When the Lord Builds the House: Update from a Church Planter

[intro]Derrick Phillips is an alumni of the Riv Church Planting residency. A little over a year ago, he and his family left sunny Lansing to plant a church in St. Petersburg, Florida. Here’s how God has been working since then.[/intro]

In September of 2013 I was driving to a fundraising appointment in Durham, North Carolina and came to a stoplight at a “T” intersection where a church property sat directly in front of me. This church had a readerboard sign where the message would be changed on occasion and I remembered from living there a few years previous that they would put those quirky little religious sayings on it. The words on the sign as I sat at the light were not cliche this time, though. They were simply a short text from the 127th Psalm:

Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
– Ps. 127:1

That was the entire message on the sign. Half of a verse. An opening line from one of Solomon’s songs of ascent.

As signs go it wasn’t particularly flashy—in fact it probably could have used a little power washing—but as messages go there was straightforwardness and clarity. Those thirteen words have been a steady reminder to me that this church planting work we’re engaged in is the Lord’s work. Not in the way that people look at ministry as “the Lord’s work” compared to other vocations that are just “secular work,” but in a way that quite literally requires the active involvement of God to make any lasting impact take place. I’m thankful for the reminder of scripture that refreshes my mind again and again to keep me thinking clearly about what’s really going on here in St. Petersburg, Florida.

We’ve seen, in the 16 months that we’ve been here, real evidence of God’s grace at work to build his church. When we first moved here we knew almost no one at all. Over this short period of time we have made meaningful and important connections with Christians and non-Christians alike; business people, neighbors, newcomers and established residents.

One of these important connections was with a church planter named Emilio who had been laboring here for 2 years, first on campus at USF St. Petersburg and out into the city surrounding campus. Emilio was an Acts 29 network pastor with an overseas missionary desire that was on pause as he worked in St. Pete to establish and shepherd a new church. One day at a Starbucks near campus, Emilio paused in the midst of our conversation. I asked him, “What’s on your mind, man?” After a few more seconds he asked, “What would you think about merging together?” That question began a 5 month process of meeting, praying, asking more questions and eventually deciding to combine our efforts in church planting.

This “merging” has now happened fully and we are walking through a transition process that will eventually lead to us sending Emilio out from here to be a missionary to the “end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) while I remain to lead and shepherd the church. In this process our individual work in the gospel has come together to reflect the truth that the Lord is building the house. Neither of us ever planned something like this when we came to St. Petersburg independently of one another, but God’s blueprint for his church in this city included the coming together of multiple paths to bring about his desired end of reaching more and more people with the gospel through the ministry of the local church. You may or may not have already heard about some of this if you receive our updates or look at my website on occasion but I share it again for more to know and for more praise to go toward God who is beautifully working out his plan for our lives and for the people of this city.

As we move forward from this point, we are working to firmly establish a gospel-centered culture in the church where we are continually pointed to the good news of Christ’s work on our behalf. We want to work hard to make disciples, develop leaders, and eventually plant more churches. This begins in our city groups throughout St. Pete, in our pursuit of making disciples, and in publicly preaching the word of God week in and week out as we gather. We are seeing a growth in momentum and the word is spreading as more people come to know Jesus and others grow in their desire to reach out to neighbors, classmates, family members and coworkers.

St. Petersburg is a city on the move with new signs of growth everywhere as people relocate here for a myriad of reasons. City-wide efforts are emerging to establish a new identity and direction for this once-sleepy retirement haven by the Bay. It’s our great hope that Jesus becomes a hard-to-ignore part of the rebirth of this place and that his heart for the lost translates into many of his lost sons and daughters being saved, restored and sent back out on mission into the city of St. Pete.

The next few months are going to be extremely important in the life of this young church. We’ll need to find a new space to meet, hoping for a more permanent solution to our needs in this area. We’ll also be working through a progressive change in leadership that will certainly bring a lot of change in and of itself. In addition to this we are at a dividing line, so to say, in the size of the church, with our current average attendance sitting at around 55 people. We’re working through changes in how we organize ourselves so we can be better suited to care for and lead those who call Aletheia St. Pete home and be prepared to welcome those coming our way.

We’d love to welcome you in praying for God to save sinners and reconcile people to himself here in St. Pete. Please join us in praying for Jesus to be made famous in our city as it grows and finds its voice in a rapidly changing environment. We can see evidence that Jesus is building his church, he’s been bringing Christians together to be on mission here just as others are being drawn to the area for their own reasons. We want to preach the gospel in word and deed to these new denizens and the hundreds of thousands of existing ‘Burgers as well but we can’t do that faithfully without his help.

If you’re interested in following along to be informed of our needs for prayer or to give or just have an eye on a church plant that Riverview has served in many ways, please check things out at my website, www.derrick-dp.com, at the church’s site, www.aletheiastpete.com or either on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Thanks for reading, Rivites! Enjoy your spring and may the God of peace equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Heb. 13:20-21)

Image credit: Jamie Beverly