Church Plant in Annapolis

Two years ago God started an exciting process with our family that has led to a decision we made 5 months ago. God is directing us to become church planters in Annapolis area starting in January 2015. This church plant will become Elevate Church in the Eastport area of Annapolis, Maryland.

Why Annapolis?

Annapolis is the state capital of Maryland. While the population for Annapolis is only about 38,000 people, the surrounding area is closer to 75,000. Annapolis is also the county seat of Arundel County, which is one of the 146 largest counties in the country. These 146 counties comprise 50% of the entire population on the United States.

In an area of around 75,000 people around Annapolis, there are 50,000 unchurched people with very few evangelical churches. Many of these unchurched people have had no prior church experience. It is fair to say that the harvest is plentiful in Annapolis.

Vision

The vision that God has given to us for Elevate Church is that it will exist to elevate the name of Jesus Christ in the community of Annapolis, equip believers for service, and engage the community through service projects and the message of the transforming power of Jesus Christ.

Timeline

In January we will begin the process of moving our family from Bel Air, Maryland, to Annapolis. The cost to live in Annapolis is substantially higher than Bel Air, so finding a place to rent that if affordable will be one of our first challenges. Pray that we find the exact neighborhood that we need to be in to start building relationships with people who need Jesus.

During the first few months we will begin building some home bible study small groups or perhaps some bible study groups that meet in local businesses. These bible study groups will be the building blocks for our new church. We will actively start to disciple believers and help them catch the vision that God has given to us. These groups will also be the core for our service projects.

We will also need to find the place that God has prepared for us to meet for worship. We are looking for a location in the Eastport area, just south for downtown Annapolis. Once we can put together a group of leaders, we will begin training for some pre-launch worship services. The goal is to be prepared to start weekly worship services by October 2015.

Serve the City

One of the important ministries of Elevate Church will be our Serve the City projects. These missional projects will enable us to engage our community based on their needs so that we can build relationships, trust, and evangelical opportunities. While we have some ideas about what these will be, we are going to make the final determination based on the specific needs of the community where we plant.

Partners

Church plants require partners in order to successfully impact their community. When we start Elevate Church we will have 4 members, my family. We will be seeking people that we can invite into a relationship with Jesus by building a relationship with them. The 4 of us can make a dent into reaching the community of Annapolis, but with partners we can do so much more.

Partners join us with prayer support, financial support, and physical support. Our greatest need is always prayer. I know that God has provided some great prayer warriors who are willing to intercede with and for us every single day. And we will need lots of prayers during this journey.

We will also need people, churches, associations, and businesses, to join as financial partners. Elevate Church will begin with virtually no income. My families tithe will be the only income the church has until we start adding those we will reach in the community. Financial partners help by providing for the basic needs of reaching a community, including my salary, office supplies, equipment purchases, meeting location rent, bible study material, and more.

Another major partnership is through physical presence of Christians joining us in a missional work. There may just be people who God wants to join in this mission to help as team members on location for a year or 2 years. Perhaps mission teams could join us for a week to hold a sports camp or community bible club. And once we start worship services we will have a need for many additional leaders to help equip new Christians, lead out as we elevate Jesus, and to take out teams to engage the community.

If God is calling you to partner with us, please visit our website: www.elevateannapolis.com, click on the contact us link, and send me a message. Together we can reach Annapolis for Jesus.