Breaking the culture barrier in church planting
By Kima Jude
Tyrone Barnette started Peace Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia, almost 15 years ago with a vision for beginning not only a single congregation but also a church that would plant other churches. “The Lord put in my heart when we first started the church that we would change the way African Americans do church,” Tyrone says. “There aren’t a lot of African-American churches that plant churches.”
His very first message outlined the shape of things to come: a church committed to discipleship, outreach, and church planting. Less than 15 years later, Peace Baptist has an average worship attendance of 1,750 and still dreams of things to come, particularly in the area of church planting.
Situated in the heart of Decatur, only seven miles outside of Atlanta, Peace Baptist takes its place in the urban inner city. They’ve developed several key ministries—in addition to church planting—to meet community needs.
The community has witnessed the transformation of those seeking help from Peace Baptist and views the church as a community resource. Tyrone’s philosophy is that the church should be a resource for every part of public life. “We want to have our finger on the pulse of the community.” An outreach-driven church, Peace Baptist operates some 47 ministries.
Peace Baptist is a growing presence in Decatur and recently purchased property about four miles away in an effort to accommodate its growing congregation. But the eventual move won’t take them out of the heart of the city: they’re leaving themselves behind. Instead of selling their current building, they intend to make it a church-planting center.
While the church’s worship center will move to the new property, the old building will house the church’s Urban Ministry Center. It will be used to maintain its transitional housing and other ministries as well as several churches simultaneously. As these missions grow and are able to move out on their own, the building will continue to be used for new missions.
Churches currently meeting at Peace Baptist include a Caribbean Pacific Indian church—the only congregation they know of in Georgia and possibly in the U.S. with a membership of that descent. As they learned the history of this people group, they discovered their common bond with African Americans. Descended from India, these people were enslaved and brought to the Caribbean, where the two cultures merged. In addition to giving them space to meet on Sundays, Peace Baptist provides financial support and contributes other resources.
A French-African congregation also worships in Peace Baptist’s fellowship hall on Sundays. This church normally conducts services in French, but if someone leaders don’t recognize walks in, they immediately switch to English to make sure there’s no language barrier. Peace Baptist also is in discussions with an Ethiopian church to see if it can be added to their storehouse.
Although Peace Baptist is planning to foster a church-planting hub, not all the churches it sponsors will be onsite. Peace Baptist already has a track record for sending pastors and people to plant churches in other places. One assistant pastor, Robert Miller, planted Trinity Baptist Church in Ellenwood, Georgia, sponsored through the local Baptist association. Peace financially supported the church for three years.
Brian Bullard is about to make the leap from assistant pastor to church planter. Community Fellowship Baptist Church will launch with Brian taking the lead. The church’s minister of worship, Vincent Watson, also will plant New Christian Center in Loganville, Georgia. Sending these men is part of Peace’s plan to plant churches with DNA for planting more churches. “We’ve got to have that in other areas of our city,” says Tyrone.
Tyrone, president of the African-American Fellowship of the Georgia Baptist Convention, has high hopes that he’ll get all 127 of those churches involved in church planting. “We’re trying to build a group of African-American churches that will begin to plant and make a Kingdom impact in a big way.” The result will be a Church Planting Institute at Peace under the umbrella of the Urban Ministry Center. The way Tyrone sees it, church planting must be tied to meeting needs for community development.
“I don’t want to just have a church that meets and kum-bah-yahs,” he says. “We have to be missional.”
Knowing they are located in an area where more than 120 languages are spoken within a three-mile radius, keeps church planting central to the church’s mission. “We can’t do it all,” says Tyrone, acknowledging the church’s limitations. “We’re still not able to reach everybody.” Instead, he believes the way to cross cultures is not through Peace Baptist, but through the churches Peace plants.
Kima Jude is a writer living in Beavercreek, Ohio. This article is adapted from Pursuing the Mission of God in Church Planting available at no charge at http://www.churchplantingvillage.net/resourcerequest.