Riding the Waves of Church Planting

• Winfield Bevins
• Dec 13, 2007
• Series: Church Planting
• Categories: Church Planting Articles

Surfing is a two thousand year old-past time that is the art of riding waves from the ocean that God created. It was the sport of ancient kings and is now a multi-billion dollar industry.  My name is Winfield Bevins and I am a church planter and a surfer.  I have the awesome privilege of serving as lead pastor of Church of the Outer Banks, which is located in one of the premier surf spots on the east coast. Surfing and church planting are my two great passions. I began surfing when we moved here to plant the church in 2005. Since that time my life has been profoundly impacted by both surfing and church planting.

Surfing and church planting are surprisingly similar.  Churches grow in waves or stages.  A church planter must understand that there is a process to church planting where the church will grow through several developmental stages. In other words, there are several waves to the process of church planting that every church must inevitably go through. 

This is the story and the process of how we planted Church of the Outer Banks.  We are getting ready to celebrate our second year of ministry as a church plant.  Although we have made many mistakes, God has faithfully helped us continue to grow as a church.  Regardless of whether a surfer "wipes out" or "hangs ten," he paddles back out for another wave.  This is a lesson that we have learned as a church over and over. After you attempt one wave, no matter what the outcome, you need to get back out there and prepare for the next wave.

1^st Wave: The Call and Conception

It all begins with catching the wave of God's call to plant a church.  My wife Kay and I began to feel the call of God to plant a church.  After serving as a pastor and college instructor in Tennessee for three years, I knew God had prepared me to begin a church with my wife.  We began to dream of planting a church that would be highly innovative, gospel centered, and culturally relevant where anyone could come regardless of his or her background.  We dreamt of a church that would be low on religion but big on relationships.  We knew it would be a place where people could find and use their spiritual gifts.  During that time, some close friends began telling us about the need for a contemporary, cutting edge church in the Outer Banks, North Carolina.

After much prayer, I resigned as lead pastor to our church in Tennessee and made plans to move to North Carolina's beautiful Outer Banks.  Everyone thought we were crazy because we were moving to a place where we had never been before.  With only faith, a few possessions, and our beautiful baby girl Elizabeth, we moved to the Outer Banks in May 2005.  These first 6-12 months were a time to wrestle with the call of God and to dream about the church plant.

2^nd Wave: Strategic Planning

Church of the Outer Banks first met in a home with only five people in June 2005.  After a few short months, we built a core group of about 20 people and quickly outgrew the home meeting space.  During this time we prayed, planned, and raised money to purchase sound equipment, screen, projector, backdrops, website, logo, and printed materials.  This was a season of strategic planning, vision casting, and building our core group.

We then began looking for a place to meet that would allow us to continue to grow.  After looking at several locations, the Lord opened a door for us to meet at the new YMCA in Nags Head, North Carolina.  October 2nd 2005 was the first service in the YMCA.  We only had about 35 people in our first service.  However, the move allowed us to expand our ministries to include a nursery, children's church, coffee bar, and worship team.  After months of prayer and preparation, we had finally launched the church, but the hard work of growing the church was only beginning.

3^rd Wave: Growth and Development

We celebrated our 1-year anniversary on October 1^st, 2006, which was an awesome celebration and milestone testimony for our church. Our attendance really began to grow after our 1-year anniversary.  God continued to send people from across the Outer Banks to be a part of a postmodern church that was impacting peoples' lives with the gospel of Jesus Christ.   Over the course of the next year, we grew over 100%.  This season was dedicated to growing in a way that was healthy.  Instead of merely focusing on growing numerically, we also focused on building relationships with those already in our church.  One of the most important decisions we made as a young church plant at this time was to become official members of the Acts 29 Network.  Our church has benefited from Acts 29's teaching on biblical leadership and church structure, as well as the coaching relationships that we developed with other Acts 29 planters.

There were a lot of new challenges and opportunities facing our church because of our growth.  To help insure that people felt ownership over the growing church, we implemented a membership process that encouraged people to give their time, gifts, and giving to the Lord.  In order to do quality ministry we needed to strengthen our giving and regular financial support, which would naturally happen as people took ownership over the church.  At this time, we also changed and updated all of our promotional materials.  We also mobilized and trained more lay leaders.  Deacons and elders were trained as innovative leaders and technicians.  We created a new logo, developed a new website, and printed all new materials.  An assimilation process was also developed which helped newcomers connect to our church family.

4^th Wave: Moving toward Maturity

As we began to move past our one-year mark, we had to rethink our church's systems and structures once again.  If we were going to continue healthy growth as a church we would have to rethink, retool, and restructure our church.  At this time, we appointed our first two elders after almost a year of prayer and study.  Our first official staff position of Worship Pastor was created for one of our elders.  We began to focus on member care through a threefold process that includes bible studies, fellowships, and ministry involvements.  We started doing quarterly leadership training events to help identify and train emerging leaders within our church body.  We also increased our community outreach by hosting large art shows, adopting a beach access to clean up, and feeding firemen each week.

Next Wave: Looking to the Future

We just celebrated our 2-year anniversary! This was an awesome time of celebration where we recounted the past 2 years and renewed the vision of our church. Where do we go from here?  Over the next year, we need to enlarge our leadership team and volunteer base.  Our staff will expand to include an associate pastor and an administrative assistant.  Church planting will be more of a focus in our region.  As the lead pastor, I need to transition more of the ministry into the hands of elders and deacons, leaving room for me to be able to spend my time preaching the gospel, casting vision, and dreaming about the future of Church of the Outer Banks.

By this time next year, I see a church that has a real community presence and constantly seeks to make a difference in the Outer Banks.  I see an army of volunteers who are making a positive difference in their families and their community.  I see a church that will grow into 2 multisite campuses. We are currently dreaming of a community facility that will hold a coffee house, art gallery, and concert venues.  There is no telling what God will bring in the next wave at Church of the Outer Banks.

Winfield Bevins
Lead Pastor
Church of the Outer Banks