by Dan Lamb
What a thrilling week we experienced when the NCPO Church Planters’ Candidate School joined the pastors in the Ohio BBF State Meeting October 7-11. We shared candidate school speakers and classes with the Fellowship meeting and toured some area church plants during the week. The host church, Bible Baptist Church of Wilmington, OH, and Pastor Kelly McInerney did a wonderful job caring for the candidates and instructors.
We have nearly always had the schools in or near local churches, but this time we took the school attendees on a road trip and visited the campuses of three fairly new church plants. We had a tour of their facilities and visited with the church planters at these locations. The church planters on the tour were Ryan Bevan, Josh Bevan, Jeremy Griffith, Mike Purdin, Ben York, and Brent Cummingham — and their testimonies added great inspiration and vision of what God is doing in church planting. This was in addition to the subject matter we generally offer about a church planter’s spiritual life, preaching, administration, and leadership, and some introduction to the workings of the Baptist Bible Fellowship.
Here are a few of the comments that the candidates shared:
Patrick Shawhan – NCPO Candidate School was a tremendously enriching experience. My wife and I left Ohio inspired, excited, and more driven than ever to plant a church in metro St. Louis.
Reginald J. Williams – I recently graduated the Fall 2013 NCPO course hosted by Bible Baptist Church Wilmington, OH. I was told to expect some tips to help my church plant. To the credit of the men and women of the program, I was blown away with the wealth of knowledge and available resources to aid in the church planting process. I highly recommend this course to future church planters as the information is invaluable; it was a first-class experience well worth the time.
Anthony Smith – The NCPO equips and provides resources for a candidate to be successful!
Although the candidate school is filled with many different dimensions, we are not yet finished expanding the curriculum, and God is not done calling men to plant churches. We are already looking forward to the next school as details are being put together now.