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Living Stones | Reno, NV

Harvey Turner
Jul 29, 2009
Series: Church Profiles

Living Stones Church

Location: Reno, Nevada
Membership Date: December, 2008

Mission, Vision, Values of Church

A Christocentric community living and teaching the Great Commandment and the Great Commission

Values - Worship, Truth, Grace, Christocentric, Community, Missional Living

Planter Profile

Harvey & Rachel Turner

Briefly explain your calling to plant a church.

I felt the calling to preach about a month after I became a Christian. So, I spent the next several years going to Bible College, taking every opportunity I could to teach in youth groups and Bible studies. I started a Bible study to reach some lost friends, which over time grew to about 60 people in a living room. It was around that time that we started functioning more like a church than a Bible study and began our partnership with Grace Church, the church with whom we are still in partnership today.

What were the biggest challenges you faced in planting your church (and/or currently facing)?

In the early days, our biggest challenge came when we wanted to move from the house to the church building. There were many in our core group who opposed the move, never made the change, and left us. Our next challenge came when we grew to about 250, about a year and a half later. We wanted to add a second service on Sunday nights to accommodate growth and, again, we faced similar opposition. Many complained that this move would destroy our community; but thankfully, a good portion of our people were on mission. In February of 2007, we added our third service on Sunday nights. An overwhelming majority of our people—85%—were coming to one of the two services on Sunday nights. After much prayer and lengthy discussion, we chose to cancel the Friday night service in November of 2007, which again, disgruntled people and some left. Our latest challenge has been starting a morning service on Sundays at a new campus. Not as many complainers, but a lot more work. I must add that it has been God’s grace every step of the way that has covered our bad decisions and fueled our good ones.

How did you become involved with Acts 29? What have been the biggest benefits of being in the network?

I started to look into partnering with Acts 29 through some conversations with Daniel Montgomery, pastor of Sojourn Church in Louisville. The elders of Living Stones and I began having a desire to do more than just have our own church community, but to plant churches around the Reno area. As we looked around, Acts 29 was by far the best option and had the same theology. The biggest benefits of being a part of the network so far have been the relationships. I have been able to glean a great deal of wisdom and insight from some of the men who are ahead of us in regard to planting and leading a church. This is perfectly coupled with the opportunities I have already been given to counsel with and help some of the men who are a few years behind us. We also have had several men within our community with the desire to plant churches and Acts 29 has provided a place to point these men for training and assessment. Another benefit has been the brainstorming that has taken place with some of the Acts 29 men in this area in regard to planting churches in the region. The fruit of this partnership is indeed abundant.

What advice do you have for men who are wrestling with the decision to plant?

First, ask yourself: are you sure? Are you really sure you want to plant a church? Is there anything else that you could do? Anything else you would like to do? If you can do anything else, do it. This work is not for the faint of heart and is too hard for too little money and involves too much headache and heartache. The stakes are too high to make a bad call. But—you must know that if you are compelled and called to plant a church, you will be absolutely miserable until you obey God, get off the couch and do it. You must also know that God is faithful and will succeed in doing His will and build His kingdom.

What is your philosophy of community in your church and what does that look like practically?

Community is one of our core values, which is nothing novel in and of itself. Everyone says they want community. For us, community—in the context of Small Groups (which we think of as a form of house church) that exist pastorally and missionally—is the core of our philosophy. Attendance at our Large Group Gatherings is hitting about 850 right now and attendance at Small Group Gatherings is around 600. It is our desire to take people deep into the Scriptures and into their respective walks with God. We develop our own Small Group Curriculum and use it community-wide nine months of the year and it is often in line with the sermon series we are tackling at any given time. We turn our groups loose to do independent study for the summer months, but still provide an optional curriculum for those less apt to develop their own. The reason for this is to make sure that the theological content coming from the pulpit and in the Small Groups maintains a balance between head and heart, doctrine and practice. The focus of our Small Groups is not just to walk through a Bible study, but to spend time together doing life Christocentrically (with Christ being central). Our community is made up of a fairly high percentage of non-believing people who are investigating the gospel. They are invited into this community, which make even our discipleship elements Missional. It’s not a perfect system, by any means, but it is doing okay. To prevent our community from being stretched too thin, resources to be wasted and for the gospel to have a focused a purpose as is earthly possible, we only put our collective energies into doing three things: Large Gatherings, Small Gatherings and Missional Living (which includes serving the city, serving the world, serving the church and giving financially). Since we believe that prayer is the vehicle through which change occurs, we also have people praying before and through each of our Large Gatherings in an on-site prayer room (C.H. Spurgeon’s church used to do this). This brings people together from Small Groups and serving teams to pray together for the mission. All other parts of community building are organic.

What is your philosophy of evangelism in your church and what does that look like practically?

Most of our evangelism happens in the context of our Large or Small Gatherings. Our people invite friends to investigate the Scriptures and the spiritual community. Many of them stick; our community is somewhere around 50% conversion growth. In the sermons, I make an effort to be as cognizant as possible of non-Christians. I make a point to always address the non-Christians specifically and invite them to talk after our Large Gatherings. Our pastors try to spend all of their time either investing in Leaders, or in non-Christians.

How do you personally disciple your family?

I mostly disciple my family through spiritual conversations. My wife and I talk about the Scriptures, theology and we counsel together on the best strategies to help those we are discipling and leading toward Christ. With my teenage son, I take every opportunity to talk to him about the gospel. This is not a novel idea, just classic Deut. 6. He is about to be 13, so it seems we spend a lot of time talking about the difference between law and grace and holiness versus licentiousness. With my almost 2 year old daughter, we teach her that God is big and good, that he loves her, that Jesus made her and we teach her how to pray.

What are some examples of God's grace that you have seen in your life and/or the life of your church?

In February (2009), I baptized 27 people who have come to faith in Christ in our community. Each of them had different stories; some were religious people who for the first time were hearing Jesus speak to them in the gospel. Others were irreligious people who, before our community, had never been to church in their life. Reno is one of the most un-churched cities in the United States; approximately 1% evangelical; this figure includes those who go to evangelical churches but don’t know Jesus. But, we are seeing a movement of God’s Spirit and grace as we simply teach through the scriptures and lift up Jesus.