Church Starting Overview

Definitely a challenge. Think of how many things we start and don’t finish. Home improvement projects, to-do lists, countless books.
The difficulty of completing anything we begin is one reason I’ve always had respect for church planters. Their whole job is to start something, usually from scratch, and see it to completion. Their mission is take a group of a few people, sometimes just their own family, and grow that group into a church. And not just any church, but a dynamic body that is attractive to people in a community, most of whom have had little experience with church.

It’s daunting, to say the least. But here in San Diego, God is drawing many to this very challenge. Since 2007, 25 new churches have launched in our county. And as we look forward, 17 more are in various stages of the planting process. In this edition of Merge, you’ll meet one of those planters as you read the story of Kevin Campbell, who moved with his team from Georgia this summer to plant Elevate Church. When the church launches in January, it will meet in Torrey Hills, one of many San Diego neighborhoods with very little church presence.

Another of those areas is Allied Gardens, where Joey White and John Worcester are planting Mission Trails Church. The Whites and Worcesters are veteran church planters, but San Diego offers some unique challenges to any new ministry getting off the ground. Listen as they describe how they’re reaching into one of the city’s more established neighborhoods with a fresh message of personal and community-wide renewal.

These four pages could never fit all the stories we’d love to tell you about how God is working through church planting in San Diego. I wish I could sit down with each of you and talk about all the people groups He is drawing to Himself through churches in this city, from Brazilian to Burundian, Vietnamese to Iranian, Indian to Filipino. I’d also want to introduce you to Lawrence Edwards, San Diego’s new church planting strategist for African American congregations. Thank God for people like Lawrence and others who boldly take on the challenge of church starting.

Dan Cookson is the Director of Church Starting for Vision San Diego.

For San Diego, home to more than one million Hispanics, ministering specifically to this group is key to transforming this city. Church starting is at the heart of these efforts; seven churches have launched this year with two more starting in September!  Continue to pray for these pastors and their families, and also for the outpouring of God’s spirit over the communities where they are ministering.