Thank you for taking the time to read these updates from our church planters. I hope you will be encouraged by their stories.
In 2022, we have helped recruit and place three new church planters. We have also funded two new church planting apprenticeships, with plans for two more in 2023. Also in 2022, two of our church plants particularized. All of this in a time when, as a denomination, we are seeing a sharp decline in new churches being planted and particularized.
It is a unique time in the state of Florida. Jesus’ promise rings true: The harvest is plentiful; and the workers are few (Matthew 9:37). He saw the crowds and had compassion on them. So, as I drive around the state, fighting traffic near Ocala on I-75 or in and around Jacksonville on I-95 or all of I-4 between Orlando and Tampa, instead of complaining, I’ve been trying to pray as he commanded – that the Lord of the harvest would send out laborers into his harvest (Matthew 9:38). Would you pray that with me?
Three dates I want to make you aware of. On January 31 – February 2, we will again host the MNA Church Planting Assessment Center in Lakeland. There are six candidate couples expected that week. On April 21-22, we will hold a Ministry Readiness Seminar at Reformed Theological Seminary. If you have any emerging leaders or ministry candidates that could benefit from a comprehensive assessment of character and competencies for ministry, please let me know so that I can guide them through registration. Finally, our 2023 Annual Meeting will be held on Thursday March 2 from 10am-1pm. Please mark your calendars and plan to join us in-person. After the holidays, I will send a reminder with more details on location and programming for that meeting. I look forward to being able to gather together to celebrate the Lord’s kindness and faithfulness to us, and to look and pray towards the future.
Thank you for your support of the Florida Church Planting Network in 2022. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.
Drew Bennett | Executive Director
1410 Dundee Road
Winter Haven, FL 33884
(863) 298-9849 - work
(863) 286-2310 - cell
drew@redeemerwinterhaven.org
Christ CHURCH BEACHES
JAX BEACH | Kevin Bigelow
LAUNCHED: September 2019
EMAIL KEVIN
The Lord has continued to show us his faithfulness in the mission to Jax Beach. At the end of the summer we hosted a meet up at the Hannah Park splash pad and in the beginning of September we launched four new community groups. Other than Kevin & Jenn Bigelow, all of those groups are led and hosted by new families that are from the mission to the beach. This fall those community group leaders began meeting as men and women led by Kevin & Jenn respectively as the beginning of a new gospel leadership community for the mission.
In addition to groups launching, we hosted a discovery class in September and October and will be receiving new members in November. Attendance has begun to increase as new families have begun to worship with us this fall and regular attenders and members get back into normal rhythms after the summer. In August we returned to worshipping outside in the courtyard, however, we’ve returned to the chapel for worship during the fall.
You can pray for Christ Church Beaches by:
Praying that Christ gives these community groups favor with their neighbors, that these groups multiply, and that the Lord raises up leaders and officers for his church.
Praying for the provision of the church both financially and in space. We will soon outgrow our KidMin capacity and are pursuing options to help us expand that ministry but do not yet have obvious solutions. In addition, several of the next opportunities we will have will require our financial provision to grow.
Praying for our outreach. A large Catholic Church just opened a new sanctuary adjacent to us and we worship outside while they arrive and depart from worship. As a result they hear the gospel by way of the call to worship, parts of the sermon, and see us coming to the Lord’s table. Also this winter we’re planning to do a New Year person of Jesus outreach to Jax Beach by inviting people into our community groups using Gentle & Lowly.
Praying for the Bigelow’s that our prayer lives, our marriage, and our nurture of our children all continue to deepen in the beauty of Christ.
NEW CITY CHURCH
PALM BAY | Ben Harris
LAUNCHED: October 2019
EMAIL BEN
In October New City celebrated 3 years of gathered worship and we sang together “Great is thy faithfulness” at the end of our service to declare with joy that God has done it all. He is worthy of all the glory! We are looking forward to visiting our church planting partners in Cuba in January and have enjoyed partnering with them since our inception. Closer to home we are looking forward to blessing our public school host and partner as we get closer to the Christmas season. This fall we kicked off a men’s discipleship group from which we hope to see some of our first elder candidates get equipped and trained. Pray for our congregation to grow in prayerfulness, in evangelism, in impacting our city with gospel transformation, and in discipleship. We are so grateful for FCPN’s financial support over the last 3 years and look forward to now becoming a contributing partner very soon.
WAYPOINT CHURCH
PONTE VEDRA | James Brignac
LAUNCHED: SEPTEMBER 2016
EMAIL JAMES
The fall has been a wonderful season of ministry at Waypoint. We truly believe God is doing some amazing things at in and through Waypoint:
New Members/Community Groups
We have seen some healthy growth at Waypoint and recently added 5 families to our membership. We have several other new visitors that have connected to our church and we believe will join at a later date.
We also launched two new community groups this fall and both are thriving at this point. We always push to get people more connected within our groups
Officer Training
Waypoint kicked off officer training for three potential officers in October and look forward to seeing these men serving at Waypoint upon our particularization.
We have 2 elder candidates and 1 for deacon in the officer training
Particularization:
We are still moving towards particularizing Waypoint in the spring of 2023 and continue to press forward with this process.
We are extremely thankful for God’s graciousness towards our church and look forward to seeing what God has in store.
Prayer Requests:
Pray for our church as we enter the upcoming advent season. This is a time when we get a larger amount of visitors than any other season.
Pray for our leadership as we explore particularization and complete all the necessary steps to see that come to fruition.
Pray for our ministries to be effective in building deep, meaningful, gospel centered relationships with each other and our community.
EL SHADDAI COMMUNITY CHURCH
WINTER HAVEN | Dony St. Germain
EMAIL DONY
COVENANT OF GRACE CHURCH
NORTH PORT | Aleksey Zhuravlev
LAUNCHED: Fall 2018
EMAIL ALEKSEY
We are still recovering from hurricane Ian, but we are grateful that no one had any significant losses. Last time I asked for prayers for our refugees from Ukraine and those prayers were answered. One family has moved to Alabama and, for now, settled in Birmingham. And another family got living arrangements in North Port and received a vehicle for transportation needs as a donation. Thanks to God, the adaptation process in a new country is going for those families very well. I also asked for prayers for my studies; by God's grace, I finished all my classes last month. This month I still have to pass the last third part of the WSC exam and complete the field educational seminar. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to study and complete the MDiv program at RTS. Please pray for our numerical growth. We need new members. And there are some potential candidates that we are working with right now. As we roll into the busiest time of the year, please pray for our holiday season and all the opportunities it brings. Also, pray for Vlad's family and their intention to move to North Port to support the church and Russian-speaking ministry. Vlad used to be a ruling elder in St Petersburg, Russia. Now they reside in northern FL.
LA VINA
ORLANDO | Pablo Torres
LAUNCHED: APRIL 2018
EMAIL PABLO
In the last few months some things have happened that are worthy of sharing as a testimony and giving thanks to God for his love and faithfulness.
As of September the UPC church has allowed us to take over their ESL (English as a Second Language) ministry, right now we have more than 50 students of which 85% are Hispanic, 4 years ago La Viña started with a group of 30 people of which 16 were reached in this ministry, so this ministry is a great opportunity from God to reach Hispanics for Christ. Please pray that God will give us grace before the people and the ability to share the gospel effectively.
Last month God gave us the great blessing of finishing our immigration process, we finally received our Green Card, so for the next 10 years we will be able to serve the Lord without any pressure of the immigration process, Glory to God. Thank you very much for your prayerful support throughout this process.
Currently we continue with 3 Bible studies during the week, in addition to our Sunday School and our Sunday Worship Services.
Please continue to pray for us.
For health for each person in La Viña (there are some people suffering from different diseases).
For the development of leaders in La Viña.
For the numerical growth of the church.
SEVEN RIVERS THE VILLAGES
THE VILLAGES | Stephen Speaks
LAUNCHING: October 2021
EMAIL STEPHEN
At the beginning of October, we celebrated our one-year anniversary as a plant. Over the past year, we have seen a great deal of change and some really encouraging growth. During our first several months of worship as a plant, we seemed to have more curious and supportive members from Seven Rivers in Lecanto in attendance, but we now have people mainly attending from The Villages area, not all of whom are retirees. We have also have several young families joining us each week, several with kids ages 6 and under and some with teenagers, which led to our recent hiring of a part-time youth director. They started meeting weekly on October 26th. They all had a blast. We currently have three men’s studies and five women’s studies that meet weekly. The plant is growing slowly and organically, through simple word of mouth, friendly invitations, or the list of churches included in the newspaper each week. God has also provided a great group of volunteers who serve each week. They have taken a great deal off of my shoulders. We are grateful to be a part of what God is doing in The Villages.
Please pray for the following specific needs:
Praise for our newly formed youth ministry. Pray that our student ministry will have a powerful gospel impact the kids who are currently attending, some of whom have never been involved in a youth group. Pray for conversion, discipleship, and out reach into our community.
Pray for an Assistant Pastor at the plant. We need someone with administrative gifts on our team.
Pray for outreach opportunities to the community and for the onboarding process for attendees.
Pray for a music leader for worship to serve weekly.
CHRIST CHURCH SARASOTA
SARASOTA | Chris Knaebel
LAUNChed: 2022
EMAIL CHRIS
As we’ve gathered a new church in the heart of Sarasota city, we keep coming back to the one thing: Christ and His gospel. From the beginning, we knew this would be a church that gathers not around what separates but around the gospel as our common ground. By God’s grace, Christ and His gospel continue growing deeper and spreading wider into the hearts of our city.
As we prepared to launch our first website, we faced an unexpected development. An established church in the area changed their name and online presence causing us to realize we would need to rebrand (in many ways, we felt it was a coming home to the only other name we had considered). We are now CHRIST CHURCH SARASOTA, and we couldn’t be happier with the clarity it brings to all we have already been doing in Sarasota around Christ and His gospel.
Every Sunday 20-30 people gather around Christ and His gospel in Sarasota city. Nearly every week there are unbelievers present. The gospel is being proclaimed through liturgy, song, Scripture & catechism. Several continue going through the gospel of John in mid-week Bible study.
PRAISE:
Rental space on Main Street for weekend gatherings
30 people/week reached in combined gatherings
Several conversions through slow drip of the gospel
Successful first website has been launched at: ChristSarasota.org
PRAYER:
For eight additional believing couples/families to join our launch team
For several upcoming preview services during Advent
For the Spirit to continue drawing hearts to Himself
ST. JOHN’S PRESBYTERIAN
WINTER GARDEN | Frank Cavalli
LAUNCHED: September 2021
EMAIL FRANK
On behalf of St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Winter Garden, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to the Florida Church Planting Network and for all the congregations that pray for and support this unique church planting movement. By God’s grace, St. John’s was able to particularize on September 18th with over 100 members. The Lord was faithful to bring this plant to fruition and showed himself strong and gracious by allowing us to organize on our one year anniversary. It was a day of joyous celebration exalting God for all he has done as we sang his praises, rejoiced in his Word, and witnessed the installation of the men called and qualified to lovingly lead this local body.
Since the inception of the plant our members have clung to I Thessalonians 5:24, “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” It is the Lord’s work and we are simply called to be co-laborers with him, following him as our Head. Naturally, St. John’s is only one manifestation of the fruit of the Lord’s trustworthy promise to build his Church. It is our prayer that every local church in our area that loves the Lord Jesus, honors his Word, and faithfully proclaims his gospel flourish and multiply. Obviously, we have a particular interest in seeing many more PCA churches established to help reach our growing communities in Florida with the good news.
Since God has blessed us in abundance, we are grateful funds previously designated for this work can now be used to serve needy plants elsewhere. We desire every plant have what they require to build a solid foundation for the future. Please continue to intercede for us; that our hearts would be soft, our prayers ceaseless, our preaching sure, our relationships satisfying, our gospel witness steady, and our grip on Jesus is strong. Once again, we thank God for the leadership of the FCPN and for all of you who helped us get off to a wonderful start.
KISSIMMEE FELLOWSHIP
KISSIMMEE | Heath Zuniga
LAUNCHING: Falll 2022
EMAIL HEATH
We have enjoyed meeting in my home weekly on Sunday evenings at 4pm. We have spent this time teaching through the book of Galatians while also working in some core group training about our mission and values. My wife started a women’s bible study that meets regularly in our home and I continue to meet with the men in small groups of 2-3 for discipleship. We also have a regular social gatherings that are outreach oriented toward our neighbors and friends. For Christmas we will are planning to rent a chapel for a Christmas eve service.
Here is a list of our prayer concerns:
We are outgrowing my home - praise God! Pray for an affordable space for us to rent on Sundays and possible have access mid-week
Pray for our ministry teams: facility, music, children’s and language (English to Spanish translation). Also, praise God for Paula who will serve as the director of Los Niños (our children’s ministry).
There are lots of physical and immediate needs in the city of Kissimmee. The challenge for us, will not be if there is an opportunity rather what opportunity we will pursue.
Pray for our church to have a heart of prayer that would bear fruit in evangelism to the lost and mercy to the least.
UNIVERSITY PRESBYTERIAN
TAMPA | WRIGHT BUSCHING
LAUNCHING: 2023
EMAIL WRIGHT
We moved to Tampa/Temple Terrace in the middle of August. As soon as we moved we experienced significant challenges with my car (broke down on our move) and our home (a lot of things went wrong and had to be fixed). However, the Lord actually used many of these circumstances to connect us to people who might be interested in our church plant. Four different people who worked on our house are interested in being involved.
We have continued to connect with people throughout the area around USF who are interested in this new work. If there is an event in the community, we are there meeting people. We have also been able to connect with and support the great work that Aldo Mondin is doing at RUF at USF. Lord willing, this will be a fruitful ministry partnership for years to come.
Please pray:
That our daughters (Caroline (8) and Marian (5)) would continue to meet new friends and settle into our new home.
For fruitful evangelism.
That we would continue to connect with people who want to be a part of our core group.
EAST COLLIER | GREG BLOSSER
BRIAN MACDONALD | BARTOW
OAK CITY CHURCH
ANGEL ROMAN
LAKE NONA PRESBYTERIAN
TONY ELSWICK
REDEEMER WINTER HAVEN