Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part II

The capitol building in Providence
(seen by all four angles tonight, thanks to our GPS!)

It's been a very busy day for our team today in Providence, Rhode Island. Before I give you details on that, though, I want to write about our meeting last night with a church planter.

We met Rafael H. at a local "hot-spot" restaurant in Providence last night. I think we were all a bit nervous about our first official meeting with a local church-planter, but we quickly figured out who would lead the conversation and how to engage with each other. It couldn't have been a better meeting to begin the week with. Rafael has been a church planter for more than 30 years, and has been in this area for just about as long. As a result, he had a wealth of information to give us about church-planting in Rhode Island and Connecticut. One of the first bits of info he gave us was the following:

1.6 percent of New England is evangelical. The IMB classifies anything less than 2 percent evangelized as an unreached people group.

This statistic came up again today and has really impacted us as a team. If you consider these populations to be unreached people groups, it really means that a church planter has to be considered a missionary. More on that a few words later . . .

It seemed that with any area or city that we asked Rafael about, he would answer, "Yes, that would be a very good place to plant a church. Mmhmm." There are so few churches - Biblical churches - in these cities, and the need is great.

Our study at Grace Harbor on Wisdom v. Folly
in Proverbs 9

That information was only confirmed today, as we experienced our first full day in the city. We attended worship services at Grace Harbor Baptist Church, pastored by Kevin McCay. We so enjoyed our time there with a group of about 70 brothers and sisters in Christ. Kevin and one of the church elders, Travis, shared with us that this church plant is considered the "success story" of Providence. They've been a church plant for about seven years, but it has only really taken off within the last two (which is when Kevin & Travis arrived). They meet in a board room of a downtown (or "downcity," as they call it) hotel, but the unusual atmosphere did nothing to dampen their joy in meeting to worship the Lord. Many of the members were eager to welcome us to their congregation, and shared with us their appreciation of the familial and community feel of the church. Their love for each other and for the city was very evident. We saw a special aspect of this congregation, when later in the day we were at a local coffee shop, and saw a church member sharing the Gospel with his homosexual boss, who has recently become open to hearing about the Lord. God is doing a great work in and through these people, and we were blessed to be a part of it this morning.

Downcity Providence
(and the Ghostbusters building, I hear?)

The craziest thing that happened today was by far one of those "small world" moments. As we were preparing for the beginning of services, another Spring Break college group walked in, and they happened to be from Union University in Tennessee, which is where Ryan graduated college. Leading that team was a couple that he was great friends with during school, and it was a neat treat for them to see each other three years later in Providence of all places!

After the service, we had lunch downtown with Kevin and Travis, who shared more about their work and answered many of our questions about church-planting in the area. They restated many of the things we heard from Rafael, but also provided new insights, such as information about specific campuses, other churches in the area,etc. They were the ones to really bring out the idea of sending a missionary rather than a church planter, and shared with us what that means for the church back home.

"Church planting is a marathon; not a sprint. The church needs to look their man in the eyes and say, 'You're our guy. We're completely behind you and trust you to do the job well. We're committed to you and to the city for the long haul. It will probably take 7-10 years, but we're in it for that long. Unless you come and tell us that the Lord is moving you or the church plant elsewhere, we're there."

That really stood out to our team tonight, especially as we studied together in 2 Corinthians 4. "Therefore, we do not lose heart." Church planting is not an easy task, especially in the northeast, but it needs to be done. Wherever the Lord leads us, we as a church body at UBC will have to make this much more than a passing interest, but a long-time committed endeavor.

Our home at Providence College?

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city, specially Providence College, where we were able to interview several different individuals for our community survey. We're excited to begin gathering a lot of information, and enjoy debriefing on each of those conversations together at the end of every day.

Providence College - Catholic Chapel

Please continue to pray for us. Travel in these cities is hard on our own with only a cantankerous GPS to get us around. Pray that the forecasted light snow for tomorrow would remain light. Pray that we would find the right areas to survey tomorrow (our last full day in Providence) and that God would lead us to the right people to talk to. Pray that each member of our team would understand and embrace our specific roles, and that we would work well together as we go. Pray that God would begin to give us clear discernment as to where He might lead us to plant a church, and that we would be prepared to communicate that effectively to those at UBC. Once again, pray for the unreached people groups of Providence, New Haven and Hartford!