Church Planting in San Antonio, USA

An update from Philip Estrada, Lead Pastor of Mission City Fellowship, San Antonio, TX, USA…

By God’s grace, Mission City Fellowship officially had our first worship service just over 12 months ago now, on Resurrection Sunday in April 2021. We had started gathering with our core planting group mid-January of 2021 to establish our gospel vision and shared values. Planting in the midst of COVID has tweaked some of our plans. Despite this, the Lord has continued to build. We have seen the church grow from a planting group in the 20’s to being beautifully diverse and in the 70’s at full attendance. Because of COVID we were meeting outdoors in a park at the beginning of 2021, but the Lord provided a place to worship in a movie theater that is an incredible blessing both logistically and financially. Along with a place to gather, I’m especially grateful for being able to plant with a plurality of Elders to serve the church. The Lord kindly provided in such a way that from day one we have been able to plant with two full time pastors.

We planted in an area heavy with catholicism and prosperity teaching. By God’s grace have seen a few brought out of the prosperity gospel and into our church community. They are understanding the gospel and grace in ways they have never heard which has resulted in growing affections for Christ and his people. It has been so sweet to see them eager to be a part of the church community and to witness their fresh amazement when we talk about the permeating reaches of grace. We also have had several people begin coming that were in search of a gospel centered, expositional preaching church - that is almost non existent in the area we are located. One family expressed that prior to our arrival they were praying for a faithful church and felt as if they were in a spiritual desert. They have attended since our first public worship service and have eagerly leaned into fellowship. The Lord has been doing an incredible work in a man who was a slave to drugs, given to homosexuality, and even engaged in acts of prostitution. We have seen him progressing in the faith and faithfully attending the churches gatherings. We have also had a man who is homeless attending the church which has had its challenges but has been a blessing to our church community. We have thanked the Lord for the privilege of sending him to us and were able to host him for Thanksgiving which the Lord used to continue to expand our hearts for the gospel to go to all people.

With Halloween being on a Sunday, that posed a challenge for us. We had a lady that attends the church gathering show up with a killer clown costume. The Lord was kind to overflow our hearts with compassion for her and allowed for a meaningful conversation in the midst of a unique experience. When I told her that she was welcome to join us in worship but she would need to leave the “scary stuff” in the car, she stormed off and said she was never coming back. By God’s grace, a few minutes later she met me in the lobby with repentant tears and a humble heart. That service I sat in the front row singing All I Have Is Christ next to this lady in a clown costume and a man without home - that will forever be one of my sweetest memories. In November we had the oldest member of our congregation die, her name was Jewel and she truly was used in the church to teach us the rare “jewel” of Christian contentment. The Lord used her prayers in our Sunday pre-service prayer time to point our eyes towards Christ and eternity. It was a bitter-sweet moment to stand before our little church and tell them that her faith had become sight. The Lord builds his church in unique ways and we are grateful for how the Lord casts a wide net and gathers all sorts to himself.

When I think about all the Lord has done, I am often amazed and overcome with gladness. Not only has he been gathering people but the Lord has kindly provided several “pillar” leaders to the church. These men are leading our praise band, our church prayer gatherings, and along with their wives are leading our fellowship groups. I believe they could be future deacons and possibly elders of the church. We meet with these men for our Men’s Leadership Cohort once a week for a time of care and equipping. We express thankfulness to the Lord often for these men who by God’s grace are faithful, able, intentional, teachable, and humble. They are a gift to the church and love Christ and his people joyfully.

As we have planted in southeast San Antonio we have seen a need for a faithful Spanish speaking church in our area and are praying towards that end. We believe we are being stirred to be a means to plant a faithful Spanish speaking church in the next few years. I envision other SGC Spanish churches sending planters to join in the congregation for a time with the aim of gathering the Spanish speaking and ultimately planting out of us. Pray with us in this.

Pray for the Lord to continue to build his church at Mission City Fellowship and that he would be greatly glorified in and through us.