Into the Harvest - Blog for Church Planting

The idea of becoming a common people through common prayer comes from my reading of Acts 2:42-47 where we discover a prayerful, sacramental, Spirit-filled community following after Jesus.

As much as we would like to be on Easy Street, we can’t escape the fact that God’s work will always be opposed, often fiercely. The battles we face may not be with physical giants, but they are very real and will call forth from us every ounce of strength and courage that we possess.

Like most church planters, even before we planted Holy Spirit by God’s grace, my wife Ginger and I had a vision to plant new churches out of our church.

God has been challenging us to think bigger. This isn’t surprising when you see the trajectory the diocese has been on for the past few years. God has carefully been putting the pieces in place to support this kind of growth for some time.

Serving on a church committee: several different reactions come to my mind.

What began as an outrageous idea at the Great Commission Committee’s planning retreat last year has grown into a full-fledged plan to plant 50 new churches in the next 10 years.

In the Fall of 2014, as our congregation, Restoration Anglican Church, moved into our new facility that is located just north of the Ballston Metro stop in Arlington, we began to dream about what it would look like to help plant other new Anglican churches inside the Beltway.

As we worked together with another teammate from Germany, we began to learn the ropes of church planting. Our team had many decisions to make, and some of them were significant and consequential. We were always weighing different options. At the time we were not confirmed in a denomination so we were working with those from a non-denominational background. Our little church met in a home and we were deeply involved in people’s lives.

My name is Desiree Barker and I am a member of All Saints' in Woodbridge, VA, and a member of the Great Commission Committee. My husband, Steve, and I have been at All Saints’ since the early 1990’s. We have one daughter who lives in Charlottesville with her husband and our two active grandsons. I have been a lay ministry leader for more than 25 years

As a follow up to an article in last month’s Messenger, I've been asked to share the story of how God has led our family into our neighborhood, building relationships with neighbors, ministering to them, and seeing some respond to the Gospel.

In my busy world, trying to balance many competing demands, I often struggle with “keeping the main thing the main thing.” Again and again, I ask myself, “What is really important?” and “How can I stay focused on that?”

I never expected to end up in the city. I’m the son of farmers and truck drivers from Central Pennsylvania. In 2006, I was challenged by Heidi Baker’s testimony to “go where only the Gospel could make a difference.” I felt the Lord guide us into East Baltimore, one of the most challenged neighborhoods in our region.

My most recent experience with the Great Commission Committee came at the ACNA's Provincial Assembly in Wheaton, IL. I was part of the Always Forward track, the team equipping our province for church planting. Being among church planters and church-planting leaders was such an encouragement. I'd love to share a couple of highlights from that time.