Nathan Miller

A few weeks ago my friend Aaron Coalson asked me to write a post on Church Planting for his blog. Aaron has become a great friend. God has been and will continue to use him for great things in this life! The following post is part one of his request. I hope you enjoy! Check out Aaron’s blog when you get a chance!

Church Planting is my passion! Next year, Lord willing, my family and I will relocate to Raleigh, NC, to plant a church. We are excited about this new endeavor and cannot wait to see how God will work in our lives.

Why plant a church? Tim Keller, pastor/planter of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, states it best,

“The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for 1) the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city, and 2) the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city. Nothing else–not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, nor church renewal processes–will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting.” (Source)

C. Peter Wagner in his book, Church Planting for a Greater Harvest, says, “The most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches.” If we are going to reach America with the Gospel of Christ, it must involve church planting. The church is the mechanism God has chosen to carry out this task. Church planting is rooted in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20) and its extent is given in Acts 1:8. The early church accomplished the Great Commission through church planting. It is the most effective means of baptizing and discipling new believers. That was true in the first century and remains true to this day.

On my personal journey, while in seminary at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, I read a book entitled The Church of Irresistible Influence. The author, Robert Lewis, posed the question, “If your church were to close it’s doors tomorrow, would your community even notice you left?” Unfortunately, I believe many of our churches in America have become so inward focused that they have neglected their communities. They say they are interested in the lost, but they are not intentional about engaging them. Ron Sylvia, in his book Starting New Churches on Purpose, says, “Today’s churches must move outside the walls of the building and invade the community.” Unlike the Field of Dreams, we cannot have a “if we build it, they will come” mentality. We must take the church to the lost! Church planting is a great way to be intentional about engaging communities. It is my desire to plant a church that actively engages its community. Remember the statement, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

I challenge you to read through the book of Acts thinking specifically in the context of church planting. In doing so, you will see the book in a whole new light. It is the history of the church’s expansion, and it is the history of a church planting movement. I believe with all my heart that we can see a church planting movement in North America. If more churches catch the vision, and more Christians get on their knees praying for a movement of God, we can, in this generation, see the Gospel sweep through the United States and the world! My prayer is that God would use me in some small way in that movement.

The title says it all…this is a much needed update to my blog.  So much has transpired since my last post. Since the last post, my little girl has continued to grow so fast. It’s unbelievable how fast your children grow! Hannah is now 5 months old. Her personality shows up more and more every day, and she is such a joy to be around. Josh will be turning 2 on December 12th. I simply cannot believe it. It seems like just yesterday I was holding that little infant in my arms. On December 5th, Jenny and I will have been married for 5 1/2 years. I can truly say these have been the best 5 1/2 years of my life. I am so blessed to have a wonderful wife like Jenny. I would not be the man I am today without her!

I’ve also been to Israel and back since the last post. What a wonderful opportunity to see the Holy Land! Maybe I can post something on it later, but all I can say is that it was the trip of a lifetime. I’ll never read my Bible the same again. When you get over there and see where all the stories took place it brings everything to life. One lesson that stands out is how practical Jesus was in his teaching. If you read the Biblical passage standing where He would have delivered the message, you see how He used the world around Him as the illustrations for His teaching. It’s a great lesson for all teachers of the Bible to apply.

We’ve also moved closer to our goal of church planting. As many of you know, we are planning on starting a church in the Raleigh, NC area. Currently I am looking more specifically at a suburb outside of Raleigh called Knightdale. With the completion of a new section of the I-540 bypass around Raleigh, this sleepy little town has been the location of a massive influx of people. In fact, the Raleigh area as a whole has exploded. There are 167,000 people projected to move into the area between 2008-2014. This massive growth, combined with a general lostness makes Raleigh a prime spot for a church plant. Knightdale itself has grown 69.9% since 1990. It has attracted my attention not just because of the growth, but because no other church planters have been going there. In other news, about a month ago Jenny and I had our church planting assessment. This was a huge step to go through. With the completion of the assessment, we have the green light to continue through the planting process. As more developments arise, I’ll keep you posted, but continue to keep us in your prayers as we seek the Lord’s will for future ministry.

Lastly, I want to invite all of you to be a part of our prayer network. I know many of my readers are already on my e-mail list, but we need more. Prayer is the fuel for the journey! Without prayer we could do nothing! I will be sending out prayer updates about every other week unless an urgent need arises. I would like to ask all of you to pray for us at least once a week. If you would like to get our prayer e-mail click here to send me a message. You can also follow me on facebook or twitter. I update both of these daily, and you’ll be able to stay up to date with me there.

I just wanted to give you all a brief update about our church planting meetings last week. Our meeting in North Carolina went great, and at this point it looks like we are going to pursue church planting opportunities there. Thank you all for your prayers! God has brought us on quite the journey. He has been good and faithful to lead us where He desires us to be. The process has not always been the easiest, but He has taught us His faithfulness.

Please continue to lift us up in prayer as we now turn our attention to the city God would have us plant. My desire is to find where God is working and join Him in that work. I believe we are at the beginning of a movement of God across our country. It is time and it is needed. Let us join together in prayer for God to pour out His Spirit upon us!

I want to make an appeal this morning for your prayers. After work today, Jenny and I are heading to Virginia to spend the night at my parent’s house. Then tomorrow we will drive to Greensboro, NC to talk to a church planting strategist about church planting opportunities in North Carolina. If you have been following me for some time, then North Carolina might come as a surprise. Jenny and I have been praying about planting a church in the west for  a few years now, but God keeps closing the door. I’ll explain the whole story on another day.

Please pray for us that we will have wisdom from heaven as to where to plant a church. It is my fervent desire to serve the Lord with my life, and I want so desperately to go where He would desire me to. I’ll post an update about our meeting later, but please remember to keep us in your prayers. Our meeting is at 11:45 tomorrow. Thank you!

Ask many of you know, Jenny and I just got back from a trip to San Diego. We went with the intention of looking at the city as a possible place to plant a church. Although San Diego needs churches, it is not the place for us. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but God didn’t give us a peace about planting there.

Thank you all for your prayers! We are now back to the drawing board looking for our next step. The Lord has been leading us down an interesting journey, and we are looking forward to seeing where He will take us. Hopefully I can share some stories about our trip, but in the meantime, here are some photos. You can see them all and many more here.

As some of you might know, Church Planting has been a burning desire in our hearts the last few years. I won’t dump the whole story on you, but it all dates back to the Bonfire Conference held here at FBCW in October of 2006. At that conference I heard Vance Pitman speak about their church planting experience at Hope. During his session, he whet my appetite for Church Planting in the West. Yes, there is a need for churches in the East, but in the West there is an unbelievable need. The demographics show a much higher percentage of unchurched people in the West – in many places as high as 95%.

I say all of this to update you on our current endeavor. Since being at Woodstock, we have been looking at San Diego as a possible place to plant a church. I’m asking that you all please pray for us as we will be traveling out there April 3-10. Yes, there is a great need for churches, but we desire to be where the Lord wants us. Pray that if it would be His will for us to be in San Diego that He would make it clear to us. Thank you all for your prayers as they are greatly needed. If you would like some more details about our trip or our desire to do church planting, send me an e-mail ( natekmiller@gmail.com ).