Church Plant

What does it take to grow a healthy tomato plant from seed? Soil, water, light, heat, and careful tending over weeks and months.

A greenhouse is the ideal place to grow a seed into a plant that will continue to grow and thrive outdoors, bearing much fruit. In the same way, a sending church like St. John’s is an ideal community to grow a church plant seedling into a new congregation ready to thrive and grow.

This past year, St. John’s has acted as the greenhouse for King’s Cross Church as we’ve gathered and grown a team of 45 children, youth, and adults so far under the leadership of Jeremy Graham and Joel Strecker. As we look back, we give thanks for the Lord’s kindness to us in gathering an enthusiastic, missionally minded, loving community willing to take a risk and join us in this adventure.

In the spring and summer our team met regularly for training, discussion and prayer on topics ranging from: what is the church to what is the gospel? We discovered new ways to think about evangelism and outreach and mapped our neighbourhoods to discover who our neighbours are and how God is already at work in their midst. And always there was food. Hospitality is right at the centre of our life together.

In the fall, we multiplied into three neighbourhood-based community groups meeting weekly for meals, laughter, celebrating milestones, Bible study and prayer. Indeed, the Holy Spirit has us growing deeper and wider even as he prepares us to be sent out in the coming months. Additional monthly gatherings at a rented community centre space allowed us to cultivate an invitational culture, inviting newcomers to hear our vision for King’s Cross alongside activities like pumpkin carving, cookie decorating and delicious potluck suppers.

We continue to wait on the Lord to provide a Sunday worship space for us. To date, we’ve explored over 120 potential sites and are now in the final stages of choosing a location that will best fulfill our mission, vision, and values. By the time you read this, it’s very possible that our Sunday service location will have been announced! Most importantly, God has used this season of waiting and trusting as his gracious means of growing our dependence on him for all things through prayer. Prayer is the heartbeat of church planting!

As we look forward to our spring launch, we are grateful to God for St. John’s role as a sending church. Sending means sacrifice. Sending is risky. Yet we worship and serve a God who sends – and who doesn’t send us alone. We’re reminded of the picture in Revelation 1:12-20 of Jesus Christ in the midst of his Church, ruling, guiding, and protecting. Truly, he is the gardener who will transplant our seedling out of the greenhouse and into our new home!

As a sending church, how can you support King’s Cross?

Pray with us – receive our monthly prayer email by emailing joel@sjvan.org.

Join our launch team – reach out to jeremy@sjvan.org to find out more about the mission and vision of King’s Cross and to visit our community.

Give to King’s Cross – tax-deductible donations to the church plant are now possible through St. John’s at stjohnsvancouver.org/give.

Rev. Jeremy Graham