The 2022-23 US Church Planting Cohort
An update from Andy Farmer, Pastor at Covenant Fellowship, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania…
In Sovereign Grace we are committed to planting churches that will start well and last long. Church planting in Sovereign Grace is a cooperative effort between a planter, a sending church, a Region and a national committee serving under the Director of Church Development. One crucial aspect of this cooperation is our annual Church Planter Cohort.
I have the privilege of leading the cohort, which is a year long gathering of planters who are looking to launch churches within one year to 18 months. Through a combination of retreats and Zoom meetings we work through the specific plans and challenges of plants, help the planter prepare for approval of his plant by the Region and provide tools and resources for the health of his soul, his family, and his church planting team.
This year we have four men in the cohort. Each of these plants is a very distinct but faithful application of our church planting missiology…
Ramon Flores, is a pastor at Legacy Church in Yuma, Arizona, who is preparing to launch a Spanish speaking congregation alongside the existing church.
Gabriel Magill is a Sovereign Grace pastor who is doing an exploratory work to plant a church in Warren, Pennsylvania.
Jeremy Hetrick is a pastor at Living Hope Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who will be planting with a segment of the church across the Susquehanna River around Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
Perry Wang is an elder in training at Risen Hope Church in Charleston, South Carolina who is developing a plan to plant a Mandarin speaking church in North Charleston.
We began this year’s cohort by gathering in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania where the guys had a chance to meet with the Covenant Fellowship eldership and talk about leading a church plant through team ministry. We met for a full day discussing each plant and its opportunities and questions. We then spent the afternoon working the process of church planting as laid out in our Book of Church Order and the Guidelines and Best Practices. In the evening we met with the church planting team of Valley Creek Church in Malvern, led by Nick Kidwell. Saturday was spent on a tour of historic Philadelphia where we interacted over the work of mission in a complex culture. On Sunday morning the cohort had the chance to attend Covenant Fellowship Church and participate in the send-off service for Valley Creek Church.
As I’ve led these cohorts over the years I’ve been humbled and amazed at the quality of men who want to plant Sovereign Grace churches, and the level of sacrifice they and their families and sending churches are willing to make to see our mission advance in new ways. We are a church planting movement, we have always been a church planting movement, and experiences like this give me faith that we will always be a church planting movement.
