“We are raising up a generation that is learning that it doesn’t matter whether you are part of a church that has beautiful arches or one that meets at the golden arches [of McDonald’s],” says Art Fulks, North American Mission Board church planter.
Volunteers paint a house in downtown Greenville.“What matters is that we surrender ourselves to being the followers of Christ and the churches that God has called us to be – not just in our buildings, but in our communities.”
Fulks, pastor of Connection Fellowship, a church plant in northern Anderson County, is talking about 167 teenagers and leaders who spent last week in the Upstate assisting nine NAMB church planters with their work.
The teenagers, representing nine churches from five Southern states, traveled to South Carolina as volunteers for PowerPlant, a NAMB-sponsored experience designed to help middle and high school students get a taste for church-planting and evangelism.
Volunteers renovate a storefront building for use by Capstone Church in Fountain Inn.Fulks said each student team was partnered with a different church planter for the week. The churches are at different developmental stages – from pre-launch to four years old. Also, one PowerPlant team worked with an established church whose neighborhood has changed significantly and is seeking to refocus its mission.
The teenagers performed a variety of tasks, from VBS and sports camps to painting houses, landscaping a school, passing out free water, washing windows for business owners, prayerwalking and surveying neighborhoods.
A team from Keystone Heights, Fla., helped a young single mother clean and paint her home. Team leader Jeff Lehman said the young woman’s mother asked the group why they had come. “Because God loves us, and we want to show you that love,” came the reply from one of Lehman’s team members.
The teams worked alongside church planters in Spartanburg, Simpsonville, Fountain Inn, Powdersville, Easley, Williamston, downtown Greenville and in east Greenville. Rocky Creek Baptist Church in Greenville hosted the teenagers and provided a place where they could worship and pray at the end of the day before sleeping on the floor.
The group gathers for a photo at Rocky Creek Baptist Church before departing to serve at church plants.Fulks said it is “truly amazing” that students would drive for up to 15 hours to sleep on the floor – at their own expense. “But the investment is worth it,” he said, noting that last year nine students committed themselves to vocational missions or ministry.
As the Courier went to press, the numbers were still out for the 2009 PowerPlant teenagers. But for Kermit Morris, NAMB missionary and church-planting specialist for the Upstate, it’s not about the numbers, anyway, but about responding to God’s call. “Our hope is that young people’s eyes will be opened to the possibility that God may be calling them to be church planters themselves,” he said. “If not, at least they’ll be strengthened to meet people and share their witness.”