We're Moving to Philadelphia

So, why Philadelphia – and why now?

I’ll start with a little history. We have always wanted to be careful to follow God’s leading and walk through the doors that He opens.

In August of 2002, God led us to University Baptist Church. We knew we were going to be living in Greenville for a year and we wanted to get away from Greenville for church. Bert Campbell had talked to me, back in February of that year, about coming down to UBC to help with the campus ministry. So that is what we came to do. We joined on September 1, 2002, attended the college and career Sunday School class, and thought that would be our area of service here.

Sometime that next month, Pastor Coleman asked if I would be willing to teach the Sr. High SS class. Since we came to serve wherever we could be used, we agreed – and loved every minute of it. By that summer we were putting about 20 hours a week into the youth ministry here. God called us away for nine months to lead Ministry Teams for Bob Jones University, and we returned in May of 2004, the same month Pastor Dave was moving here.

By that time, we knew that God was moving us, ultimately, toward urban church planting. In fact, I mentioned that to Pastor Dave in our very first conversation that May. So, in one sense at least, this has been a long time coming. God continued to open doors for service here at UBC. I was working with the teens on an intern/ part-time status in 2004 and part of 2005 and went full time on September 1, 2005. Another opportunity came last year to help with the music ministry here. When Pastor Dave asked me about that, I told him that I wanted to do whatever would best serve the church, not just what was part of my “job description.”

God began to narrow our vision toward urban church planting with our first mission trip, back in June of 2005. Pastor Dave really wanted us to take a survey trip up to Philly – and it was on that trip that God knit our hearts with Ian and others. From that point we began to talk in general terms about moving to Philadelphia to be a part of the ministry there.

When we went again this past summer, God confirmed that desire in our hearts even more, though all the conversations with Ian were still in very general terms.

On our trip to New England last fall, the first serious talks took place about actually coming up to be a part of Grace Bible Church, then to go out from there to plant a church in another part of the city. After that, Ian called looking for a specific time-frame commitment. In December, we agreed to come, pending the decision of the leadership of the church there. When Ian was here preaching at Hampton Park in February, that commitment was finalized as Ian presented a specific plan for our participation in the life of the church there.

Pastor Dave has been aware of what has been going on at every step of the way. I want to thank him publicly for how supportive he has been (like allowing for an extended trip last fall and sending me to Minneapolis to see two other ministries last month).

Grace Bible Church is a “church re-plant.” When Ian became the pastor about two years ago, there were 14 people in the church. Now there are about 90. At this point, the church cannot take us on financially, so I will be pursuing full-time employment while we settle into the church and our role there. If the church continues to grow, I would move to full time staff at the church in about a year. Then, about two years after that, we would look to go out from Grace Bible Church to plant a new church in another part of Philadelphia.

So we are planning, by God’s grace, to move to Philadelphia around September 1, 2007, to serve at Grace Bible Church while we build a team to go out from there to plant a new church in the city for God’s glory. Ultimately, we would love to see many churches planted in cities across America and the world. If God allows Urban Imperative to grow, we may be a part of that dream becoming reality, too.