Paul Robelen is our newest church planter. God has called him to plant a church in Providence, Rhode Island. Learn about his family and call New England in this interview.
Save New England: We’re here with Paul Robelen, the newest church planter for Save New England, heading to Providence, Rhode Island. Brother Robelen, can you tell us about your family?
Paul Robelen: Certainly! My name is Paul Robelen, my wife is Elizabeth, or Betsy, and our two daughters are Priscilla, who is five years old, and Abigail, who turns four in July. We are also eagerly expecting another child around the end of next January.
SNE: Can you tell us about when you got saved?
PR: I’d love to! I was born into a Christian family, the son of a Fundamental Baptist Pastor. You could say that I’ve been going to church since 9 months before I was born. After years of being taught the Bible, I realized at 5 years old that I was a sinner going to Hell and that no amount of good works or church attendance could change that. I then put my faith in Jesus.
Betsy was born into a staunchly Catholic family, but when she was 4, she realized that the statues she was taught to pray to had no power to save her, and she began asking God to show her the real way to Heaven. After she was repeatedly beaten up at the Catholic school, her parents placed her in a nearby Baptist school, and shortly before her 6th birthday, she heard and eagerly accepted the Gospel.
SNE: What led you to consider planting a church in Providence?
PR: It was actually Save New England’s website. I was praying and seeking God’s leading for where I would be most useful in ministry when I came across where the website lists cities in need of churches. When I saw Providence on the list, it caught my eye, and when I realized that a city of such size and historical importance was without a Fundamental Baptist Church, I couldn’t turn away.
SNE: What preparation do you have for the ministry you are called to?
PR: As a teenager, I attended a recently started church in central Virginia and was active in their ministry. I went to college first at Pensacola Christian College, then I transferred and graduated from Indiana Baptist College with a Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies in 2005. I spent 2 years as an assistant pastor in Paris, Illinois, then I spent 8 years helping my brother who was a pastor Burgaw, North Carolina. After ten years helping pastors, I spent two years as an evangelist. In 2017, God laid it on my heart to plant a church in my hometown of Farmville, Virginia.
From 2017 through 2022, we worked to plant Biblical Baptist Church. Although the church ultimately closed, God still worked through us in Farmville. Over 200 people made professions of faith, several people are still in other sound churches around Farmville who wouldn’t have been, and we learned several key lessons.
Betsy also brings valuable education and experience. She trained in missions at Ambassador Baptist College for 7 semesters before Lyme disease prevented her from graduating. Her training in matters of presentation and deputation are already proving invaluable to this current phase of ministry. In addition to some foreign missions work in Greece and Ireland, she has helped with planting two churches other than the one that we worked on together. Betsy and I actually connected through planting a church in Virginia. She learned through a mutual friend that I was working to plant a church in Farmville, Virginia, and she came down from New York to help with it. Although she was only intending to stay for a few weeks, God brought us together through working together with the church and she never moved back to New York, marrying me instead.
SNE: How would you describe your approach to the ministry?
PR: I strive to be intensely Biblical. This leads me to strong conservative tendencies; not because I am motivated by tradition, or because I blindly follow traditions of my predecessors but because I find much the same in the Bible that they found. I seek to be careful in separation, which leads to conservative principles in music, dress, etc., I am convinced of the reliability of the King James Bible as God’s Word for the English speaking world, and I strive to be zealous in reaching the lost with the Gospel in any way that does not contradict Scripture; door-knocking, tracts, bus ministry, et cetera. My focus is on fulfilling the entire Great Comission; leading souls to Christ, baptizing them into the fellowship of the Church, and teaching them what Jesus has commanded us. By God’s grace, I expect His help in doing just that in Providence.
SNE: We are thrilled to work with you and trust God to use you. May God give us a new fundamental Baptist church in Providence!