Call to Ministry and Church Planting
Beginning in the fall of 2022, we began to feel the nudging of the Lord to begin a new season of ministry. We had been in a season of challenging growth as a result of various ministry opportunities with international students as well as local engagement with prisons and those affected by addiction.
At the same time, issues emerged with Church leadership that led to a separation in January of 2023. We then began an unplanned journey into a home fellowship that has lasted until the present time.
Looking back, an important milestone in our journey was a pastor named Billy Rutledge of Hatteras Island Christian Fellowship (a Calvary Chapel) while on vacation in 2006. His message on Revelation 3 and the Laodicean church had a great impact (especially Brian) that was a turning point in our faith. This time was pivotal as the Lord began changing our hearts towards many worldly things that remained in our lives. One of those areas was children. We were urged by the Lord to abandon our controlling of the womb to the Lord, allowing us to eventually give birth to seven more children.
The additional effect of this church was to alert us of the distinctives of the Calvary Chapel Association. We began listening to Billy and other Calvary pastors, noticing their simple line by line teaching through the Scriptures. Brian began using these teachings in Sunday School of the Presbyterian church we were attending. We also began attending Calvary Chapel churches when traveling.
After spending 16 months in a home fellowship, we have learned much based on the regular fellowship with like minded believers. The Lord has brought us people who have a variety of backgrounds in every area (age, culture, etc.). We began to see the need for a greater level of formation and structure in the fall of 2023 after gaining more attendees. This corresponded with the study of Acts and recognizing the Holy Spirit as the one who grows and prompts us as a part of the Body of Christ.
At the beginning of 2024, the Lord moved on both of our hearts to begin pursuing a greater responsibility in ministry. During an intense time of doubt, the Lord moved in Brian’s heart to accept the call of bi-vocational pastoral ministry. As we began to talk about this new season and how to move forward, our experience with Calvary Chapel came to mind.
We began a deeper investigation of the Calvary Chapel Association (CCA). We were impressed by their “distinctives”, as explain originally by Chuck Smith and then more recently other CCA pastors (I.E. Mike Focht and Brian Weed of CC Philadelphia). We saw simplicity and elegance with their approach to ministry that reinforced what we had experienced when attending a variety of CC churches. We also saw an openness to God calling anyone, especially those who have been through lives of abuse and addiction. “The Harvest” book impacted Michelle in how the Lord moved simply and powerfully to change the hearts and lives of many of the founding pastors of the Calvary Chapel movement.
At the same time, we observed that several of those who were influential in the home fellowship also had CC backgrounds, including a teaching ministry that met in Greenville.
Brian began pursuing relationships with several CC pastors in the local area. We wanted to gain additional understanding of how those churches conducted their ministries and structured leadership. Pursuing these relationships also paved the way for future accountability to other like minded pastors.
As Brian met with these pastors for several months, there was an opportunity to attend a men’s retreat with CC Cleveland as well as the Annual East Coast Pastor’s Conference in Philadelphia.
These two events put the Calvary Chapel’s approach to ministry on display, allowing for discussion with additional pastors, elders and church leaders.
We feel strongly that the Calvary Chapel model of fellowship lends itself to the ministry the Lord has put in front of us. We see many instances of changed lives through the simple reading and obedience to Scripture, and the resulting dependence on the Holy Spirit to build and maintain the church.
We are therefore beginning the journey of planting a Calvary Chapel based fellowship in the Mercer/Grove City Area.