Planting a daughter church requires vision

By Clancy Nixon

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. Christians are called to bring people from darkness to light, and we knew that conversion ratios were highest in new church starts. Planting was part of our mission statement that we said weekly. We did succeed in launching a new campus in another town (which I led), a house church (led by gifted lay people), and a campus at a retirement village (led by a priest on staff). However, we never seemed to have critical mass or money to send off a team with a full-time pastor, even though we have averaged about 170 in Sunday attendance for several years. We had vision for planting, which is the most important factor of all, but we did not muster a traditional mother-daughter plant on our own. Money was an issue; but I’ve learned that money follows vision! 

Soon, we got help with both. The Diocese piloted a model of “Incubator Church Planting” with our church. The Diocese adopted a funding model of giving $15,000 per year, which we as the Incubator Church matched. The balance of the planter’s salary would come from the planter’s raising of his own support, and from our church budget. That is how we funded Darryl Fitzwater to plant our daughter church, Church of the Ascension, in Ranson, West Virginia. Ascension launched in March of 2018, and is doing well.  We will continue this funding level for at least 3 years, as will the diocese. Other churches in our Diocese have now adopted this Incubator Church model.

One key to the success of Ascension is the vision of people from our church who live in our area, but who believe in the mission of Ascension, so they are willing to drive over the mountain to West Virginia every week to support it. When we planted Holy Spirit out of Truro 17 years ago, four families came with us for one or two years until we were established, and then went back to Truro. Martyn Minns, then Rector of Truro, gave me a “fishing license” to recruit whoever would come with me, and I gave Darryl the same encouragement. These families see themselves as suburban missionaries. They caught the vision for church planting.  Finding gifted lay people to help start a church is an issue; but people follow vision! 

Of course, none of this would have been possible without finding the right planter.  In our denomination, and especially in our Diocese, both lay and ordained people can plant churches. Several churches near us were started by lay people. For the incubator model, though, we needed to find a planting priest. I had known Darryl for a few years, as he had applied for a job as our youth pastor, and we stayed in touch, as God clarified his vision for planting. As he came on staff at Holy Spirit, he was ordained a deacon, and then a priest. 

We pray every day for leaders who will multiply—we pray Luke 10:2—“to the Lord of the Harvest to raise up laborers for his harvest field.” God sent us Darryl. He sent us our other clergy—Dave Prosser, Dean Schultz, and John Nuzum— who all came to me and asked how they might serve. Finding good leaders is an issue—but leaders follow vision!  

If God does not give your leaders a vision for multiplying churches, and if this vision is not embraced by your church body, your leaders will think they do not have the money, people, or leaders needed to plant. Money, people, and leaders follow vision.  

Is your church called to plant a daughter church soon?  

Why not?  

Pray for vision from God to multiply. 

The Rev. Clancy Nixon is rector of Church of the Holy Spirit in Leesburg, VA

Why I serve on the Great Commission Committee

By Rick Wright

 Serving on a church committee: several different reactions come to my mind. The first, to be honest, can be serving out of a sense of duty because the actual committee meeting is not exactly exciting. Another reaction is that the people on the committee can be really nice and enjoyable, so in spite of the content the time can be enjoyable. Worst case scenario is a committee that has a lot of politics and conflict, which is awful. However, sometimes the committee has both wonderful people and meaningful, exciting content, which is the best of both worlds. 

That is why I continue to serve on the Great Commission Committee (GCC). I have more than enough responsibilities in my role as an associate pastor at a large church, so I am not in need of another committee/board to serve on. I serve on the GCC because, as far as a committee goes, it is the best of both worlds. The people on the GCC all love Jesus Christ, are thoroughly committed to serving Him and the Church, love the lost and want the Gospel to be heard by them, and are just really interesting people. I have known some of them for years, and am getting to know the newer members.  So the time of fellowship and conversations are great. 

But the content, our mission and ministry, is all wrapped in why I am a Christian and a pastor. We are all about Jesus, His Kingdom, spreading the good news of the Gospel, and caring for those in our churches. At our GCC monthly meetings we spend our time talking, praying and working to planting churches and support our existing congregations. We do this with an eye on individual people; church planters, people who do not know Christ in cities and towns in our Diocese, and our brothers and sisters in fellow diocesan congregations. So we are not ‘institutional’ in our thinking and praying, but Jesus and people centered. Which makes it very personal and rewarding.

My interest and involvement in church planting started about eleven years ago. When we left The Episcopal Church we were able to start engaging in church planting at The Falls Church Anglican. Not that it was a deliberate, well thought out plan. Our first church plant of this new era was David Glade, who after serving as a ‘Rector in Training’ for three years said he felt called to plant a church in Alexandria. We hadn’t expected or planned that, the Lord spoke to David about it, and off he, and we went. 

Over the next ten years, The Falls Church was able to train, equip and deploy a number of wonderful young men who have planted churches within our Diocese. The fruit of their ministries has been remarkable and wonderful to see. It has also been life giving to the parish. We have had many members leave the ‘mother church’ to plant these new churches, and they have been excited and happy to be part of the Lord’s new work in their community.  I, and the parish, have seen the Kingdom of God growing in very tangible ways, which is very rewarding.

In addition to working with such amazing people and the reward of participating in meaningful ministry, being engaged in church planting and the serving on the GCC is also very interesting intellectually. There is the theological side of these discussions and work, which I have always enjoyed. Then the people side also has the capacity of infinite complexity and change. Church planting is all about the church planter, which involves recruiting, selection, training, and deployment; those components all must be facilitated with discernment, wisdom and skill. For the practically minded parking, finances, and ‘getting the word out’ all come to the fore. So it is a fascinating blend of theology, pastoral care and emotional intelligence, teaching and coaching, demographics, etc. If you ever get the opportunity to serve on the GCC I would encourage to seriously pray about it!

The Rev. Rick Wright is Director of Congregational Care at The Falls Church Anglican, Falls Church, VA.

Hearing and following the call to plant churches

By Pamela Meeks

EDITOR's NOTE: This is the next installment in our "Into Harvest Series" where we are meeting and getting to know members of the Great Commission Committee of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic, learning more about who they are and why they are committed to the mission of church planting. 

In the 1990’s, my husband and I heard a call to live and minister in Turkey before we even met each other. When we did meet and our hearts were joined together, we knew that God had some special calling for us in this new country. We were newlyweds when we arrived in Istanbul to begin language learning and culture learning. But the truth is: we did not have a clear sense of what God had prepared for us to do with any specificity. Perhaps that sounds unusual given the finances we had to raise and the plans that we had to make to get us to this point in ministry, but this is actually not so uncommon.

By no means everyone, but some of us arrived in another country with a vision that was ready to evolve. My husband and I had a clear call to be involved in evangelism and discipleship but it wasn’t obvious how we were to proceed. Our reasons for some vagueness were on purpose. We knew that people and their ideas change when they are in another country. Our own views and vision needed to be fleshed out with the realities on the ground. We were there to discover more specifically how we were to be used by God. Actually being in the country with some flexibility allowed us a chance to approach ministry with some humility and in a learner posture. Although flexibility and humility can set people on the path of being cooperative with others, it is a clear drag on folks like me who like to plan ahead!

Our early years were set aside for learning the language and learning the culture. We always had the goal in mind that we would want to attain a level of Turkish mastery to be able to preach in Turkish. The goal of cultural adjustment was equally important. As we spent time, and were involved in modest evangelistic and discipling relationships, we had a growing conviction that church planting was the specificity that we were looking for. Individuals might be converted, but without the church, someone would not be able to grow and thrive in the long term. We decided to move to a city on the coast of the Mediterranean to meet together with others interested in starting a new church.

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.

Our hearts for Turkish believers grew exponentially and this little fellowship lasted 8 or so years before they decided to fold into a larger church in the city. We did run into some problems as we looked at the role of women in the church and it was then that our family pulled up roots and moved to a city on the Black Sea. We helped join together a church planting team with local believers. We took our experiences, confidence and convictions with us to this new endeavor. This time we put ourselves under the authority of a Turkish pastor in another city and that was definitely a good decision. Like many church plants, this little fellowship weathered some difficult relational issues and in the end we only spent three years in this new city.

After we came back to the United States and finished degrees in seminary at Trinity School for Ministry, we moved to Northern Virginia. I was ordained an Anglican priest in January  2010. Naturally, I was drawn to church planting again and enjoyed serving with Rev. Jack Grubbs at Potomac Falls Anglican. In 2009 I was asked to join the GCC where I have continued to enjoy being a part of new work that is begun around the diocese.

The Rev. Pamela Meeks is the Associate Rector of Church of the Epiphany Anglican in Herndon, VA. She also serves as a member of the Great Commission Committee. 

Meet Desiree Barker of the Great Commission Committee

By Desiree Barker

EDITOR's NOTE: This is the next installment in our "Into Harvest Series" where we are meeting and getting to know members of the Great Commission Committee of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic, learning more about who they are and why they are committed to the mission of church planting. Photo: Desiree Barker (on right) gathers with her family.

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. During that time, I have served as a member of the church staff, as a spiritual director and most recently as the Resource Director at The Titus Institute for Church Planting.

When I started with The Titus Institute several years ago, one of my responsibilities as the Executive Assistant for our Canon, Tom Herrick, was to provide administrative support for the GCC. This allowed me to sit with the committee at their meetings and to provide various kinds of support at events sponsored by the GCC. It was during this season that I learned about the vital work the committee seeks to encourage and support. Last year, when I transitioned to the position as Resource Director for Titus, and the Rev. Tim Howe became Tom’s Executive Assistant, he took over the administrative support and I was invited to join the committee as a voting member. It is my passion to see people formed spiritually that has shaped my ministry and my role on the GCC. As a lay member with a background in discipleship, evangelism and spiritual formation, I provide a slightly different perspective on the mission we seek to carry out. 

As a diocesan committee, one of our canonical responsibilities is to help plant new churches. These fledgling churches and those who plant them need various kinds of support. Some of that support is practical and tangible but, often, the most important support we can supply are things like coaching or training—things that strengthen the planter so that they can lead and grow a new church. The project I am working on at The Titus Institute, in partnership with Passion for Planting, is a computer application designed especially for Anglican church planters. It will bring together multiple church planting resources in one easy to access place for our planters. The idea is to break the process of planting a new Anglican church down into smaller steps that can completed by the planter or delegated to the planter’s team. By having the steps and the resources like teaching, web links, and team exercises all in one place, the app is designed to make it easier to keep track of the details and put vital resources right into the planter’s hand. The goal is to free the planter to do the relational and spiritual work of growing a team and a congregation. The application is due to be Beta tested later this fall and available to DOMA planters early in 2018. You can learn more about Anglican Planter Plan here: https://vimeo.com/222640015 

In addition to my work at The Titus Institute, I provide spiritual direction and it is often leaders who seek me out. In the process of listening with them, God has given me a heart for the burden leaders carry in their everyday responsibilities. As a spiritual director, I often provide a safe place for them to explore their own faith journeys in the context of the pressures and challenges of ministry. And it is from this kind of listening that I glean how much our clergy and leaders sometimes need the kind of support the GCC can offer. We have some really gifted leaders in our diocese and they are doing amazing Kingdom work! As the GCC supports the work God has called them to, through equipping, coaching or training events, we fulfill the mission God and the diocese has called us to. 

The last thing I would like to share is an upcoming opportunity. For the past few years, the GCC has been offering a pre-Synod workshop open to anyone in the diocese. The first year we offered a workshop on various types of evangelism. Last year the topic was multi-cultural ministry. And this year the focus will be on various types of discipleship. The workshop is offered on the Friday afternoon before Synod starts on Friday night. This year it will be on Friday, November 17, 2017. If the last two years are any indication, and you are interested in discipleship, this is an event you won’t want to miss! 

Desiree Barker is a member of All Saints' Church, Woodbridge, VA. She also serves as a member of the Great Commission Committee. 

Part Two: Finding Mission on our Doorstep

By Alex Leighton

EDITOR's NOTE: This is the next installment in our "Into Harvest Series" where we are meeting and getting to know members of the Great Commission Committee of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic, learning more about who they are and why they are committed to the mission of church planting. The Rev. Alex Leighton continues with the second part of a two-part article on neighborhood evangelism.

 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. 

When we first moved to Virginia, we felt called to a certain neighborhood. As we learned more about where other folks from All Saints’ Church (Woodbridge, VA) lived, we saw that it was a neighborhood that wasn’t heavily populated with our members. We loved the opportunities that we were given as we were invited into our neighbors’ lives. And they were there with us as our third and fourth children were born. We hosted Community Vacation Bible School (CVBS) in our house there and our next-door neighbors committed their lives to Christ during that time. What an incredible joy! I can remember saying to my wife, Rebecca, that it could have been for that reason alone that we were called to that house. 

But as our situation changed and grew, we were finding our financial situation more difficult. The rent was becoming too high; we prayed and asked God for a solution. He led us to some parishioners who were moving away from All Saints’. They agreed to rent the house to us that they were leaving for something that better fit our budget. They had also prayed about it, and their children got a picture of us living in their house. It seemed like the Lord was leading us and yet we longed for the things we had experienced in our previous neighborhood.

We've been in this second house for three years now and God continues to bless us in amazing ways. We began hosting CVBS the first summer we were in it. One student hadn’t heard about Jesus, and she gave her life to him during that week. She wrote a thank you note to Rebecca, who led the Bible time, entitled “Thank you for telling me about Jesus.” We still have it as a reminder of God’s faithfulness. 

Our neighborhood is a double cul-de-sac, and is always full of kids playing ball, riding bikes, and having nerf gun battles. With all of those interactions there are inevitably some squabbles; one of our children found his way into one of these squabbles. We tried to help him see his part in it, and to own up to it; and both sets of parents were committed to seeing the kids reconcile. They were able to say their “I’m sorrys”. This same neighbor then came to CVBS at our house a few weeks later. He gave his life to the Lord and his mother sent us a picture of him reading the Bible we gave him. She said he couldn’t put it down! What a gift from God to see him at work in these relationships—we are praying for more!

The Rev. Alex Leighton is Associate Rector of All Saints' Church, Woodbridge, VA. He serves as a member of the Great Commission Committee.

How to be disciples making disciples

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?” 

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?” As I’ve reflected on those questions, I keep coming back to Jesus’ biblical mandate, expressed so succinctly in the Great Commission:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:18-20, ESV)

As far as Jesus is concerned, the main thing is disciple-making. The health, growth, and reproduction of the Church rises or falls on this one charge. When we are doing this well, everything else falls into place. But, what exactly does it mean to be a disciple? 

Jim Putman addresses this question in his book, Real-life Discipleship by examining Jesus’ invitation to Simon Peter and Andrew in Matthew 4:19: “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (NRSV). Discipleship, he says, is composed of three elements and begins with following Jesus. We make a conscious decision to walk with him, that is, to live our lives with him, allowing him to lead us. This involves the recognition of who Jesus is, not only as our Savior, but also as our Lord. Discipleship then evolves into a daily conversation with him (through his Word, his Spirit, and his people) that becomes life-changing. Who we are is being redefined and shaped by Jesus as we follow him. St. Paul talks in vivid terms about the struggle this can be as we “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:5, ESV). This transformation process from the inside out culminates in our taking on a new purpose in life - to carry out Jesus’ mission in the world. Putman puts it this way, “Jesus was going to address their beliefs (head), their attitudes (heart or character), and actions (hands) as he shaped them into messengers who would deliver the good news to the world” (p. 30).

Understanding discipleship in the context of head, heart, and hands can be somewhat sobering. For many of us, our discipleship has been focused in a lopsided fashion on the head. We have learned all about being a disciple by absorbing the material presented to us in classes, Bible studies, and sermons. But, how much of that has truly impacted our heart and our hands? Some would say that Jesus took a huge risk entrusting his mission to a small group of uneducated people that he only discipled for three short years. Yet, in his expert care, that group experienced a life transformation so powerful that it equipped them to become disciple-makers of the first order and truly carry out the Great Commission. 

There is a challenge in this for us. Understanding discipleship in the way that Jesus modeled it will cause us to re-examine much of what we are doing. It sets the bar in a completely different place, forcing us to recalibrate. More than just doing good programs (which are helpful, but not sufficient), we begin investing in the lives of others like a parent does with a child. We become accountable to each other to do more than simply learn about Jesus. Instead, our learning is a life process that changes not only us, but is then multiplied in the lives of others. 

As the Great Commission Committee has pondered the true meaning of discipleship, we felt it would be worthwhile for all of us to look more intentionally at the way Jesus modeled it. We are sponsoring a workshop called “Disciple-making Disciples” on the Friday afternoon before Synod (November 17, 2017) to explore this in more depth. We’ll hear from a number of our churches who are making disciples and experiencing the joy of sending their new laborers into the harvest field. Plan to join us (even if you are not a Synod delegate) by signing up here. We believe that by focusing on this vitally important aspect of our ministry, we can become better disciples ourselves and reach more people with the Gospel, moving from an occasional conversion to consistent growth. 

St. Paul challenged his disciple Timothy, “what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well” (2 Timothy 2:2, NRSV). If we are to reach those in the Mid-Atlantic region with the Good News, we’ll need to become disciple-makers who are settling for nothing less than life transformation, reproduction, and multiplication of the Gospel. This is a tall order, but one that is much more in sync with what Jesus intends. Together we can learn how to move from making Christians (GOOD) to making disciple-making disciples (GREAT).

The Rev. Dr. Tom Herrick is Canon for Church Planting for the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic.

Part One: Church Planting is a major focus at Assembly 2017

By Alex Leighton

EDITOR's NOTE: This is the next installment in our "Into Harvest Series" where we are meeting and getting to know members of the Great Commission Committee of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic, learning more about who they are and why they are committed to the mission of church planting. The Rev. Alex Leighton is featured in this issue and in addition to his ministry at All Saints' Church and the Great Commission Committee, he also attended Assembly 2017 and writes of his experience.

Greetings and blessings in Jesus' Name! My name is Alex Leighton and I'm the Associate Rector at All Saints' in Woodbridge, VA. My wife, Rebecca, and I have been married for 11 years, and we have four children, Ezekiel, 9, Sydney, 7, Titus, 6, and Violet, 3. We have a full life (I've stopped using the word "busy") with ministry, Rebecca's growing home business, and our family life. As a family, we recently had the joy of hosting Community Vacation Bible School in our yard, and 27 students joined us for five days of fun-filled discovery of the God of the universe. It was such a gift to be able to minister together as a family, as we saw young people, and especially our neighbors profess faith in Jesus. 

Our family ministry began years ago, as we were part of a church plant in Westchester County, NY, beginning in 2007. We were starting a family and a church at the same time—not for the faint of heart! And while that time was full of joys and challenges, we saw God's hand in that whole experience. We loved the opportunities we had to be on mission outside the walls of the church, to share the gospel, and to see people respond. In 2011, when All Saints' and Dan Morgan were looking for a third priest, they extended a call to us and the timing was right for us to join in that new mission. While the last six years I have been on staff at All Saints', the love of evangelism and church-planting continues. I loving being a part of the Great Commission Committee as we get to encourage evangelism and church-planting on the diocesan level.  

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. Canon Dan Alger, who leads Always Forward, began the teaching time and he immediately challenged our preconceived notions of what it meant to plant churches. So often we jump to the "How?" of church planting before we deal with the "Who?", the "What?", and the "Why?" According to Dan, Anglican church planting is a work of submission; of leaders who are submitted to the Lord and to local authorities, not "hero entrepreneurs" bent on gaining a name for themselves. We are called as Anglican church planters to engage in the pursuit of holiness, both personal and corporate.  

Building on what Dan Alger shared to open our time, Bishop Stewart Ruch taught on the architecture and the engineering of the church. The architecture he took from Acts 2:42-47, calling us to be like the early church, a church that was scriptural, sacramental, spirit-filled, sacrificial, and salvation-oriented. In Anglican circles, we often talk of the three streams of the Anglo-Catholic, the Evangelical, and the Charismatic. Bishop Ruch said that was incomplete and could lead us to the danger of becoming a "cul-de-sac church", where people come to visit and have their personal tastes appealed to, but that we don't continue to head out in mission. The sacrificial piece and the salvation-oriented piece lead us out to fulfill both the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

Bishop Ruch also taught on the engineering of the church from Ephesians 4. We are called into the catalytic offices of apostle, prophet, and evangelist, and to the building offices of shepherd/pastor, and teacher, he said. We need all of those fully functioning to be a five-fold church. For me personally, this teaching really found a home in my heart and I've been processing it since my time there. I do pray for our movement, that we won't be a "boutique" church, or just a destination for other Christians who haven't found all their needs met elsewhere, but that we would indeed be fully engaged in God's mission, recognizing the mission at our doorstep and beyond.

The Rev. Alex Leighton is Associate Rector of All Saints' Church, Woodbridge, VA. He serves as a member of the Great Commission Committee.

L10-2: What We’re About

We’ve been praying, and God has been answering.  We’re “praying earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers to his harvest field” (Luke 10:2) in the Mid-Atlantic, and He is doing just that. We now have planters of 13 congregations at work in our Diocese who have been in the field for 2 years or less. Three more are just beginning.  We’ve targeted 26 new cities in our region for plants in the coming years. The number of new plants is accelerating each year.

We’ve been praying, and God has been answering.  We’re “praying earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers to his harvest field” (Luke 10:2) in the Mid-Atlantic, and He is doing just that. We now have planters of 13 congregations at work in our Diocese who have been in the field for 2 years or less. Three more are just beginning.  We’ve targeted 26 new cities in our region for plants in the coming years. The number of new plants is accelerating each year.

We are L10-2, and we are the Great Commission Committee (GCC). The GCC is our canonical name, and L10-2 is the new name we have adopted for the church planting efforts of the GCC and the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic.  We’re a church planting network.  L10-2 is also the name of this website, www.L10-2.org.  Our new name reflects our commitment to praying in the harvest, which is as plentiful as it has ever been in our region.  As it states in our list of values on our Info page, “we are prayer-based and prayer-driven.”

We prayed for Baltimore, and God brought Steve Holt and Holy Table Church.  We prayed for Charlottesville, and God brought Dave Petty and Crossroads Church. We’re praying for Richmond, and we see some new activity there.  We’ve formed a new Cross-cultural Task Force to pray for and reach new immigrants, and God is bringing planters to plant in Korean, Spanish, and Urdu. More on that soon.

It’s not easy to keep up with all that God is doing! Fortunately, God has brought together an extraordinarily gifted and dedicated team to facilitating the mission of Church Planting in our Diocese.  Bishop John Guernsey is visionary, dedicated, and hands-on. Tom Herrick is the premiere Anglican planting consultant and coach on our continent. Rick Wright is a wise counselor and skilled leader.  Mal Young is a behind-the-scenes doer and encourager.  Kathy Galvan is a sharp administrator who supports me in our work for the Diocese.  I chair the group.  Together, this group is our Executive Committee.  The rest of the team – Joe Acanfora, Jay Baylor, Patrick Cunningham, Alex Leighton, and Pamela Meeks– ably and diligently labor to contribute to this work.

Why are we doing this?  Our Vision is “to saturate the Mid-Atlantic region with a thriving network of churches in the Anglican tradition that are biblical, missional, and reproducing, thereby helping to spark a Holy Spirit-led revival in our region.”

Please join me in praying that God would use our new website to attract, encourage, and equip hundreds of potential church planters and planting partners to plant new churches in our region and beyond. To God be the glory.+

by Clancy Nixon