readiness Seminar is designed to be an early detection tool for potential church planters. However, we are expanding the scope of the Seminar to also include an assessment of the ministry readiness of seminarians, interns, etc. If there are any such emerging leaders in your church, please encourage them to attend this event.
Thank you for your continued support of our Network. I’ve been holding the words of Jonathan Edwards’ first sermon close to my heart over the past year or so: “All our bad things God turns to good. All our good things can never be lost. All our best things are yet to come.” Truly, our best days are ahead of us.
Drew Bennett | Executive Director
We’re exited to introduce you to Heath & Emily Zuniga. For the past five years, Heath had the chance to help plant and establish a church plant in Columbus, OH. Now, the Zunigas are looking forward to planting a church in South Orlando, an area with a large Latino population. Heath is Mexican-American and both he and his wife, Emily speak Spanish. Pray for their initial evangelism efforts and the chance to host their neighbors at their dinner table and pray they would find community and friendship at a PCA church in Orlando. They are currently projecting to launch in early 2023.
Christ CHURCH BEACHES
JAX BEach | Kevin Bigelow
LAUNCHED: September 2019
EMAIL KEVIN
As life begins to move into “post-Covid” realities we’re grateful for the Lord’s faithfulness, particularly in how he brought new families to Christ Church Beaches during an unordinary season, how he’s been providing for re-starting essential ministries like outreach and KidMin, as well as how he has sustained the Bigelow’s over the past year. Planting during a pandemic has been deep water but Christ has been faithful.
We recently received a group of new members to the church and we anticipate having one more membership class during the summer before we launch a new church year in September. In addition, guest families who joined us for Backyard Bible Club are invited to join us for worship. The kids performed their song and Kevin will be preached on the sufficiency of Christ. The theme of Backyard Bible Club is Rocky Railway, How Jesus’ Power Pulls Us Through. After worship, we partnered with the Beaches Museum to have a tour of the historic train and train depot. We hadd coffee and donuts and a chance to hang out and get to know one another deeper.
Backyard Bible Club has been an encouraging season. This week kids from around our neighborhoods and community are gathering in three clubs hosted at homes of families who attend Christ Church Beaches and led by teams from Christ Church Beaches. This has been encouraging on at least three fronts:
two of the three families are hosting for the first time and several of the team members are serving for the first time.
a number of the kids are from families who do not attend the church
it’s been an encouraging “jump start” to post-Covid outreach.
In addition, this month the Lord provided for us to hire a part-time Director of Children’s Ministry to help accelerate our return to KidMin. Alongside our return to KidMin, we’re working to re-start our other essential ministries this fall, including launching community groups and regular outreach events.
In the coming months you can pray for us in three ways:
that the Lord continues to draw families from the Jax Beaches to himself and into the church
that the Lord raises up Gospel leaders from among this community to care for and lead the church
that the Lord gives the Bigelow’s rest during vacation in July and that he reminds us regularly of who he is and what he’s doing.
NEW CITY CHURCH
PALM BAY | BEN HARRIS
LAUNCHED: October 2019
EMAIL BEN
Thank you to all who have supported us in prayer and in generosity! Your prayers and your support are very deeply felt. God is good all the time, but we are thankful to share that God has been good to us and provided greatly for our church plant. New City continues to grow at a healthy and steady pace. As a result, we were able in the spring time to hire Davidson Jean-Rejouis to join our team as a full-time worship director and discipleship coordinator. Davidson and his wife Katie and four children are returning from serving with MTW church planting in France after four years and we look forward to him joining staff on August 1.
This summer we are focusing primarily on fellowship events and recruiting and training City Group leaders for an August 15th relaunch of our small groups. Please pray for a home to purchase for the Jean-Rejouis family, and please pray for wisdom and finances to begin renting a second space that would allow us to do more ministry during the week. Please pray for Davidson’s family and my own family to be spiritually well-rested this summer and be ready to hit the ground running in August.
GREATER HOPE CHURCH
MULBERRY | Stan McMahan
LAUNCHED: December 2017
EMAIL STAN
We’re grateful for God’s care for our young church throughout a difficult year. We’ve settled into our new facility in the middle of Mulberry and are finding it very useful for ministry. We’ve been able to resume kids’ classes, launch a youth ministry, and add more opportunities to worship and grow together (two Sunday morning services, one evening evening service on Sunday nights, and more small group Bible studies). We’re thankful for the new families that have been added to Greater Hope Church. since the beginning of 2021 and for officer nominations (currently ongoing).
Please pray for the process of officer training and particularization, for wise use of our new physical resources, and for God to use us to gather more people in Mulberry into His kingdom as He matures the members of our congregation.
WAYPOINT CHURCH
PONTE VEDRA | James Brignac
LAUNCHED: SEPTEMBER 2016
EMAIL JAMES
As we are in the midst of summer we are thankful that our worship is essentially “back to normal.” We have been worshipping in person for several months and only have a couple of families that have not been able to join us for in person worship. During this season we have continued to livestream our service and have seen fruit coming from that ministry as well. In addition to allowing our members unable to attend to watch and participate in service it has become a first step for many of our recent visitors. Most have noted they watch our livestream for 1-3 weeks prior to attending in person worship.
We’re also looking forward to our next New Members’s Class which will be at the end of the month. Currently we have seven families signed up and we are excited about how God is moving in our church. Most of these families have already gotten involved with our various ministries and service opportunities. During the past few months we have also seen our attendance grow and we’ve had more visitors than usual. We pray that God will continue to bring people to hear the good news of the gospel!
We have also recently done a Re-Vision for Waypoint in 2021 and beyond. This has been an extremely beneficial exercise for our leadership and membership. We are currently in the midst of sharing this vision with our small groups and then to the entire church. Our desire is to make sure everyone knows the vision and mission and takes hold of it. We also believe this is the next step in achieving our goal of particularization.
Prayer Requests:
Pray for our new members. We desire to see them all get connected and plugged into various serving opportunities.
Pray for our new vision roll out. Pray that it would be well received and lead to gospel growth within our church.
BERAKAH COMMUNITY CHURCH
DAVENPORT | Dony St. Germain
LAUNCHED: Fall 2018
EMAIL DONY
COVENANT OF GRACE CHURCH
NORTH PORT | Aleksey Zhuravlev
LAUNCHED: Fall 2018
EMAIL ALEKSEY
The most significant update for Covenant of Grace is that in May I transitioned to full time. It has allowed me to dedicate more time to the church's development. I've started home visitations of our families and can be out and about in a community more often. Currently, we have one new family of four and a few single individuals who are learning about the Reformed faith and getting ready to become members of our congregation.
We had a fantastic church retreat at the Pine Lake Retreat center in upper Florida back in April. I prepared a seminar on Thomas Brook's book "Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices," and we discussed temptations and practical spirituality with our people. Our goal for next month is to get more outreach materials to the community in our area. We continue to see steady traffic of people moving to North Port from all over the states.
This month, I was interviewed by the Florida & Us Magazine major magazine for Russian speakers here in FL. In the article, they agreed to place our contact information and social media links. Also, starting in May, we began to conduct an English-speaking service every first Sunday of the month. It is a pilot program, and we decided to run it until the end of the year and determine if it is something we will do permanently. But it is beneficial for our youth (I had good feedback from them) and an excellent opportunity to reach a wider community.
Please, pray for our stable growth and development and our outreach efforts to the Russian-speaking community here locally and around the globe.
LA VINA - UPC HISPANIC CHURCH
ORLANDO | PABLO TORRES
LAUNCHED: APRIL 2018
EMAIL PABLO
In spite of the difficulties that the pandemic has generated to have the gatherings and church activities, the care and restrictions that must be taken to maintain the health of all and to be an example and testimony for others, the members of our small church have remained committed to the work of God, have been constant in their study of the Word and have been faithful in sharing with others their faith, as a result of this, one of our youth members has made the decision to serve the Lord part-time, waiting for God to confirm his call to full-time ministry.
Another great things that the Lord is doing with us, is that even though we have not been able to do outreach activities because of the pandemic and its consequent restrictions, the members of La Viña with passion, courage and determination are sharing the Gospel with their acquaintances and friends, so the preaching of the Gospel is being done and the extension of the Kingdom of God is being fulfilled at the pace that the Lord Himself is allowing. 3
After almost two years of having Bible studies almost every day of the week, for this coming second semester of the year, we will concentrate in having only Bible studies two days a week and we will plan to start new study groups with new believers and new members of La Viña by the last quarter of the year or at the latest the beginning of 2022.
SEVEN RIVERS THE VILLAGES
THE VILLAGES | Stephen Speaks
LAUNCHING: October 2021
EMAIL STEPHEN
It is an encouraging and wonderful thing not just to say that Jesus is building his church but to watch him build it right in front of you. Folks at Seven Rivers and in our presbytery have prayed for years for a PCA congregation in The Villages, and we are watching him answer those prayers.
We have set a launch Date for the Seven Rivers Villages: October 3, 2021. On September 12, Seven Rivers will commission our launch team, and then on September 19 and 26 we will worship with our launch team and a few invited guests for our soft launch. Then, weekly worship begins on October 3.
We also have reserved the Wildwood Community Center for the first year of our church plant. Jesus picked a better location than I had ever considered. It is just a quarter mile north of The Villages Brownwood Town Center, is just off property, and right across the street from the new Citizens First Bank administrative complex. Because it is not on The Villages property but beside the local municipal park, it sends the signal to non-Villages residents that we want to minister to the broader community. It is a fantastic launch location!
Equally encouraging is the launch team that Jesus is assembling. Among the people he has brought to us are a former PCA ruling elder who has helped launch 4 churches, a former InterVarsity staff person who loves getting small groups started, a couple from a PCA background who have offered to operate our soundboard when worship launches, and several other couples from PCA backgrounds. These are just a few of the backgrounds of the people that Jesus is assembling into the launch team.
Would you please pray for the following requests:
Pray for God to bring young families from the area to our plant.
Pray for opportunities to share the gospel to retirees and younger community members.
Pray for me. I am the weakest brick in the church that Jesus is building but, to most people, the most visible. We are told to ask God to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. In this case, pray that God would make me capable of doing what he has called me to do.
Pray for my family. Church planting takes a toll on the planter, surely, but also on his wife and children. Pray for my wife, Rebekah, and my 14 year old son, Paul, who is on this journey with us.
CITY CHURCH SARASOTA
SARASOTA | Chris Knaebel
Greetings from downtown Sarasota! As Sophia continues to grow (hard to believe she’ll soon be 6-months already!), we are reminded daily of just how dependent God’s children are for spiritual nourishment and growth. We were met with another awesome display of Father’s handiwork as purple salvia decorated Sarasota’s bayfront with its own marvelous shade of brilliance.
Though our plans this month have been delayed by a longer-than planned fundraising process, we continue to be amazed by the Lord’s provision for City Church Sarasota. After good March and April, our support base has grown by 19%. We rejoice by the addition of another 118K in funding pledges, resulting in 80% of our funding goal (498K/620K).
We continued living and meeting people in Sarasota city while pressing toward our remaining 72K needed to reach our soft gathering target of 92% pledged before we’ll begin stage one of people-gathering and evangelizing neighbors and city-dwellers this summer.