Church Planting in Liberia
An update from Dyonah Thomas, Lead Pastor of Grace Life Church, Monrovia and Key Leader for Sovereign Grace Churches, in West Africa...
It is always a great Joy in Christ and in the life of our local church when the Lord calls, trains and the allows the sending of a team to plant a new Church here in West Africa. In the last six years, we have had the joy of directly planting four other churches as a local church, and so December 2021 marked our fifth.
#7 as the community is called, has been a unique plant for us in preparation and sending. Emmanuel, our Church Planter, enrolled a few years back in our Grace Life College two-year pastoral training course. Upon graduation he was clear and passionate about planting with Grace Life, and his decision came at a time when we had made a decision to enroll men into a ‘trial’ live-in internship, where we could train and invest in them and their families’ lives, and more intentionally develop their convictions and competency, before sending them out. Emmanuel and Mariam were assessed and invited to relocate to Gracelife Jlazon and give one and half years of their life learning, watching ministry happen, participating in ministry, getting clarity on the gospel and how it shapes every facet of life, as well as time to prayerfully think through where God was calling them to go and plant
Emmanuel watched, learned, and participated in ministry alongside other elders, and his wife and children integrated well into church family life. With the guidance of the Elder team, Emmanuel then built a team from within the local church, a team that was then trained alongside him in so many ways. Together then, the team started engaging and building relationships in #7 for the new church plant.
We called the process a ‘trial’ because we’d never done it quite like this before, but having now walked this through with Emmanuel, we plan to launch a full-time church planting residency in June of this year, with several other men, as a catalyst of discovering, developing and deploying men to gospel planting within the West Africa region.
Finding godly men to lead and putting together a team of gifted individuals to support the plant is crucial, but funding likewise could not be more critical. We are therefore so grateful for the support we have received from the Sovereign Grace African Development Fund. Through this funding, we were able to launch this plant, as well as relocate three families in the process, and secure a long-term lease on a property to develop as a place of worship.
We were so humbled and thankful to send out the Gracelife #7 church planting team on December 19 2021. It was a wonderful day!
