CHARTERING SERVICE OF SAND CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH, JORDAN, MN

An abbreviated service and fellowship time was planned for 10 am for the Sand Creek folks.  At that time Daniel read a congratulatory letter from Dr. Mark Batory, Executive Director of GFA; and set forth the vision for the year, including the intention to take on the church's first missionary and to begin looking for permanent property.  A slide presentation was shown featuring people and scenes from the church's two-year history.  About 75 people including many children and young people were present for this service

A group of 75-80 people from the sending church, Prior Lake Baptist in Prior Lake, Minnesota, arrived after having their own services and the chartering service began around noon with a crowd of about 150.  After congregational singing, Scripture reading, the reading of a brief history of the church, special music, and the charge message, the chartering procedure began.  Pastor Ron Groschel of Prior Lake Baptist served as the moderator.  He asked those individuals 18 years of age and older that desired to become charter members of Sand Creek Baptist Church to stand.  Twenty-seven stood and came forward to sign the charter (the charter will remain open for six weeks to allow any others that so desire to also become charter members).  Pastor Groschel then called for a motion from these new members to open their first official church business meeting.  This being done, the new members unanimously approved the constitution, by-laws, and articles of incorporation.  By paper ballot they unanimously voted Daniel Lowe to be their pastor and the two recommended men to be their first deacons.  The business meeting was adjourned and the service concluded with prayer and the singing of To God Be the Glory.  Lunch and a time of fellowship followed. 

This was a blessed service and a very exciting occasion for both the folks of Sand Creek Baptist Church and Prior Lake Baptist Church.

                                                                        ---- Bud Bierman

Andrew and Melinda Henderson are in their second church planting effort.  The first was a successful plant that is now in a beautiful building in Dacula, Georgia.  They began their present plant, Grace Baptist Church, in North Tampa, Florida, in August, 2006.  They are meeting in an elementary school that provides an adequate auditorium, nursery and children’s Sunday school rooms.  The monthly school rental rate for any school in the area is enormous but cheaper than other building possibilities.  Andy said the rental amount is not too different from what mortgage payments would be when they get ready to build; so he sees this as a positive in preparing the people for that day.

The church has a worship service Sunday morning at 9:30 followed by a brief coffee time and then a Bible study fellowship at 11:00.  This is an adult Sunday school time but, if needs be, is also used for discussion of the message preached in the previous service.  They don’t have a Sunday evening service at this point, but they do have in-home meetings on Wednesday nights.  Sunday morning attendance is running in the 40s with visitors dropping in from time to time.  The congregation would be mostly 25–50-year-olds.  There is a good core of leadership-quality folks.  They are on sound financial footing with a healthy balance in the bank.  In fact, Andy was able to drop the GFA financial support and that of a supporting church earlier than expected.

The North Tampa area is seeing tremendous growth but much of Andy’s target area is gated communities which limits his door-to-door visitation opportunities.  Many of the people are well-off, self-satisfied and there is a heavy Roman Catholic population.  His primary and largest publicity contact is through a paid ad in a commercial Money Mailer that is sent out to 15,000 residents about every six weeks.  He is also planning to institute a “phones-for-you” type program as well as other outreach efforts.

Joyce and I enjoyed our weekend observation visit.  After eighteen months, the young Grace Baptist Church in North Tampa seems to be healthy and doing well.

GRACE BIBLE CHURCH, Menifee, California

 It was a joy to see how the Lord is blessing Tim Lovegrove's church planting efforts. Grace Bible Church in Menifee, California, is nearly four years old. Here are my observations of the work as a result of Joyce and my July 27-29 visit.

The Lord has provided an elementary school as a good temporary facility for Sunday school & morning worship at a fairly reasonable price for three rooms   The church meets in two homes for the Sunday evening fellowship services in order to save about $1000 per month rental and also, as Tim expressed it, to enable the church to continue on if the present school facility should be "pulled out from under them."   The signage that is put out each Sunday morning as well as other public relations materials is very attractive and professionally done. 

The congregation is young and friendly.  Three BJU alumni families and a 2007 grad are helping with the plant.  It's encouraging to see the number of young adults and families the church has attracted.  The Lovegroves have a good family relationship that provides a model for the other young families.  Many of the people are helping with the pre-service prep and there is a good core of men that are participating in leadership/service roles.  Attendance is running between 60-80 and the work is basically self-supporting financially.  The church is blessed with adequate and capable musical accompaniment for the congregational singing.  Newer hymns/gospel songs were used but they had good content and were sung tastefully.

There are no immediate plans for a permanent location because the price of land is extremely high.  However, Tim is already looking ahead to another church plant to come out of Grace Bible Church.  He has a BJU seminarian and his wife that plan to join him in mid-2008 to serve as Tim's assistant pastor for two years and then become the planter of another church in the area.

Joyce and I made a weekend observation visit to Dan Unruh’s church plant, Westside Baptist Church in Greeley, CO.  Dan began planting the church 12 years ago and two years ago they built a permanent building on 10 acres of property that the Lord wonderfully provided for them. It is surrounded with new homes. 

Greeley is growing. In 1995, there were 65,000 when Dan went there and now the population is 90,000. The area where the church is located is filled with homes, businesses and shopping areas recently built. There is great potential. In addition the University of Northern Colorado is located in the city and provides a college outreach possibility. (Mrs. Bob Jones Jr. got her MA there many years ago.) 

Dan has a comfortable and attractive facility but already needs more Sunday school space.  The church would like to build, but must wait until they reduce the mortgage on the present building.  They have a warm friendly congregation of about 70 people with a good mix of ages. 

Bud Bierman

Joyce and I also took Jonathan and Ruth Shore out for lunch in Milliken, CO. They are running about 40 at High Plains Baptist Church and are meeting in the town hall. 

They are facing two basic difficulties—an anticipated population increase has stagnated because of the high gas prices and getting a permanent location has been frustrating. There are a couple buildings available on Main Street, but both have some hurdles to get over first. Even at present the town hall is unpredictable because they will occasionally schedule things there that conflict with the Sunday services and tell the church they can’t meet there at that time. 

Much of the farmland is centennial farms that have been in the families 3-4 generations and the farmers won’t even consider selling it—even to developers that are willing to pay big bucks. So it’s an uphill battle for the Shores.

Bud Bierman