{"id":32196,"date":"2022-09-10T16:00:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/3-keys-to-ministry-outside-the-bible-belt\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:00:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:00:13","slug":"3-keys-to-ministry-outside-the-bible-belt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/3-keys-to-ministry-outside-the-bible-belt\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Keys to Ministry Outside the Bible Belt"},"content":{"rendered":"
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James Walsh photo – Unsplash<\/div>\n

By Maina Mwuara<\/em><\/p>\n

Born and raised in the heart of the Bible Belt, Vance Pitman never imagined he\u2019d be ministering in \u201cSin City,\u201d but that\u2019s exactly where God led him.<\/p>\n

A mission-minded pastor, Pitman had been doing ministry in the South. As he read Scripture one morning\u2014Luke 4, to be exact\u2014something stopped him dead in his tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw some stuff in Jesus that wasn’t in me in regards to the Kingdom and reaching the cities,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Two weeks later, he was approached about planting a church in the fastest growing city in North America at that time\u2014Las Vegas, Nevada.<\/p>\n

Pitman and his wife instantly knew this was where they\u2019d been called.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe’d never been west of the Mississippi River,\u201d says Pitman. \u201cWe’d never visited the city of Las Vegas at that time. You couldn’t have picked a place that was further off my radar. Where I was born and raised in Alabama, people don’t go to Las Vegas. And if they did, they don’t tell anybody. But after I read Luke 4 that day, my wife and I surrendered to Jesus that we would do what He wanted us to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty years later, Hope Church in Las Vegas is still going strong.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Pitman has identified three characteristics needed to effectively minister in a relatively unchurched context.<\/p>\n

An understanding of the primary call (hint: It\u2019s not ministry)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cYour primary call isn\u2019t ministry\u2014it\u2019s our intimacy with Jesus,\u201d Pitman says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord has taught me that everything about the Christian life is about intimacy with Him. It\u2019s about being who we are in Christ and allowing Christ to be who He is in and through us.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Pitman, Jesus didn’t call them to plant a church. He called them to be with Him and He\u2019ll plant a church through them out of the overflow of intimacy with Him.<\/p>\n

A heart for the city<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cChurch planters need to think city<\/em>, not church<\/em>,\u201d says Pitman, when it comes to planting any church, Bible Belt or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut too many church planters think church<\/em> and not city<\/em>. What’s happening today in North American church planting is we’re not starting churches, we’re starting worship services<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He says church planting is much more than finding a storefront or school to rent for services, or sending out mailers inviting people to come to the church service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s not church planting,\u201d he says. \u201cThat’s inviting people to church who already have been exposed to the gospel to come to a new place\u2014to go<\/em> to church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pitman adds that when a congregation engages a diverse city with the gospel, the church becomes a reflection of the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny church that does not at a minimum reflect the diversity of its city has a missiological issue in how they’re engaging their city with the gospel,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you engage a city with the gospel the church will be a reflection of that city because the gospel doesn’t discriminate. The gospel reaches everybody in the same way. Multiethnic church is not a new way of doing church; it’s the New Testament Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we start worship services around our philosophies of ministry, we attract one homogenous demographic.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Testament missiology, Pitman emphasizes, starts with the city.<\/p>\n

A passion for multiplication <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Pitman says when a church effectively engages a city with the gospel other churches are born as a byproduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne church can’t reach the city by itself. I don’t care how fast it grows, church planters should think about how are they going to multiply and reach others.\u201d<\/p>\n

But ultimately, Pitman says, it\u2019s not about planting churches; it\u2019s about making disciples.<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus never said anywhere in the Bible to go plant a church,\u201d he says. \u201cHe said, \u2018Go make disciples of the nations.\u2019 And go make disciples of the cities. As a matter of fact, He said \u2026 \u2018I’ll build my church.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Maina Mwaura<\/h2>\n

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Maina is a freelance journalist and minister who lives in the Atlanta area with his wife, Tiffiney, and daughter Zyan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n