A Young Family's Perspective on Being Part of A Church-Plant by Tim and Amy Fanus
Living Life Together
We are humbled and amazed that God uses broken and willing vessels for His purposes. We moved to the Winchester area two years ago, while still attending Guilford Baptist Church. Guilford was about an hour away. With young children, this drive got tough fast. As much as we loved the church body and the solid preaching, we prayed that God would provide a church that was closer to our home so that we could better serve and fellowship. The Lord started working through a series of "crazy" events to bring a group together to plant a church -- should we say plant the gospel -- and we now meet a two-minute drive away from our home! Amazing! Being closer to our community has made caring for one another much more possible.
We have been so blessed to be a part of this church from the ground up. We clearly remember the excitement and wonder as we all first met last summer to go through what would become our Statement of Faith. As we looked around the room, there were people who were already so dear because they too wanted to see the Gospel of Jesus spread and we would be part of this work together as a core "seed pod".
One of the biggest things we are learning through church planting is to be intentional. Most of our lives we have been able to just go to church and blend in, or wait to be approached, or come but not serve. Now we realize that each member is vital and it is our joy to serve together to bring glory to God. We are excited to meet and reach out to new people who come each week. Like someone said, "Each Sunday is like Christmas - seeing who will arrive and join to worship with us." We get to use our gifts because they are really needed, and we get to rejoice as we see God grow the church and use His vessels to do so.
Tim and Amy Fanus