Ben Leatherberry – Clear Water Presbyterian Church

https://clearwaterpresec.com/

Jesus’ plan to reach the world is by building his church. He does this by saving sinners, making them sons and daughters of the living God, and also by joining them to the family of faith – the church (1 Tim 3:15). It is through the church, both collectively and dispersed, that the gospel goes out, and redeemed sinners come in. Jesus commissioned the disciples to go out into the harvest first in Matthew 10 and then again in the Great Commission (Mt 28:18-20). The pattern that emerges throughout Acts and the New Testament is that they preached the Gospel (1 Cor. 2:1-5, 15:1-8) and planted churches led by qualified local elders (Acts 14:23, 1 Tim 3:1-7, Titus 1:5), which fostered true fellowship and the observance of the ordinances/sacraments. This concrete pattern bore fruit across modern-day Turkey, Greece, Rome, onto the whole world (Col 1:6), and to our very day. To reach the lost in every nook and cranny of the world, we believe in following the historic model of the church set out in the New Testament. We want to plant churches that preach the Gospel, re-church straying sheep,  exercise leadership by those Christ has called/qualified, cultivate sincere fellowship, baptize disciples, and partake of the Lord’s Supper. This Spirit-driven, yet ordinary, work is how Jesus has built his church for the last 2,000 years.

A study conducted in 2019 on the Midwest (a 13-state region) showed that of the 72 million people there, nearly 61 million are either unchurched or de-churched (having left the church and its faith). The area of the US which likely sees Christian values and morality as most valuable wants nothing to do with Jesus or his body, the church. To engage this 61 million who are not walking back into the church, no matter how attractive it has sought to look, we must go out to minister to them where they live, work, and play, and we must plant Christ’s body among them. 

Eau Claire, WI, a key crossroads in western Wisconsin, is one of those places where the unchurched and de-churched numbers continue to grow. We praise God for the faithful churches there preaching the Gospel and we go to plant a church alongside them with the hopes of reclaiming the de-churched, bringing good news to the unchurched, shepherding unshepherded sheep, and seeing Christ build his church in Wisconsin, the Midwest, the US, and the world.