Tag Archive for: Church Planting

Doug Fell

The Parkhurst Church Plant

Why do we want to go and plant a church?

That’s a great question. Until a couple of years ago, church planting was not something that either of us had considered. Through various friendships, much prayer as well as books we were reading, we felt God begin to stir in our hearts a desire to become involved in church planting. This led to us heading to Seattle for a year to study and serve at Mars Hill Church. Our year in Seattle provided a lot more exposure to church planting and also enabled us to go through an assessment process designed to help people figure out if God is calling them to plant a church.

Throughout our year overseas, we felt a growing provocation from the Holy Spirit to plant a church. We are thoroughly convinced that the most effective method for the advancement of the Gospel and the extension of the Kingdom of God on earth is through the planting of new churches. We know that planting a church is not an easy endeavour, but we feel burdened by what God has called us to do and count it a privilege to give our lives to serving God’s mission in this way.

Why Parkhurst?

Because they serve good coffee there! Jokes aside, (although having to drink bad coffee would be no laughing matter!) Parkhurst is a wonderful place. It is a suburb that has undergone a significant transformation over the last decade, and it’s now one of the trendiest suburbs in Joburg. There are a lot of young couples and families that have moved into the area, and yet many of the churches have struggled to connect with them.

As we have considered where to plant a church, the opportunity to get involved in Parkhurst came about, and we feel a growing burden for the area and a deep desire to see gospel centred churches saturate Parkhurst and the surrounding suburbs.

Our hope is to gather a group of people who will love and serve that area by proclaiming and demonstrating the gospel; seeing the suburb come to life as the gospel transforms hearts and culture.

When are things going to get started?

We plan to spend the rest of 2012 gathering together the core group of people who will be involved in planting the church; spending time together praying, dreaming and planning about what the church will look like and teaching through some of it’s distinctives. Early 2013 will be spent building momentum towards public worship services, and we hope to get those going by Easter. Having said that, all our plans are flexible, and we plan to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading as things develop and opportunities arise.

How can people find out more information?

Anyone who wants to find out more about the vision and plans for the church plant is welcome to join us on Thursday 18th October at 7pm and Sunday 21st October at 11h30, after the morning service, both at RUC.

There will be plenty of time for questions at these events, but if people want to be in touch with us directly, they are welcome to contact me.

Is there anything people can be praying for at the moment?

There is plenty! Our top requests would probably be:

  • For grace and wisdom as we gather the core group
  • For financial provision for startup expenses
  • For the process of us moving home and settling in Parkhurst
  • For God to be preparing people’s hearts for the message of the gospel
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The Background to Parkhurst

Over the last few years at RUC the discussion and desire to plant a new church has gained momentum. While church planting was an active part of Rosebank’s history it has not planted a church for at least 20 years. As this desire has been growing, an opportunity in Parkhurst began to develop.

RUC has a close relationship with Parkhurst Baptist Church in that it planted the church in the 1950’s and many people at RUC today have their roots in the Parkhurst church. For many years it was a vibrant church community serving the people of Parkhurst. However over the last ten years the Parkhurst community has changed considerably and many churches in the area have been unable to adapt and are struggling to effectively share the gospel in an increasingly a-religious community. Parkhurst Baptist is no different and about four years ago the English speaking morning and evening services closed. In the interim period many attempts have been made to get these services going again but with no success. The church did not close its doors because it still had an African language service running in the afternoons. This has faithfully continued and serves a small group of people mainly comprising of ten domestic workers who work in the community. This group of people constitutes Parkhurst Baptist Church.

At the end of 2011 the leadership of Parkhurst Baptist Church approached RUC to help them start a new morning service that would effectively reach the people of Parkhurst. They readily acknowledged that they were not able to do so but felt that RUC would be a great partner in assisting them to effectively reach Parkhurst with the Gospel.

This approach by Parkhurst Baptist Church started a process that has been on-going this year. In January of this year Gerhard Venter and myself were delegated to engage with Parkhurst Baptist to navigate a way forward. A steering committee was established comprising representatives from Parkhurst Baptist leadership, the Baptist Union and RUC. This steering committee effectively oversees and runs Parkhurst Baptist. Gerhard Venter is the chairman of this committee which has been putting processes back in place for the church to function properly. A large amount of time has been spent getting all the administration back up to date, sorting out the books and ensuring the church is in a healthy position after a few years of neglect. This has been largely achieved and the focus has moved to getting a new work started in the mornings.

At the same time Doug Fell was beginning to engage with the RUC leadership about his future when he was to return from his studies in Seattle. He expressed an interest in church planting and so the possible bringing together of the Parkhurst Church and Doug as the lead elder begin to take root. This process gained momentum when Doug returned and was able to meet with all parties face to face. In the last two months much negotiation has taken place with the result being that Parkhurst Baptist Church has called and accepted Doug Fell as its lead pastor. The control and running of the church will now be transitioned to Doug as he takes over leadership of this steering committee as it continues to work with RUC and Gerhard in seeing the new work started. This has opened the way for Doug to now actively put together a core team of people to be sent by RUC into Parkhurst to plant and develop a contextual, gospel centred community that loves and serves the people of Parkhurst.

In the coming months this preparation will take root with some Vision and Information Events. These events are for people interested in attending and gaining an understanding of what this church plant would entail.

Hopefully by God’s grace and provision in the New Year (2013) this church plant initiative will be in a position to start some public services on a Sunday morning.

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