church plant.

We meet formally as a group twice monthly to get to know one another, pray, and learn about the vision and values of the church.  It’s also a great time for other people to come check us out and seeing if they may be interested in joining in.

We had around 25 adults at our meeting Thursday night–a mix of singles, families, couples, college students, and there was childcare for the littles.  We’re so very grateful to Columbia Crossroads Church who allows us to meet in their downtown campus free of charge.  It’s the perfect space, right off Main Street.

One of the biggest blessings in this process so far is the supportive community we’ve found in downtown churches around us.  From the very start of this idea, David began meeting other church planting pastors here in Columbia and asking them what they thought about a new church.  The response from several different denominations was overwhelming: Yes! We need you!!!

There is a great atmosphere here of “We’re all working together to reach our city for Christ.  There are 100,000 people within walking distance of the capital who don’t know Jesus, so we need lots more church plants!”  This spirit fits in with our passion, which is not to take Christian members from surrounding churches, but instead to be a church for non-Christians, where people feel loved and feel like they belong before they know Jesus.

And so in these past months, we’ve begun getting to know other pastors and their families, worshipping in their churches on Sunday, and we’ve been deeply ministered to.  We’ve sat under gospel-filled preaching and soaked in gifted, meaningful worship music, and met so many people who love Jesus and love their city.

These churches have offered advice, sound equipment, research, encouragement and prayer, and three churches from different denominations have invited David to come share before their congregation and ask people to consider giving financially.

We are thankful.  It’s just another sign that God is in this.  That this whole thing is so much bigger than one small group of people, that He’s going to be faithful where He has called.