Church planting is in our DNA here at Grace.
We started as a church plant.
We have planted three churches in our area (Grace Community Fellowship in Hillsboro, Grace Crossing in Moundridge, and New Anthem Community Church in Park City) and one outside Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
And now, we are partnering with Synergy Kansas (the combined church planting effort between the four FEC churches here in our area) to support Caleb Barrows and Paul & Ashley Brandes as they plant a new church in Lyons, KS.
In case you missed that announcement last Sunday, you get get to know Caleb & Paul and their vision for planting a church in this video:
Because Addie and I had the opportunity to serve on the Target Analysis Process (TAP) Team, I want to pull the curtain back and give you an inside look at how—and why—the TAP team sensed that God was leading us to plant a church in Lyons.
If you have the time, this video is an awesome opportunity to hear about the process and our takeaways directly from each member of the TAP team. It was an amazingly encouraging night as God’s guidance on the whole process was affirmed:
In the meantime, let me outline the highlights for you here:
The Target analysis process
The Target Analysis Process consists of four phases: consideration, research, exploration, and confirmation.
Consideration
During the consideration phase, the simple goal is to construct a list of potential target communities. At our consideration meeting, everyone on the team brought a handful of potential communities that intrigued them and we compared notes. (Our only criteria was being within a 2-hour drive of Sterling, where Paul—one of the church planters—and his family live.)
How we saw God working through the Consideration phase: There were 16 different communities proposed, but six of them were on nearly every list: Great Bend, Hutchinson, Lindsborg, Lyons, McPherson, and Sterling. It was easy, then, to sense God’s leading as we narrowed our focus down to these six.
Research
The goal of the research phase is to get to know each of the target communities. Each community was assigned to a member of the team and we took our community and did some detailed research: what does the community look like geographically? demographically? culturally? spiritually?
Each team member presented their research and then we prayerfully evaluated the six communities through four lenses: proximity (how feasible is it for Paul & Ashley to drive from Sterling where they own a home?), compatibility (would the community be a good fit for the church planters?), saturation (are there already new churches vying for the attention of people?), and receptivity (are people in the community open to the idea of a new church coming to town?).
Based on the research and these criteria, we narrowed our list to three: Lyons, McPherson, and Sterling.
How we saw God working through the Research phase: The biggest takeaway from the research phase was that in Rice County (where both Sterling and Lyons are), as many as 85–90% of people are not attending church anywhere. That makes Rice County—a rural county which seems pretty “Christian” at face value—one of the most unchurch counties in the whole state. God’s point was obvious: Rice County needs to hear the Gospel.
Exploration
The exploration phase is where the rubber meets the road. On consecutive Saturdays in November, we traveled to McPherson and then to Lyons & Sterling to pray for the community, to talk with people on the street, and to meet with strategic contacts in the community.
During our visit to McPherson we found out that people were open to the idea of a church plant because there are only a few good churches that people seem to cycle through. We also made a critical discovery that informed our decision: there are already two church plants in the process of launching in McPherson.
During our visit to Lyons we had an amazing opportunity to chat with people on the street as they waited for a parade to start. People in Lyons see a lot of church buildings, but they admitted that there are many people who do not go to church. We also got to meet with a couple local business owners who offered unique insights into the community’s needs as well as the efforts to bring revitalization to downtown and renewed pride in the community.
In Sterling, we were able to talk to a number of community members, college students, and a local business owner. While there are a handful of churches in this small town, they are all plateaued or declining and college students were not finding a good fit.
How we saw God working through the Exploration phrase: Most obviously, the two church plants happening already in McPherson could not have been a more clear “not right now” answer. As for Lyons and Sterling, the exploration visits only confirmed what we found in the research face: Rice County needs a gospel-preaching church. In some ways, even though we did not come away from exploring Lyons and Sterling with a clear answer right away, we felt free—no matter which we chose, it was going to be a good decision.
Confirmation
Then it all came down to the confirmation phase, in which we discerned where the Holy Spirit was directing.
In anticipation of our meeting, everyone spent time prayerfully evaluating the research and the visits, and then we fasted together leading up to our final meeting. At that meeting, we went around the circle and everyone shared their initial leaning. And that is where the cool part happened.
In the spirit of transparency, in some ways it felt like a foregone conclusion that the church plant was going to be in Sterling all along. That’s where Paul & Ashley live and where they already have history and an in with the community. It’s a college town, where we can tap into the passion of the college students to build a leadership people to develop more church planters. That’s the safe and comfortable option. But the Spirit doesn’t often lead the safe and comfortable way, does he?
How we saw God working through the Confirmation phase: As we went around the circle, everyone said “I’m leaning toward Lyons. But I came here thinking I was going to be the only one leaning toward Lyons.” But then every single person felt God’s leading toward Lyons. How much more clear could the confirmation have been? We had our answer: the Spirit was leading us to plant a church in Lyons, KS.
Why I’m excited about Lyons
Two things stood out to me from our time in Lyons: there is a lot of social need for the gospel, and the town seems to have some positive momentum building.
First, the social need: although people seemed to love their community, they were also surprisingly open about the community’s struggles with drugs and depression (several people mentioned a number of recent suicides that have rocked the community). Every time I heard that, all I could think about was how much this community could use the hope of the Gospel.
Second, the positive momentum: people are pouring a great deal of effort into reviving downtown and drawing more young families into the community. Additionally, there is a “kindness revolution” spreading throughout the town as local businesses partner together to spread kindness and pride throughout the community. Again, this feels like the perfect opportunity for a church to join in with what God is already doing and be part of the solution.
Ultimately, that’s what it comes down to: I am excited about the church plant in Lyons because I have already seen how God worked to lead us to that conclusion, and how he is already working in the community, preparing the ground for the work of a gospel-preaching church.
How you can be involved
If you are interested in hearing more or learning how you can be involved, email Caleb at caleb.barrows@gmail.com. And then make plans to attend an interest meeting on March 1 at noon in the Fireside Room.
In the meantime, please be praying for Caleb and for Paul, for the community of Lyons, and that God would be preparing the ground for many to bear the fruit of faith as a result of this church plant.
I love you, church!
Nathan Ehresman
PS, you can watch Caleb’s sermon from last Sunday in the video below, starting at around 34:00.