Presently, I am a bi-vocational pastor on the leadership team of Grace Church of Philly in University City, Philadelphia. Grace Church is an independent, baptistic, non-denominational community that finds its identity and core values in the Gospel. Pre-launch planning for this church plant began in February of 2009. Dr. John Davis serves as the lead pastor, with Dr. Stephen Davis, Harold Chapin, and I serving in leadership alongside of him. Our first public worship service was held on Palm Sunday, March 28, 2010. Our core group at that time was approximately twenty-five to thirty people. We currently average between sixty-five and eighty in attendance for Sunday worship.
At Grace Church I share in the responsibility and blessing of leading corporate worship in various respects each week, including public prayer (the opening prayer, intercessory prayer, and benediction), corporate confessions of faith (such as the Apostles’ Creed), the administration of the ordinances (the Lord’s Table and baptism), and the preaching of God’s Word. My specific areas of responsibility include the administration of our programs of mercy ministry in Philadelphia and Camden (NJ), children’s ministry (ages four to eight), social media networking (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube), book table (where Bibles, New Testaments, and other Christian books and literature are distributed free of charge) and treasurer.
Within the last few months, I have been invited by Pastor Doug Logan to serve alongside him in a new church plant in Camden (NJ) called Epiphany Fellowship. Pastor Logan currently serves as the Church Plant Resident at Tenth Presbyterian Church (Center City Philadelphia) in a two-church partnership along with Epiphany Fellowship in North Philadelphia (a Southern Baptist church plant pastored by Dr. Eric Mason that is approximately four years old). Pastor Logan is currently raising support and preparing to move into Camden with his family to begin pre-launch planning and ministry. Epiphany Fellowship will be a Gospel-centered church planted in conjunction with the New Jersey Presbytery (PCA) and the Acts 29 Network in a city that was rated the most violent in America in 2009, and where approximately half of the residents live below the poverty line. Gang activity, drug abuse, and prostitution dominate the landscape. Many of the churches in Camden, devoid of the biblical Gospel message and rife with liberalism, egalitarianism, and prosperity theology, offer no hope for salvation and transformation in such a climate.
Over the last two-and-a-half years, I’ve been regularly involved with a parachurch ministry in Camden called Seeds of Hope, which serves addicts, prostitutes, homeless, fatherless children, and released prisoners in a diversity of ways. Every Sunday morning, different churches that partner with Seeds of Hope come together in the parking lot of a CVS Pharmacy to serve the poor through the preaching of the Gospel and the distribution of a free breakfast meal immediately after the teaching of the Word. In late 2008, I began setting up a book table to distribute free New Testaments, tracts, and other Christian literature to the assembled crowd. Approximately 150-200 poor and homeless regularly show up to hear the Word and get a free breakfast meal. The crowd is comprised of the mentally ill, the handicapped, drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, homosexuals, transvestites, released prisoners, con artists, false prophets, the demonized, apostates, idolaters, and even children. In the last two years, it is estimated that Seeds of Hope has assisted in leading over one hundred people to saving faith in Christ or a recommitment to Christ, and afterward ushered many of them into various addiction rehabilitation centers in order to help them overcome their life-dominating sins.
Since the Lord brought me to minister in Camden, I have not once felt Him leading me away from that city. Even while serving at Grace Church of Philly, I have never considered ending my participation in Camden. While actively seeking to purchase a house in University City in April of 2010, the Lord restored me to my former position as a sergeant at the Deptford Township (NJ) Police Department. This position requires residency in the state of New Jersey, thus closing the door on our search for a home in Philadelphia. After much prayer and consultation with my wife, I have decided to begin making the transition in leadership from Grace Church to Epiphany Fellowship over the next several months in order to serve in that spiritually devastated city with Pastor Logan, Ernest Grant, Trevor Chin (two younger leaders), and others involved in the plant.
Serving in Camden will present challenges and obstacles that simply are not present in the context of ministry in University City. The demographics and culture of these two areas are quite divergent in many respects. However, the overall goal remains the same: the Gospel-empowered birth and spiritual transformation of individuals, resulting in a corporate Christian community, resulting in the training and raising up of young men gifted by God for ministry, resulting in the planting of multiple successive churches in the area, resulting in regional cultural transformation that impacts the world for the glory of God.
Epiphany Fellowship will begin and end, rise and fall, on its adherence to faithfully proclaiming and rooting its community in the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is God’s constructive power for building the body of Christ (Isa. 55:10-11; Rom. 1:16; 1 Pet. 1:23-25).[1] Although we may employ various methodologies in order to get this life-giving message into the hearts and minds of others who need to know the Lord in a saving way, we must never place ultimate confidence in our own innovations. Rather, the power that builds a church is the unique and Spirit-empowered message of the Gospel. Thus, our primary method must be to clearly and rightly communicate that message of faith and repentance as widely as possible.[2] Coincident with our proclamation of God’s condescending grace and mercy toward sinners, we will seek to live lives rich in ministries of mercy and justice for the poor in a way that testifies to the authenticity of our grace-message. In the midst of a post-Christendom culture that is highly skeptical toward all-things-church and that (rightly?) views the wide mass of American Christians as overly indulgent materialistic judgmental hypocrites, a holistic evangelism is not only appropriate but also entirely faithful to the Gospel call (Matt. 25:31-40; Luke 10:25-37; Jam. 2:1-7).[3]
Resident within the leadership of Epiphany Fellowship is a foundational desire to plant multiple churches. Recognizing that “virtually all the great evangelistic challenges of the New Testament are basically calls to plant churches, not simply to share the faith,”[4] we want to be very careful that our methodology is strictly dedicated to this mandate. In Acts and elsewhere throughout the New Testament, we are confronted with the fact that the making of disciples begins (not ends) at conversion.[5] With this in mind, our Gospel-aim is not merely conversions or “decisions,” but the creation of faith communities whereby the spiritually immature in the church body can grow up into Christ our Head (Eph. 4:15).
As the Gospel is faithfully proclaimed and rightly taught, our confidence is that the Shepherd will call His sheep by name (John 10:1-18) and bring them together into the fellowship of His flock. Through such Gospel ministry, the Spirit of God also draws the wrongly churched and the ecclesiologically disconnected back into the fold. Within such a matrix, the newly churched begin to mix with the newly re-churched and the beginnings of a unique and individual church culture begin to form. It is extremely critical at this juncture to have competent, credible, and contextualized leaders in place to facilitate the correct formation of this newly emerging sub-culture. Spiritual and cultural drift can occur very rapidly within a fellowship that is lacking in strong leadership, especially in new congregations that have yet to forge a basic corporate identity for themselves.
The critical need in this instance is Gospel discipleship. The process of shaping and growing someone needs to occur in an intentional environment[6] that is as rich in love and personal care as it is in biblical doctrine. This shaping needs to revolve around a simple process that utilizes the Gospel to facilitate spiritual growth within a context of sound Trinitarian doctrine[7] and worship. A simple church approach is one that is “designed around a straight-forward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth.”[8] This discipleship process must be intentionally pursued by the leadership and regularly taught so that it becomes part of the virtual DNA and identity of the church. The simpler the process, the more readily the people within the church will be able to identify with it and propagate it within the context of their own spiritual walk. Four elements have been identified as necessary for a simple ministry process to be successful: clarity, movement, alignment and focus. The leadership needs to be clear about the process (clarity) and committed to executing it at any cost. The process needs to flow logically (movement) and be implemented in every area of the church (alignment). The ministry must be of one mind and abandon everything that does not fall under one of the categories of this process (focus).[9]
Our Gospel commitments should create and shape the discipleship process that we choose to adopt. While various models may rightfully serve to fulfill the church planting, disciple-making mandate given to us by our Lord (Matt. 28:18-20), all should recognize or incorporate some aspect of (1) gathering people together for corporate worship and instruction, (2) growing converts in the knowledge of the Lord, (3) a selfless and giving nature that results from spiritual growth, and (4) a going out or sending out of people into the world to propagate the Gospel message. In order to assist our people in assenting to and living out our discipleship commitments, it would behoove us to adopt our commitments as our discipleship process in an easily remembered format.
One such format that may be adopted is: Conversions, Community, Commitment, and Commission (4C1). The first step of this process rightfully focuses on the growth of the faith community through new conversions to Christ. As the unsaved are converted to Christ through the proclamation of the Gospel, they will naturally begin to gather in community with other believers for mutual edification, instruction, and admonishment in the Lord. The natural result of a vibrant church community is a Spirit-granted commitment to Christ-likeness that manifests in the radical and selfless giving of one’s life and resources in the service of the Kingdom of God.[10] Ultimately, such dedication should result in believers ready and willing to fulfill the commission given to them by Christ: to go into the world and make disciples. Such obedience results in a going forth to bring new converts into a community where they can grow in their commitment to the Lord so that they too may be commissioned to go into all the world to preach the Gospel and make new converts. Thus, the process is demonstrated to be self-replicating by the Spirit’s power.
Our discipleship commitments need to be informed and empowered by core values that are embraced within the church body. A discipleship process bare of values is akin to a skeleton without the necessary musculature to animate it. These values need to be Gospel-driven to ensure unity and consistency with our core commitments. An example of Gospel-driven core values may look like this: Centered on Sound Doctrine, Christo-centric in Lifestyle, Contextualized in Ministry, and Contending for the Faith (4C2). A ministry centered on sound doctrine will be committed to expositional preaching and a Gospel-centered exegesis of the biblical text that provides a foundation for all of faith and life (Isa. 55:10-11; Matt. 4:4; Rom. 1:16-17; 1 Tim. 3:15-17; 4:6; 6:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1, 7-8; Heb. 4:12; 13:7; Jam. 1:21; 1 Pet. 2:2; 2 Pet. 1:19-21). A ministry that teaches a Christo-centric ethic will encourage Christ-likeness in worldview and interactions with others. It promotes a servant lifestyle that is other-centered, merciful, peaceful, loving, and incarnational, rather than one that is self-centered, harsh, contentious, judgmental, and isolationistic (Matt. 5:3-16; 20:25-28; Mark 10:17-31; John 13:14; 17:20-23; Rom. 12:9-21; 14:1-4; Gal. 6:1; 1 Thess. 5:14). A ministry that is properly contextualized is one that exegetes the cultural situation in order to rightly apply Gospel doctrine in daily life. It encourages a missional,[11] evangelistic mindset (Matt. 28:18-20; John 17:11-19; Acts 15:19-20; 17:16-31; 1 Cor. 9:19-23). Finally, a ministry that is faithful to the Lord recognizes its resident alien status[12] in a world hostile to the Christian faith. As a result of Gospel commitment in “the overlap of the ages,”[13] such a ministry must contend for the faith by opposing false gospels and worldly philosophies inside and outside of the church. Part of the Christian calling involves lovingly speaking the truths of the Gospel into a fallen and hostile religio-cultural situation (Matt. 7:15; Acts 17:17; 20:29-30; Rom. 16:17-18; 1 Cor. 1:18-25; 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Gal. 1:6-10; Eph. 4:11-16; Phil. 3:2-3; Col. 2:8; 1 Tim. 4:1-2; 6:3-5; Titus 1:9-10; 3:10-11; 1 Pet. 3:15; Jude 3).
My seminary training will be of great assistance in the planting of Epiphany Fellowship Camden. In specific, the experience of working through various models and philosophies of ministry was of tremendous value in that it exposed me to different ways to think about “doing church.” Further, instruction on cross-cultural ministry and church planting introduced me to models of Gospel contextualization that I otherwise would not have been exposed. My association with Calvary Seminary introduced me to the ministry of Grace Church of Philly, which has been a tremendous hands-on learning experience for me over the last two years. It was in this context that I began to learn how to apply my theological and ministerial training in the real-world context of urban church planting. The value of such practical training is incalculable. It truly completed and provided a “capstone” to the entirety of my seminary experience. It would be difficult for me to overstate the value of my experience with Grace Church. Classroom training alone, apart from first-hand experience and the application of such training, is like the building of a car without a transmission. The engine and chassis produced may indeed be first class, but unless it has been wedded to a transmission, the job remains inchoate.
Most likely, planting a church in an area as desolate and depraved as Camden will be the most difficult and dangerous thing that I have ever attempted in my entire life. However, I truly believe that my seminary training (both classroom and practical) has adequately prepared me for the task ahead. It is in the power of the Gospel that this endeavor will ultimately stand or fall. The extent to which I am faithful to the proclamation and right application of the Gospel will determine the ultimate “success” of the plant.
Soli Deo Gloria.
[1] Mark Dever and Paul Alexander, The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005), 27.
[2] Dever and Alexander, The Deliberate Church, 27.
[3] Harvie M. Conn rightly states that evangelism “must become gospel show-and-tell, showing mercy and preaching grace…. Jesus heralded the coming of the kingdom before the paralytic with two words: ‘Rise up and walk’ and ‘your sins are forgiven.’ Our church bells ring only one of those notes” (Evangelism: Doing Justice and Preaching Grace [Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1982], 33-34). On the complaints of the unsaved of perceived and actual hypocrisy within the church as a stumbling block to evangelism in our culture, Conn states, “All of these outcries are demands for justice, for faithfulness to our confession. Their instincts tell them something is wrong with a gospel sold at the front door like the Saturday Evening Post thirty years ago, but blind to the slum in the back yard. They may not know what the gospel is. But they know what’s right, what’s fair. They are tired of gospel used-car salesman who sell vehicles with three pistons missing” (42).
[4] Timothy J. Keller and J. Allen Thompson, Church Planter Manual (New York: Redeemer Church Planting Center, 2002), 29. Further: “The only way to truly be sure you are creating permanent new Christians is to plant churches…. Only a person who is being evangelized in the context of an on-going worshipping and shepherding community can be sure of finally coming home into vital, saving faith.”
[5] Keller and Thompson, Church Planter Manual, 29.
[6] I’ve been involved with churches that have no open and intentional discipleship process. When inquiring about this subject, I was often told that the preaching of God’s Word in corporate worship on Sunday mornings addressed this concern in a thorough fashion, rendering intentional one-on-one or small group discipleship superfluous. The carelessness and danger in such an approach should be self-evident. In such an instance, the potential for spiritual drift from lack of accountability, care, and personal involvement in the life of the newly saved or re-churched individual is high.
[7] I utilize the term “Trinitarian,” rather than “Christo-centric” purposely in this theological context. While I do believe that, as the second Adam and federal Head of the new creation, Jesus serves as our supreme guide for Christian ethics (cf. “Christo-centric in lifestyle” in the Gospel-driven core values below), much of evangelicalism appears to be guilty of holding to a theological construct of “functional unitarianism” that focuses attention almost exclusively on Jesus and virtually ignores the Father and the Holy Spirit. In his book Questions to All Your Answers: The Journey From Folk Religion to Examined Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), Roger E. Olson dedicates an entire chapter to this concern (“Jesus is the Answer: So What’s the Question?” 61-74). He states that some Christians “have adopted a ‘Jesus Only’ theology in which the whole Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is subsumed under the identity of Jesus Christ” (70). Olson goes on: “Yes, Jesus is the answer in that he alone died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead to give us new life. But the Father was there behind the cross sacrificing his only Son, and the Holy Spirit was raising him from the dead and energizing the church into a world-transforming force” (73). Thus, it is my contention that Christian leaders need to be more conscious of this tendency within the church and to counter it, whenever possible, with a full-blown Trinitarian theology that is as robust as we find in the Scriptures. Cf. also Thomas A. Smail, The Forgotten Father (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2001) and Francis Chan, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2009).
[8] Thom S. Rainer and Erig Geiger, Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples (Nashville, TN: 2006), 60. The simplicity of such a strategy is, perhaps, its greatest strength.
[9] Rainer and Geiger, Simple Church, 67-68. For an example of these elements incorporated into a simple church process, see John Matthew Leone, “Grace Church of Philly – Simple Church” (18 March 2010), http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/johnmleone-351875-grace-church-philly-simple-gcp-model-2010-spiritual-inspirational-ppt-powerpoint (accessed 4 April 2011).
[10] Cf. David Platt, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2010).
[11] Tim Keller states that being “missional” involves the adaptation of “absolutely every aspect of…church life – worship, preaching, community life, discipleship – to being in a non-Christian world.” He states, “We want absolutely everything we do to be missional – engaged in showing the beauty of the gospel to the world around us” (Keller and Thompson, Church Planter Manual, 223, emphasis in original).
[12] Cf. Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1989). Also, Keller and Thompson, Church Planter Manual, 222.
[13] Cf. Keller and Thompson, Church Planter Manual, 218. Also, John Matthew Leone, “Union With Christ and the Overlap of the Ages,” on Twenty-First Century Bondservant (2 April 2011), http://slaveofjesus.blogspot.com/2011/04/union-with-christ-and-overlap-of-ages.html (accessed 4 April 2011).
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