EFC-ER Church Planting Newsletter January 2018

January 2018

Our desire for this newsletter is to see the body of Christ united in prayer for church planting in and through EFC-ER. This newsletter will feature targeted prayer requests with names of current and future church planters, the needs they may have, dates and news of events surrounding church planting, and ways that you and your church can help support this effort in practical ways. Thank you for partnering with us in prayer!

In Christ,

EFC-ER Multiplication Team (Church Planting Sub-Committee)

Zach Bohler, Mike Dennis, Brian Donahue, Paul Hoffman, and Samuel Huang

Updates

EFC North Campus

A huge praise update on the EFC Newport North Campus launch (pictured above):

They have hired the launch team staff and put together the launch team and "booster" (support) team. The first training meeting was held on Wednesday, January 10, 2018.
Praise God: the EFC Newport Christmas Eve offering (used to help support EFC North) goal was $20,000, and by God's grace, they raised $25,300!
The Newport Mercury (a local paper) printed a very positive article on EFC North. You can read the article here.

God is answering prayers! Please keep praying as they prepare to launch on March 10, 2018.

Multiplication Team

We finished our first draft of the Policies and Procedures document to guide church planting in EFC-ER. Our team spent many hours praying and working hard on this first draft. We are excited for what God has in store for our movement as we seek to spread the gospel through innovative church plants.

Please pray for the continued work as we refine and edit this document. We are asking God to anoint our hearts and minds for His will. It is our desire that God would unite our decision-making as a team and that we would be of one accord. We pray that this process would be the spark to light the fire of revival in EFC-ER for planting new churches.

Pray for our upcoming team meetings in February. The Multiplication Team will meet at the Evangelical Friends Headquarters on February 7-9, 2018. Please pray that we would accomplish what needs to be accomplished. We pray that God's presence would bless our meetings and give clear vision and wisdom during our discussions.

Prayer Requests

Pray for future church planters and their teams.

We need to begin and continue to pray faithfully for future church planters within our movement! Pray that God would guide them and open the doors that He wants them to step through. Pray that God would begin to place a burden and a call on these men and women, and that they would find the process (as developed by the Multiplication Team) to be empowering and inspiring.

Pray for core leadership teams to rise up around church planters. We pray for people who believe in the visions God has placed in the heart of the planters. Pray for the leadership teams to help protect, guide, and grow those visions into full fruition of God's greater plan. Pray for unity, grace, and provision.

Pray for financial provisions for future church plants.

It takes financial support to start a church as well as a lot of faith and sacrifice. Pray that God provides financially for every church plant. We pray that they will walk in wisdom as they strive to be good stewards of those resources. Pray for provision for the families of the church planters.

Pray for unity within our movement in regards to church planting.

It is our belief that church planting will be the means by which our movement grows. We desire to impact a generation that is slipping away from the truth of God's Word with the truth of the gospel. Pray that every church, every pastor, and every heart would become united in God's mission. Pray that our pastors would catch the vision for planting churches. We desire for our pastors to become excited and passionate about planting new works and that their passion would generate the same excitement and passion within the churches.

Pray for an abundant harvest!

This isn't just about growing EFC-ER as a denomination; rather, it is about spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world! We deeply desire to see EFC-ER grow because of new conversions and people giving their lives to the King of Kings. Church planting is one of the most effective ways to grow! So let's do it!

Pray that our established churches begin to see an abundant harvest of new souls coming into the kingdom. We pray that our future church plants would experience a miraculous outpouring of evangelistic spirit in order to reap an incredible harvest!

We are asking every pastor and every church to consider how they might risk, engage, and abide within this church planting vision.