e-Church Plant News
Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (NIV)
One of the most exciting meetings I have ever been to occurred last night (Sonday). Held at the Aldridge’s beautiful home, a number of people from Fresno First Baptist and Clovis First Baptist met with Carl & Shelly Roth to take the first step in planting a church in the Rio Mesa development.
From college aged young people to more seasoned citizens all age groups were represented. It was an exciting & diverse crowd to be part of. After a couple of games to relax us and let us get to know each other better, and after some wonderful pie (Karl knows how to get a Baptist’s attention - serve food!) We sat together and talked about the demographics of the people who live near the Rio Mesa development. (There are no demographics available for Rio Mesa - they haven’t built it yet.) Here are some of the interesting demographics -
Their average age is 33
29% of them are strongly involved in their faith
17.8% are not interested in faith and have no preference in faith
44-46% of the people in the Madera Ranchos have “no faith involvement”
50% of the people in SW Fresno have “no faith involvement” (The national average is 24.7% of people have no faith involvement.)
Truly when it comes to this area of town the fields are white unto harvest and this church plant has a wonderful opportunity to gather the harvest into the Kingdom of God.
We also went over the milestones and goals that Karl & Shelly have set. They are some pretty big audacious goals and Karl knows that. But Karl commented that his desire is to always be on God’s time line and that God’s time line will be honored above all else. Karl believes that if he had to move to get on God’s time line - he would just rather that God have to grab him by the collar and slow him down then for God to have to stand behind Karl pushing to get him to speed up. I liked that!
The next meeting of the launch team will be on Monday, September 13 at 7:00. You are invited
to attend and be part of this exciting adventure. The next meeting will be held at Biana Grogg’s home which is over by Fresno First Baptist Church. Her address is 1126 E. Garland. Garland is the street that runs on the back of Fort Miller Middle School. Garland is south of Dakota and east of Blackstone - and is accessible from Blackstone. If you are even the littlest bit interested in how a new church is started - please come to this meeting!