We’re planting a church!

I feel a little silly writing that sentence. You always hear preachers ask, “Who wrote Romans? The Apostle Paul or the Holy Spirit?” The question serves to point us to the reality that the works of God are always attributable to him alone, but also…he uses human agents in the work of ministry. So, what I really want to say is God is planting a church!

Over the past year, our family has been worshiping at Fortified Hills Baptist Church in Dallas, GA. It has been an incredible season of growth and ministry. We’ve been able to sit in the pew and experience the body of Christ not as a pastor and his family, but as parishioners. We’ve attended classes and worship. We’ve served on teams. We’ve grown under the exceptional preaching of Josh Price and Curt Mize. It has been a sweet time of refreshment to our family.

For work, Marie and I have been at Kidz2Leaders, a non-profit serving children of the incarcerated. Marie is the Family Support Manager, providing financial and spiritual support for the parents and guardians of the kids in our program. I am K2L’s Director of Expansion, establishing our ministry in Birmingham, AL. We absolutely love this ministry and will both continue working here even as we begin to establish the church.

THE PARISH CHURCH

We moved to Marietta in 2017 into a home built in 1989 with two former occupants. Both of those occupants were a pastor and his family. So our home has never had someone live there who wasn’t directly involved in shepherding the church. Given this little nugget of history, we affectionately named our house The Parish. It has always been a place for people to gather, break bread, laugh, cry, and grow.

As we began to dream of planting a church, one of the first names that came to mind was The Parish Church because we envisioned people gathering in our home for worship. However, as we began to flesh out the idea of planting a church in Marietta, of all places (the joke is that we found a corner without a church and we’re putting one there), it became obvious to us that our focus would be on the people that live next to us – our neighbors. What formed is a desire to focus on the neighborhoods directly around us. There are many Christians among us who go to many phenomenal churches. But there are even more who don’t! We want to help shoulder the work of reaching the lost by establishing a church that is focused on proclaiming the gospel and delighting in Jesus while we live together in communal faith. So, The Parish Church name made sense not just as a starting place, but as a missional directive. In fact, after planting one church, we’re praying that God would give us churches in neighborhoods all across Atlanta.

Marie and I were endorsed by the North American Mission Board Send Network as church planting missionaries in April 2025. Since then, we’ve been laying the groundwork to establish an organization. Today, we announced to the wide world that we are beginning. We are now praying for God to help us assemble a Planting Team. This team will be the core group of The Parish Church plant. We will meet together on Sunday evenings at The Parish for fellowship and building the culture, values, and distinctives of what The Parish Church will become. As we grow, we will determine a time to “launch” the church by beginning to meet for public worship on Sunday mornings.

We’ve scheduled a “kick-off” Word+Song event on January 11 for anyone who considers themselves friends of The Parish Church. This event gives everyone (both the Planting Team as well as friends of the work) the opportunity to join together in singing, listening to God’s Word, and praying for God to bless The Parish Church. If you’re reading this, you definitely qualify to be there. We would love nothing more than for you to join us!

What Now?

1. You know the drill. We need you to pray for us. I’ll be posting some specific prayer requests later. This is the most important thing you can do for us.
2. If you are curious about what it would be like to help establish a new church, I would love to talk to you about the opportunity to join our Planting Team. Doing work together with people you love and enjoy is always more fun.
3. Lastly, we need to begin building financial support. If God has blessed you with the means to help us through a financial gift, it will allow us to purchase needed resources and spend more time building the church. Pray about all that.

Marie and I are excited for this new season of life and ministry. God has given us a beautiful vision of communal living with the saints. We can’t wait to break bread together, grow together, love together, and enjoy Jesus together. God is building his kingdom – one neighbor at a time.