This note from Tim & Jody Jackson—a couple of our overseas church planters—is an enormous encouragement:
J.D.,
We thought you would be happy to hear that the Lord is planting a new church in our little rural town of Tigoni, Kenya. Tim and I are providing some guidance, but it is truly the work of the Holy Spirit working through our Kenyan friends here. We had been meeting together once a month on Friday afternoons until the congregation was ready to launch a Sunday service.
Well, this Sunday was the official launch. The Kenyans (who are the key players) all feel very indebted to you and to the Summit, and want to model their teaching after the style of the Summit. They’ve put together a good worship team, and I think the teaching pastor is pretty remarkable. It was all so exciting.
~Tim & Jody
PS – Did you notice the name they chose for this new church? You can accuse them of unoriginality, but the elevation here is 7,000 feet, so it seemed to fit. In our opinion, you guys are the ones that need to justify a name like “the Summit” in Durham! 🙂
I hear from our overseas church planters regularly, and never tire of hearing stories like this. Tim and Jody were—and are—dear friends and leaders here at the Summit, so it was painful to send them out. But we’re committed to sending our very best, even when that means our friends. And I thank God for what he’s done through Tim and Jody in Kenya.
This marks the second church plant of ours that has taken the name “The Summit Church.” (The other is in Denver.) In both cases, the planters have keenly pointed out that their geography made “Summit” a fitting name. As Bryan Barley, pastor of the Summit in Denver, sarcastically told me, “J.D., we actually have mountains here.” Point taken.
Having church plants by the name “the Summit,” however, raises a distinction that needs to remain very clear—these are independent church plants, not new campuses. We use a multi-campus model here in Raleigh-Durham as a solution to overcrowding, an alternative to constructing a mammoth building. So when we recognize a large portion of people commuting from a certain area, we begin to think about a new campus there. But we will only plant campuses here in our local city, not around the country (or around the globe). Our campuses serve a purpose for this area, but we are still 100% committed to planting churches all around the world.
