Joe Holland | Lead pastor of Christ Covenant | Culpeper, VA
Call to Plant
I spent the first 6 years of ministry as an assistant in two different churches in Mississippi. Toward the end of those six years I started to get the church planting bug. I was being exposed to Acts29 resources—especially the preaching of Mark Driscoll. I was also attending the annual Twin Lakes Fellowship—a ministerial fraternal dedicated in part to church planting.
I always have had a desire to return to my home state of Virginia to plant a church. Through connections the Lord provided through some friends I found out that there was a work underway in Culpeper, VA that was looking for a church planter. After conversations, assessment, prayer, and study my wife and I confirmed that we were being ...
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Pastor Mark Campbell | Lead pastor of Portico Church Arlington | Arlington, VA
Call to Plant
I came on the staff at Portico Church, an Acts29 Church plant in Charlottesville, VA, in 2005. The church consisted of our Lead Pastor, Chris Atwell and his family and myself and my wife and daughter. When I arrived, Chris was just finishing radiation therapy for tongue cancer. Needless to say, the road was going to be difficult, but God is faithful beyond our wildest imaginations.
After labor with minimal success for over a year, Chris was re-diagnosed with cancer in May of 2006 and had massive surgery to remove a large portion of his tongue and his lymph nodes. During the two months Chris was recovering, the church grew from 30 to 100. In the next two months, Portico would grow to ...
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Jeremy Rose | Lead Pastor of Axis Church | Nashville, TN
Call to Plant
Eight years ago I prayed for the Lord to allow me to plant a church. I heard nothing. Five years ago the Lord led me to leave the full-time ministry to attend seminary and learn how to plant a church. Three years ago while vacationing with my wife for three days, I read Polhill's "Acts" commentary, the book of Acts and Driscoll's "The Radical Reformission." during those three days, I knew that God was leading me to something new and adventurous. A year and a half ago God called me to a time of prayer where I felt Him say to me, “there is a new work that you will be opened to.” What convinced me to start a new church is what I felt in my heart. I know that the best way to spread the fame of God is ...
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Kevin Larson | Lead Pastor of Karis Community Church | Columbia, MO
Call to Plant
As a seminary student, I was struggling with where God was calling me. Seeking a position in an established church seemed like a bad idea. I took a church planting class, and it seemed clear that I had "wiring" that made pioneering a community a better fit for me. People around me confirmed that. I then began praying about where to go and seeking out opportunities, and God opened a door for me to come back to my favorite city, my college town that I had left about 10 years earlier, Columbia, Missouri.
How Did You Get Involved With Acts 29?
I ran into my friend Jonathan McIntosh during fundraising. He handed me Driscoll's Reformission book, I read it, and things took off from there. Relationships like ...
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Vision, Mission, Values of Church
Our vision (what we're becoming): A diverse community bringing the whole Gospel to the whole person, whole city, and whole world.
Our mission (what we're doing): Connecting the disconnected by loving God, transforming lives & changing the world
Our values (what make us unique): Love, Family, Story, Feast, Blessing, Mission
Call to Plant
I spent of number of years in various associate-type pastoral roles but never felt settled. I always felt that there was a better way for the church to engage disconnected people to God and the community. Church planting had been an idea, but never a clear call until I was flying back home from an interview at a church. I was somewhere over Wyoming when I heard the Spirit tell me to plant a ...
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