The Lord has been faithful over the last few years to guide our church into health and growth. Today I’m excited to share a vision for multiplication and some exciting developments to that end.
One of our deepest desires at Rez is to plant new churches from new believers. We want our church to grow, but more importantly, we want the Church to grow. Meaning, it isn’t necessarily a win for God’s Kingdom if new churches are planted that attract bored or disgruntled members from other churches. Church planting, for us, looks like entering a community through acts of love and service, making disciples by embodying and sharing the good news of Jesus, and gathering these new disciples into new churches. As a church, we want to catalyze and support this sort of church planting throughout our city and our state. So we decided to get started in one of our favorite places: the West Side of Charleston.
Michael Farmer, a member of our ministry staff, is going to lead a team in the planting of Risen City Church. We have already entered the community through the Risen City Center – a space where we partner with the community to bring needed resources to the neighborhood. Farmer will continue making community connections through work in the center and Undefeated Youth. Our hope is that Farmer and his team will lead an organic gospel movement on the West Side that sees many come to faith and impacts the community for generations. As you may know, Resurrection Church currently gathers for worship in the Risen City Center. Which begs a question…
Where will Resurrection gather?
Our congregation voted unanimously to purchase the historic Capitol Theater at 123 Summers Street in downtown Charleston. Though that process will be finalized in the next week or so, we won’t begin holding Sunday services in the theater until September. This allows us time to make minor improvements to the theater and solidify our vision for multiplication. Our hope is that the Capitol Theater will be a center for gospel ministry throughout West Virginia. We’re humbled to own such a piece of our city’s history, and we sincerely hope to steward it well. Community members are still welcome to contact us about renting the space for shows, plays, and other events. West Virginia State University has taken excellent care of the space, and working with them through this transition has been a joy.
These are exciting days in the life of our church. If you’re not familiar with Resurrection, feel free to visit our website and learn more about our vision and mission. If you’re not involved in a local church already, we’d love for you to join us on this journey of seeing God bring life from death in our city, in our state, and among the nations.
