One of the most exhilarating things in my pastoral life is when I sense that God is calling me to play some small part in something that is just beginning. I think this is one of the many reasons I love church plants. A couple years ago I explored planting a church myself, but ultimately felt called in a different direction. Yet, recently I have sensed the call to the next best thing: supporting someone else who is planting a church.
I moved to the greater Charlotte area less than 1 ½ years ago, and I felt the desire grow in my heart to support a church-planter. I figured there had to be a good solid Reformed church plant in the exploding Charlotte area, so I picked up the phone and the next thing I knew I heard the name Wes Barry. Most of the time it seems discerning God’s call is a process that takes time – but once in a while you simply know – and I knew right then that this was who I was looking for.
One the exciting parts of seeing something new take shape is to hear all the stories that surround its birth, and the story of this church plant in South Charlotte is no exception. One of the joyful moments during this process is when the time came for Wes to wind down his call as an associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Charlotte and tell the senior pastor, Pen Perry, of the call he felt to plant a church in ECO. (It happens to be the first ECO church plant on the East Coast). To hear how incredibly grace-filled, loving and supportive Pen, the session and everyone else at FPC were for Wes’ new call warmed my heart. Times like that give me hope for the ecumenical church, and it made me proud of my colleague Pen (whom I have only briefly met) in my PC(USA) presbytery.
One of the reasons that I am excited about people like Wes is because I know the shocking fact that America is #3. It is number three in the world in terms of the sheer number of un-churched people (behind India and China). This fact alone demands sufficient urgency that we reach as many people as we can. Church plants reach people that established churches tend not too, and they should be an integral part of our congregational DNA.
Wes has no idea I’m writing about him in this blog entry, and I am so excited to play some tiny role in a church plant in my area that I couldn’t help but share it. I believe every established church is called to support church planters like Wes or to check out the 1,001 new worshipping communities, because the urgency of the Gospel is too great. Does your church support a new church-plant with even 1% of its budget? What is stopping us?
Darryl Evans is the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Kannapolis, NC. He loves Presbyterian polity, church-planters and the International Justice Mission.
