Matt Fry is the man! Wednesday January 30 I sat in the huge dome on Liberty University campus to hear Pastor Matt Fry speak at the convocation to 10,000
Liberty U. students. He stirred the crowd with a message on vision and
living out your destiny in God.

Later that evening we attended Campus Church at Thomas Road Baptist Church.
Walking in to the auditorium it felt like a rock concert…really cool
stuff. Smoke filled the huge 5500 seat room with red, blue, yellow and green
strobe lights flashing everywhere. The worship set was wonderful and the
5000 students really entered in with many dancing raising their hands in
intense worship. I thought I was as Bethany World Prayer Center for a few
minutes! Great time.

Ed Stetzer did a great job teaching on the ministry of reconciliation out of
2Corinthians 5. Dozens of students responded to the call to be church
planters. It was a moving experience.

Thursday morning I had the opportunity to teach a class lead by Dr. Elmer
Towns on church planting. I was honored to get the opportunity to speak at
Liberty U. and share all that God is doing in ARC.

At lunch 16 leaders convened for a Church Planters Roundtable with many
great leaders from around the US. Jonathan Falwell, Senior Pastor at Thomas
Road Baptist Church led the meeting and shared his vision with us to plant
500 churches in 5 years in the USA. His passion for reaching the lost is
incredible. Each one in the room had an opportunity to share what they were
doing and give input into the direction of this initiative. ARC will have a
part.

It was decided that one of the means for planting 500 churches would be for
Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University to partner with existing
church planting organizations in the effort to do this. It was decided that
ARC would be a part of this and that students that identified with the ARC
style and model would be encouraged to plant with ARC. What an honor to be
able to partner with such a great church, university and a leader like
Jonathan Falwell.

At the end of the meeting Pastor Falwell prayed specifically for Charlene’s
healing and for peace and strength for us both during the challenging time
we are facing with Charlene’s battle with cancer. I was deeply moved by
this.

Please pray with us that God will give direction and wisdom to all involved
to be able to carry out this initiative.

It was an incredible two days in Lynchburg and I was humbled by the
reception and hospitality of the Liberty U. staff and leadership.

At C3 church in Cleveland, NC a few of us gathered with Rick White of the
Peoples Church in Frankin, TN, Greg Surratt of Seacoast, Matt Fry, Jonathan
Falwell of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA, and Frank Lacey of
Farmville, VA. Along with other members of the staff at Thomas Road Baptist
Church we had a roundtable discussion and fellowship. Jonathan has taken
over the pastorate of Thomas Road Baptist since his father, Jerry Falwell,
passed away last May.

To start the 2008 right I went to Massachusetts to visit David and Ginelle
Payne at LifeSong Church. What a wonderful time we had. There were nearly
300 people in the service on Sunday morning and the style and quality of
each component was life-giving and excellent. LifeSong is a great example of
an ARC church less than two years old.

We started on Saturday with leadership training and then a time of fellowship. That evening we went to a great Italian restaurant for dinner…Mama Mia was it good food!! Sunday was great. David and Ginelle are great hosts and are doing a great job in pastoring, leading, and administering a great church. Thanks to them both for a wonderful time in Mass.

Is it possible for ARC to plant 50 churches each year? I believe it is!
With 50 churches already planted in the first 7 years of our existence and
with the addition of over 50 other churches joining in to plant churches
around the USA it can be done.

Here it is: If half of the ARC member churches planted one church out of
their congregations each year we would plant 50 churches every 12 months. Of
course that number would increase as more churches join ARC and more are
planted. That would be each church planting one church every two
years….not impossible but it has to be a priority. As we grow it is easy
to see that 100 churches each year is a reachable goal within the next 5
years…and then who knows what will happen. It is incredible to think that
God would use us to do this….but it can be done.

ARC is set to plant 25-30 churches in 2008. With the new CPI, Church
Planters Internship, and an increased number of CPR’s and Assessments we
should at least break the 25 mark in 2008.

In 2007 we added to our staff John Bolin. John is a great asset to ARC and
along with our Chief of Operations, Michael Smith and the Home Office
President, Gayle Bennett we have the team in place to effectively handle the
increased load of 25-30 churches. You can help us reach these goals.

“What can I do?”

If at least one service per year was dedicated to the message of church
planting and your congregation was encouraged to pray about being involved
in church planting by either praying, supporting, or being sent out as a
church planter, we would explode in the number of plants each year.

Let’s work together to come up with a plan for getting more of the ARC
church members involved in planting churches around the USA. After all, they
have the ARC DNA and understand what a Life-giving Church looks like…they
have learned it from you…

Have a very Merry Christmas

Billy