The inaugural worship service of Good Hope Presbyterian Church in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, won’t take place until mid-November, but like the arrival of any new life, preparations have been underway for quite some time. The church’s core group has been meeting for Bible studies, studying Ephesians, and they have shared many meals together. 

But the singing is something James Lima, Good Hope’s organizing pastor, is most excited about when worship services begin. Even when the group was still new and Bible study discussion was quieter, the group would sing the closing hymn with gusto. “We have a number of people that are used to singing parts from hymnals…all the full harmonies, and I love that,” Lima said. 

In November, the group will gather to worship in the event space of a local distillery. In the meantime, Lima has been wearing many hats. “I feel like I’m part graphic designer, part entrepreneur, part evangelist, part counselor…it’s a challenge and an opportunity that you are building things from the ground up,” Lima said. 

Lima is no stranger to the church planting experience, though this will be his first at the helm. His journey is one thread in the tapestry of disciple making and church planting that has been sweeping the state through the presbytery’s On Wisconsin network. 

Before On Wisconsin formed in 2016, there were eight PCA churches in the state. When Jacob’s Well launched in 2012, it was the state’s first PCA church plant in 30 years. Since then, Wisconsin Presbytery has 17 particularized churches, with four mission churches in process. That growth is reflected not just in the number of churches, but also in the growth of individual congregations, according to On Wisconsin Director Dan Breed. 

The math is counterintuitive, yet miraculous. “If you plant a church, you’ll actually grow faster, and we’ve seen that happen,” Breed said. “Even when we lose 60 people to go plant a church, God makes up those people and more. When you lose that money, God makes up the money. It’s just amazing to see God work. It’s almost like we can’t plant them fast enough.”

 On Wisconsin has implemented structure and systems for discipleship and partnership that encourage growth. Church planters are identified and deployed in one of three ways: 

Strategic: Ordained men, who have already been assessed by MNA can relocate to Wisconsin begin the work of church planting

Apprenticeship: Seminary graduates who are provisionally recommended by the MNA Assessment Center are coached and mentored while building up a core group in a nurturing church community.

Indigenous: a five-year program in partnership with Reformed Theological Seminary Orlando and Covenant Theological Seminary, which includes an internship at a church with the goal of planting a church in that region. This path provides an avenue to raise up church planters from within Wisconsin and help them earn the degree and get the experience necessary for church planting.

This third method is a bit countercultural in Wisconsin, according to Mark Kaiser, the chair of the Wisconsin Presbytery Missions Committee. In Wisconsin, young people frequently leave the state after graduation. 

“The demographics are working against us because we have an aging population,” Kaiser said. “We are not able to keep a lot of our young people in the state.” 

Church planters must also battle a cultural religiosity that stems from a works-based understanding of salvation. Kaiser said churches are filled on Christmas and Easter, but are poorly attended on the Sundays in between.

Home-Grown Ministry

Breed is one Wisconsin native who returned to plant a church in 2012 after two church plants in Colorado. As his vision grew for church planting within his home state, he saw the potential for greater partnership and connectivity between churches in the presbytery. 

“When presbyteries work together, when presbyteries are healthy, they create healthy pastors. They create healthy churches.” Breed said. “We need to realize the strength that a presbytery can have: to help equip guys, to help sustain them in ministry, to help encourage them in ministry.”

Connection and partnership are central to the Wisconsin church planting ecosystem mechanism, both in the partnership between churches and in the support systems provided to future church planters. 

During James Lima’s apprenticeship, he served as a pastoral intern and music director at Living Stone Church, an Oshkosh church plant, while he attended RTS Orlando’s hybrid seminary program. Through On Wisconsin, he was also placed in a cohort alongside other local seminary students who were training for pastoral ministry and church planting. 

“Even though we were distance students, it didn’t feel like we were disconnected from people,” Lima said. “It really provided that brotherhood that we needed to get through the distance education, because otherwise it could be tough going through a five-year program off on your own.”

In addition to seminary training and hands-on church experience, the cohort provided the men with coaching in areas like maintaining a healthy marriage in ministry, balancing a church budget, and running a session meeting. 

That cohort is just one of many that support pastors in various ministry stages. Lima is currently in another cohort for pastors with less than 5-10 years of ministry experience. 

Even as Good Hope Presbyterian begins, Lima is already looking ahead to the future, bringing on a pastoral intern of his own and laying the groundwork for a future church plant out of Good Hope. Good Hope’s sending church is small but mighty, sending out a team of around 30 from a congregation with weekly attendance of less than 100.

“One of the wonderful things about our presbytery coming together …to plant churches is that smaller churches, younger churches who may not have the resources to plant churches on their own are supported and enabled through the resources of the whole of the presbytery to plant churches,” Lima said. “That’s one of the benefits of the connectionalism of Presbyterianism put into practice for the mission of the church and the expansion of the kingdom of God.” 

Erin Jones is a contributing writer for byFaith.