Thank you for the ways you have prayed, supported, and jumped in to launch new churches in our region. Be encouraged by these updates from five of our Eastern PA Alliance church planters.
The Rock Church, Harrisburg
“The Rock Church is thriving. We are preparing for a new member's orientation with ten new members. Also, we baptized five souls in December, and three were young men in their twenties.
In September, we started The Rock City Learning Center with nine students. To date, we have 24 students enrolled. When the students started, all but one was failing most of their classes. For the students who attend five days a week, the average grade is now 73%. We are expecting between 5-10 students to make the honor roll. Not only that, but we have also had several students attend Bible Study on Wednesday and church on Sunday.”
– Josh Robertson
Common Place Avenue, Lockhaven
“Over the last four months at Common Place Avenue, we have had a front-row seat to seeing God at work in the lives of our church plant team, and the community around us that we are striving to reach. We have grown closer as a team and welcomed many new visitors, including the disillusioned and first-time churchgoers. As a result, we are developing many new relationships. Our team approach to ministry and especially our team preaching model has enabled us to begin to thrive in a way we didn’t expect.
Please pray for intentional and thorough follow-thru with our visitors and in new relationships. We would also appreciate prayer for the launch and buy-in of our missional families model of discipleship beginning at the end of February and especially for the message of Jesus to reach people who have not heard.”
– Chad Long
Citylight Delco, Philadelphia/Upper Darby
“God has been blessing us at Citylight Delco. After seeing some of our lowest attendance numbers in the height of the pandemic, we ended 2021 with our highest attendance averages since our launch. These numbers all represent souls hearing the good news of Jesus each Sunday. One of those people, a friend of mine named Timothy, started coming a few months back after the Lord worked in his life to save him through the conversion and testimony of his adult son. Timothy is now a thriving part of our church, meets with me weekly to read God's Word together, and is looking to join our church. We are praying for more Timothy's in 2022!”
– Andy Resh
Steamtown Church Español, Scranton
“Since its start two years ago, we will soon have our first graduation from our Spanish Bible Institute with the object of preparing trained workers for the Kingdom.
The church started prayer meetings every Thursday from 7-8 PM, where we have had a beautiful environment and God's presence. Recently, a man gave his life to Christ, and he has been alcohol-free for several months, and his marriage is being restored. He will be baptized soon and both have been faithful in attending services.
We have started a new sermons series this year based on the book of Daniel. In addition, we will have a series on Revelation and Acts during this year. It should be noted that both the Spanish and English services follow the same calendar.”
– Marcelo Castro
Missio Dei Alliance, Shamokin Dam
“As you know, Missio Dei Alliance launched on September 19, 2021. Since then, we have seen God working in some incredible ways. We have seen five people come to know Christ through our ministry, we have had the privilege of baptizing two of those new believers and have begun to see a large percentage of our new congregation answer the call into ministry (one has just been enrolled into ACLD)! We know that the best is yet to come; therefore, we would be honored if you would continue to pray Luke 10:2 with us!”
– C.A. Cranfill
March 20 is Church Planting Sunday for our Alliance family. It’s a time to stop and encourage our churches to pray for open doors in our regions, to give financially to nearby church plants, or to jump in and join a church planting team. You can find resources here or easily give online.