Finding Refuge
How God Called Me to Plant a Church in my Hometown
“This act of the Father in giving up his Son arises from his eternal purpose to glorify his grace in his elect by giving Christ and all the blessings of his mediatory work to them (Eph. 1:3-14).”1 As John Owen points out, God’s eternal purpose is to glorify his grace in his elect through Christ and his mediatory work. What does that even mean? What does it look like to glorify God’s grace? How does one express the mediatory work of Christ? These questions and many more led me to a place of deep reflection upon which I drew only one conclusion: “The way I’m currently doing ministry doesn’t properly reflect my personality or gifting so much so that I am not living up to God’s call to bless others the way I should.” Although gifted in many areas of ministry, God led me toward a new direction in ministry because it best fit the call he placed on my life.
Where I've Been
Before my current church planting endeavors, the journey included various pastoral roles at churches in Massachusetts and North Carolina. I served as the senior pastor of Hickory Grove Advent Christian Church in Four Oaks, North Carolina, for about 3.5 years. Over this time, God used the great people of “The Grove” to shape me into a pastor who loves his people and faithfully exposits his Word. These years were incredibly formative as I sought to serve God’s people best. This included leading the church through the COVID-19 pandemic along with outstanding leaders and staff. The people proved faithful in their desire to serve and worship God by meeting in the parking lot as I preached weekly from the bed of my red pickup truck. We persevered through these challenging circumstances with joy and charity.
Before becoming the pastor of Hickory Grove, God continued to work in me by burdening my heart for church planting. Indeed, a burden likely resided in my core from the beginning of my pursuit of vocational ministry. Although that burden was always present, it was during these times that God made it so clear that I could no longer ignore it. Therefore, I began exploring methods and how it would be best to plant a church in or near my hometown of Oxford, Massachusetts. At this point, I sought wise counsel from my wife, fellow pastors, friends and ministry leaders, all of whom affirmed my call and encouraged me to pursue church planting. I then tendered my resignation from Hickory Grove and began planning the move back home. We moved back to the house I grew up in, where we intended to plant a church out of our home over the coming year.
Where I Am
I concluded that I longed for a church where everyone was involved in the lives of others and that one of the most significant challenges society faces is a lack of meaningful community. The vision for this new church included simplicity. Ed Stetzer defines a simple church like this, “Essentially the term ‘simple church’ describes churches that emphasize a common life in Christ. This is achieved theoretically by prioritizing certain values and practically by limiting group size. Simple churches also tend to function completely by face-to-face relationship.”2 The approach I decided was best for my context was a simple church that gathered in my home, prioritizing authenticity, hospitality and welcoming spiritually curious people.
This approach required me to be bi-vocational because we would not have a lot of financial support from Christians as we started a church that sought to be a community that welcomed those who would ask hard spiritual questions as they journeyed toward Christ. A second reason for embracing bi-vocational ministry is that it allows me to prioritize relationships outside the church. In essence, my previous ministry experience spent most of my working hours on church event planning, administrative duties and focusing on church members. These aren’t bad things or things I didn’t find valuable or rewarding. A pastor should care for his people sacrificially. However, my burning passion is for lost people, and I knew I needed to spend more time with those who’ve yet to believe in Christ. Therefore, I needed a church planting model focused on my evangelistic passion.
I came to this model based on my ministry context, gift set and personality. This church planting model, a micro-church, has allowed me to spend much time volunteering and serving in my community. It’s resulted in the opportunity to share the gospel with a bar full of people at a VFW, a Jiu-Jitsu gym, and with various friends and family. Through serving my community, God has opened doors that were more difficult to enter otherwise. To be clear, the micro-church model is not for everyone.
Our church is in the pre-launch phase — meaning that we gather weekly for a short dialogical sermon around a couple of tables and over dinner. People are encouraged to ask and answer questions as I exegete Scripture. The pre-launch phase includes one other family and a few friends and families we knew wouldn’t mind working through our liturgy as we figured things out. We are inviting more friends and family with whom we’ve connected over the last year as we move past pre-launch into a full launch.
Over the last year, God has financially provided for my family and me. We had one family from our previous church give a generous donation to help us in the early stages of our move. God also provided my wife, Robin, and me with jobs that have met our financial needs. She is the administrative assistant for Berkshire Christian and Oak Hill Bible Church. Most recently, I began serving as the ministry year coordinator for the Ministry Training Institute (MTI) and as a professor at the Berkshire Institute for Christian Studies (BICS). The Refuge Church provisional elders also agreed to pay me a small salary for my work in our church plant, Refuge Church.
Over the last year, we have spent much time seeking donations for Refuge Church with great support from churches, church conferences, ACGC and individuals. So far, we’ve raised commitments of about $20,000. Our goal is to raise $26,500 annually. This budget covers my salary ($12,000), dinner ($5,200), an internal church planting fund ($4,000), administrative expenses ($1,300) and denominational partnerships ($4,000). The budget reflects our deep conviction that churches should partner together in the gospel and that we are stronger together.
Various nuts and bolts come with planting a church. In the last year, we incorporated, established a bank account and applied for Heritage Advent Christian Conference membership. I hold close to the importance of elder-led churches, so I sought wise counsel to plant a new church with no qualified elders. Ideally, we would have partnered with another church that would provide oversight. However, that wasn’t possible at the time. In consultation with Adrian Dixon, ACGC Coordinator of Church Planting, I invited two pastors of Eastern Region churches to serve as provisional elders. The three of us make up the Refuge Church elder board until such time that elders can be identified and equipped.
Where I'm Going
Refuge Church gets its name from Psalm 71, where David calls God his refuge (v. 1) and calls upon God: “Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress” (Psalm 71:3, ESV). Refuge is a church where people can find protection and safe harbor in God but can also find it a safe community to be themselves and explore their faith along their journey toward Christ. This includes skeptics, atheists, agnostics and people of various faith backgrounds. Some might consider Jesus a moral and good teacher, but we want to be a place where they can discover how he is Lord and Savior.
Refuge is not the end but the beginning. Over the last several months, I’ve been finishing my doctoral studies, which focus on establishing a micro-church planting network in Southwest Worcester County. I aim to see Refuge Church launch several micro-churches in our community, each with its own personality and culture that can relate to its community. Massachusetts is full of small towns, each with its unique culture, obstacles and blessings. Instead of being a church that draws a hundred people from many towns, we seek to be a network of micro-churches that are missional and incarnational in their own towns.
My doctoral projects have explored how to multiply churches, to establish a mission and vision and to train leaders on a shoestring budget. Although we intend to utilize MTI to train leaders, there can often be some valuable pre-work done to help them serve in our context as a micro-church. Therefore, I began designing a self-paced training program that includes videos, accessible reading material and a curated library of resources for additional resources. The areas where we seek to plant churches go beyond the big city and focus on rural and suburban areas that big denominations and church planting networks have long neglected.
What You Can Do?
In the book of Acts, it’s clear that the early church expanded rapidly. Churches partnered together to send out missionaries to the next town, province and country. ACGC missions continue to do well in supporting missionaries around the world. It is time that we put the same emphasis on planting churches. We will plant new churches in North America through our continued partnership together. Encouraging church planting as a viable ministry opportunity, supporting it financially and fervently praying for the Lord to direct us moving forward. These efforts are already underway with the recent hire of a Coordinator of Church Planting, the renewed emphasis of a church planting fund and partnership with Converge who provide the necessary church planter assessments to ensure wise kingdom investment.
Dr. Erik Reynolds is a church planter in Central Massachusetts and serves as the MTI Ministry Year Coordinator. He has served churches in North Carolina and Massachusetts. Additionally, Erik serves as an adjunct instructor at the BICS. He recently completed his Doctor of Ministry in Church Planting.
Dr. Erik Reynolds, “Finding Refuge: How God Called Me to Plant a Church in my Hometown,” The Advent Christian Witness, Summer 2023
- John Owen, The Glory of Christ, Puritan Paperbacks (Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth, 1684). 88. [↩]
- Ed Stetzer and Daniel Im, Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Planting Churches That Multiply (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2016 [↩]