Our Goal
Our goal is not merely to plant a church made up of low income people. The goal is to make disciples and plant a church in the Woodruff area, but to prioritize reaching the lost with adequate attention to the people who are typically passed over. For example, we have ministries devoted to reaching lost college students (as we should) but lost young people in the trades and military or ordinary jobs out of high school still need to be reached. We are not trying to start a church from existing Christians with the hopes of reaching out to these groups. We are praying and laboring to see them be part of the church from the beginning.
Our Mission Field
Woodruff is a small but rapidly growing town south of Greenville. This small town is about to change drastically. Woodruff started out as a mill town. It was a typical small town in the south where many people grew up working at one of the local mills. Off the main road sat rows and rows of mill houses. People grew up and stayed close to home. Like many small towns depended on one means of economy the mills closed and the town dwindled. Businesses closed, buildings began to deteriorate, and children growing up here tended to move away for work.
Today, many of the millhouses are occupied by elderly people or low income families renting homes. These millhouses are now over 100 years old. Some are well maintained while others are in great need of repair.
Because of its proximity to Greenville and available land, Woodruff is undergoing a huge transition. The new BMW plant is just one of many factories being built in the Woodruff area. Housing subdivisions are popping up all over the place. People are moving in from all over the country which means we are seeing more unchurched people.
We have identified two areas of need. First, the millhouses in and around Woodruff. Second, the new subdivisions.
Our Model
One of the main lessons church planting has taught us over the years is that we cannot do this alone. For this reason we are committed to a church planting model that involves ordinary members of the local church. This could be described as “team” model rather than a “core group” model. Sometimes in church planting a core group is simply a start up group of Christians whose main purpose is to support the church plant while it seeks to grow. Unfortunately this often results in growth through transfer. While these two approaches are not mutually exclusive, a “team” mentality is focused more on a group of people who participate in reaching the lost in order to see God build a church from the evangelistic efforts of the team.
We want to begin with the end in mind. In other words we want to start a church and cultivate a community that starts off doing what we want the church to be. One of the most common ways to plant a church is to gather Christians in a certain area to form a new church. But it can be very difficult to change that church into an evangelistic church later on. On the other hand, if the church comes into existence through evangelism, discipleship and service it’s already in their DNA. They tend to be more conscious of the needs around them and more dependent on God in prayer.