We plan to launch the Queen City Baptist Church in October of 2021. Our deputation window is short, and we humbly, yet urgently ask churches and any preacher to partner with us.
“Whenever God shows you where He wants you to plant a church, go on deputation. Share your burden with churches. But you probably won’t be presenting your ministry in Vermont very much. There are very, very few good churches in the entire state.”
These words would stick with me.
Long before I heard them, the Lord slowly began to burden my heart for the people of New England. In a chapel message during my freshman year of Bible college, Pastor Tom Bish challenged the young men in the room to pray about starting a church in the Northeast.
I didn’t make any decision that day, but God started working on my heart. Time passed. I graduated from college, worked in a ministry in my home state of Michigan, and married my precious wife, Jennifer. Over the years, the fire that God kindled inside me during that chapel message became a flame. Through a series of verses, sermons, and events, God confirmed that we were supposed to start a church somewhere in the Northeast. In 2017, God directed us to accept positions working for Pastor Bish at Heritage Baptist Church in Wallingford, CT while He continued to make His will clear and show us exactly where to go.
In the fall of 2018, Ian Brown and I took a drive around Boston, thinking God might be calling my wife and me to start a church there.
That is when Bro. Brown said that there “are very, very few good churches in the entire state” of Vermont. I started praying about Vermont and learning about the state and people.
When most people think of Vermont, they picture snowy ski resorts or gorgeous farms nestled in lush maple forests; but it is also the home of Bernie Sanders and godless secularism.
Vermont is consistently found to be the single most liberal and least- churched state in the entire nation, with only 17% (Gallup) claiming to attend church regularly. In stately church buildings that dot the Vermont countryside, dead religion is preached to mostly empty pews. It is a tragedy that with so few Bible-preaching churches, very few Vermonters have ever truly heard of the hope of the Gospel.
Burlington, the “Queen City,” is the cultural and financial center of the Green Mountain State.
One-third of the state’s population lives in the greater Burlington region.
It is also a college town. The city is home to great wealth but also to great poverty – there are drug and homelessness crises in the city. Burlington is broken. The people of this city need to know the love of Jesus, and God has called our family to share Him with these precious people.
Lord willing, we will launch the Queen City Baptist Church in October of 2021! From now until the end of May,
we are going on part-time deputation while we finish our responsibilities at Heritage. We are starting full-time deputation in June.
Our deputation window is short, and we humbly, yet urgently ask churches and pastors to partner with us in any way that they can. We covet your prayers and ask that you consider joining with us to see this needy city won for Christ!