In South Carolina, a eyesight for church planting

ROCK HILL, S.C. — A quarter-century ago, the Charlotte Avenue Church of Christ was at a crossroads. 

The congregation in the Charlotte, N.C., suburb of Rock Hill, S.C., had a eyesight to serve its group and fulfill the Fantastic Fee. 

The church experienced a alternative: It could broaden its individual amenities, or it could plant a new congregation in an space with incoming households, elder Steve Cox said. 

Charlotte Avenue Church of Christ

Charlotte Avenue Church of Christ

Charlotte Avenue chose the latter, and that final decision has resulted in three new congregations. Charlotte Avenue planted the Church of Christ at Gold Hill Street, and Gold Hill planted the Church of Christ at Clover and the Church of Christ at Indian Land. 

Functions chapter a single, Jesus talks about how the church would increase in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the whole earth,” former Gold Hill elder Brett Pharr claimed. “And that is the way the church grew, by church planting. … So, reigniting a attitude of church planting is crucial.” 

Steve Cox

Steve Cox

Charlotte Avenue acquired the land for the original church plant from a member, Cox stated. Volunteers and some users who lived close to Fort Mill were asked to go and assist the church plant get started and be successful. Then the users educated the bordering neighborhoods about the new congregation.

“There is a non secular aspect of planting it, and then there’s a actual physical aspect,” Cox mentioned. 

Right after additional than two many years of preparing, the Gold Hill congregation opened. Not extended right after the initially service in 1996, leaders began to discover that members have been driving up to an hour to attend solutions. 

Moreover, the church experienced grown from about 50 associates to additional than 300. So discussions about planting a new church started, Gold Hill elder Eric Bitting said. 

Church of Christ at Gold Hill Road

Church of Christ at Gold Hill Highway

“We really consider that folks ought to be worshiping and converting in their neighborhoods,” Bitting reported.

Missions can consider put not just in a foreign country but in a nearby neighborhood, Bitting and Pharr explained. With that in thoughts, Gold Hill planted a new congregation in Clover, S.C., 23 miles northwest of Fort Mill. 

The Church of Christ at Clover held its initially assistance in an elementary school in November 2011. The church conducted its very first provider in its new making in February 2013. 

In advance of the COVID-19 pandemic, Clover had between 80 and 90 individuals attending Sunday early morning solutions. 

The Church of Christ at Clover

The Church of Christ at Clover

“Our vision is to preach God’s phrase to any individual that’ll hear, any place, any way we can,” Clover elder Jim Hood explained. 

Hood’s wife, Glenda, found that several persons ended up not attending provider often and ended up not active in the religion. But when these people grew to become a aspect of a lesser team, at the Clover congregation, they were being additional lively. 

“Our vision is to preach God’s phrase to anybody that’ll listen, any where, any way we can.”

“They ended up much more keen to step out and acquire element, and a lot more people today ended up energetic and took element in the providers and in outreach, in classes,” Glenda Hood claimed. They were “just typically additional lively than what they experienced felt in a much larger group.”

The Church of Christ at Clover has been in a position to attain spots that had been not becoming served, Jim Hood stated. Not too long ago, the church has arranged buddies and household days, singing functions for the congregation and numerous ladies’ lessons, which are open to any girls fascinated in researching the Word of God. 

5 to 6 many years soon after beginning the new church plant in Clover, Gold Hill purchased land to plant the Church of Christ at Indian Land — the third plant stemming from Charlotte Avenue’s primary vision. 

The Church of Christ at Indian Land

The Church of Christ at Indian Land

Indian Land is not an official town. It is a neighborhood situated involving Pineville, N.C., and Lancaster, S.C. The congregation began assembly on the very first Sunday in January 2020 at a recreational center in Indian Land. The congregation moved into its recently manufactured creating at the starting of 2021. On Sunday mornings, the attendance, pre-COVID, was amongst 70 and 75.

Like the first planting church, this most recent congregation needs to satisfy the Wonderful Commission.

“We want to see that carried out regionally in the local community of Indian Land,” minister Chad Garrett said. 

The Indian Land church’s focus is to enable the encompassing spot. Garrett not too long ago became involved in the Indian Land Chamber of Commerce as a way to reinforce the congregation’s ties with the community. 

Garrett’s tips for church planters: Choose treatment of the actual physical side. But really do not neglect the spiritual side.

Christians have to spend time in chatting to, paying time with and researching with men and women, which include all those who have been baptized, he mentioned. Proper organizing, prayer, vision, potent management and fiscal assistance are all crucial to a effective church plant. 

Also, having committed people to help with the new church plant is a big asset, Jim Hood mentioned. In addition, he thinks that the coronary heart and the mindset of the people today are more critical than the developing. 

Eric Bitting

Eric Bitting

Bitting believes that planting grows Christians in the church since of the mission work they are carrying out in their communities. 

Gold Hill leaders found that via church planting, they started off producing new expertise, Pharr mentioned. New abilities ended up introduced out in the customers, and those people customers discovered to increase mainly because the congregation had to pull with each other. 

But notice will have to be compensated, way too, to the requires of the planting congregation.

“Don’t drop sight of … how it is heading to be afflicted and how it’s heading to search put up-plant,” Bitting mentioned. 

Submitted beneath:
Charlotte Avenue Church of Christ
Church of Christ
Church of Christ at Clover
Church of Christ at Gold Hill Road
Church of Christ at Indian Land
church planting
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