A Name at Last

People had spent the past few months calling the unnamed church “Joe’s New Church”. I cringed every time I heard that. I earnestly sought to find an appropriate name before it ended up as JNC. After months of searching, the name "The River" came to me. I immediately knew that we had a winner. Rivers are seen as life-giving and positive. While Culpeper does not have rivers, its county borders are defined by the Rappahannock and the Rapidan Rivers.

Leaders in Waiting

After I shared about starting a new church, I was told about a potential worship leader by his parents. I had heard a few good things about Aubrey, so we had lunch at the Thai restaurant in town. It was a great conversation, and we started to meet more frequently. I soon discovered that he was a passionate and gifted musician, and that he had a heart for God and others. He joined up with Henry and I as we looked to expand our start-up team.

Telling My Church

After sharing my new calling with my pastor, Ted Fuson gave overwhelming support. From that point, I shared this call with the youth and the deacons, and received support from them as well. Culpeper Baptist Church ended up being the parent church for this new congregation.

A Target Group

The burning question I had was "What group can we reach that are not being reached by other congregations?" I felt God speaking to me about everyday young people in this town; waitresses, clerks, teachers, mechanics. This new, as of yet unnamed, church would reach out to them.

Start Your Engines!

As the holiday season approached, Kathy and I were both reading the book of Acts. As we read about the first church, we felt a definitive call towards starting a church. I felt like Moses at the burning bush; scared stiff. Kathy, however, was confident that God would provide leadership to help me. So, I spoke with my friend Henry Hall about this call. I told him my biggest fear was my lack of administrative abilities. He offered his help and ended up (among many other things) forming the structure for the small group ministry of the church.

The Unconnected

We were surrounded by people who felt disconnected from God. Many wouldn't go to any church in the area. Maybe what we needed was a new church to help them through this process of getting connected. I felt a strong pull toward this. I also felt scared to death. So I finally spoke with my wife about this. Kathy was supportive. A few weeks later, my pastor gave a message entitled “A Branch is Rising”. He shared his thoughts on the need for Culpeper Baptist Church to start a new congregation in Culpeper. I couldn’t believe my ears. When God speaks, He speaks through a lot of people!

The Next Step

The first Tuesday of November, I was having lunch with an interdenominational group of Christian ministers. I happened to be sitting next to the Director of Missions for the Shiloh Baptist Association. Lanny Horton is a great guy with a heart that longs to see God's Kingdom grow. He was instrumental in bringing new churches to Culpeper. So I casually asked him when Shiloh was going to start a postmodern church.

Without skipping a beat he replied, "I don't know. When are YOU going to start it?"

I nervously laughed and shared some ideas for a new kind of church, but left it at that. Lanny wasn’t done. He called the next day and asked me again about starting a new church. He called a third time the following day with the same question! I had felt God calling me to be a creative messenger, but I didn't think of God calling me to plant a church. He would make that clear later on.