fbpx
News Articles

‘Home-field advantage’ helps church planters


ST. LOUIS (BP) — When Steven Helfrich first sensed God leading him into church planting while still a student, he figured it would be in some far-off land where customs would be different and language would be a barrier. Since his wife Daria was born in Poland, the idea of church planting in Europe made a lot of sense.

For Matt Bartig, he served as a youth pastor in churches throughout the United States. He never dreamed he’d return to the St. Louis area, where he grew up, to start a church.

Yet God had other plans for both men.

Instead of sending them to be missionaries in a foreign land or distant city, He sent them close to the St. Louis area where both had strong ties.

Both have planted churches near the city, and their home-field advantage has given them unique opportunities to reach Midwestern communities in need of strong churches.

“I think the relationship aspects have been key,” Helfrich said. “Relationships take time. Being a hometown kid — I’ve been here my whole life — I have been blessed to build a lot of relationships. People know me. They know I care about them. I knew where people hung out, and I knew the sports they were into.”

St. Louis is a city in need of indigenous church planters who can reach the growing diversity of the metropolitan area. With only one Southern Baptist church for every 7,889 people in the surrounding area and only 17 percent of the population identifying themselves as evangelicals, St. Louis needs more churches. The metro area is one of 32 cities Southern Baptists and the North American Mission Board are focusing resources on through a church planting effort called Send North America.

The local team of pastors, association leaders and state convention representatives (both from Missouri and Illinois), designed the Send North America: St. Louis focus area with three circular target areas — an urban core inner ring, a suburban second ring and a more rural outer ring.

Helfrich is in that outer ring region of metro St. Louis, which reaches into western Illinois. He had been pastoring a church not far from where he grew up, in Otterville, Ill., when he began to recognize God calling him to plant a church.

“I sensed God telling me that this is an issue of obedience,” Helfrich said. “It’s not an issue of ‘if you are going to make it.’ If you don’t step out on faith and do this, this is disobedience. As soon as I made that step, the fear went away.”

Helfrich says God specifically called him to plant a church not far from where he grew up, in Alton, Ill., a small town less than 45 minutes from St. Louis. Today, the bi-vocational Helfrich teaches at the elementary school he attended as a boy, and lives in the same house where he grew up.

And with 190 in attendance at The Bridge most weeks, Helfrich is seeing success as a church planter.

Bartig’s story also started in the in the St. Louis area — where he and his wife Betsy grew up, left and later returned to in 2013 to plant a church. Bartig left the area after graduating from high school in Troy, Mo., a small town of around 10,000 people, located an hour’s drive northwest of the Gateway City.

In the past 20 years Bartig has served as a youth pastor in some of the largest Southern Baptist churches in the nation — including First Baptist Orlando and Prestonwood Baptist near Dallas.

Until God began to tell Bartig otherwise in late 2012, he didn’t have a desire to plant a church. As he began to explore the possibility, a friend at First Baptist Orlando connected him to Send North America: St. Louis city coordinator Noah Oldham. As the two talked, Oldham began to share some places in the St. Louis area in need of churches. To Bartig’s surprise, Oldham mentioned Troy.

In the fall of 2013, Bartig officially launched North Road Church in Moscow Mills, Mo., just a few miles away from Troy. Today, the church averages more than 260 people in attendance each weekend and added a second service the first week of February. Since the church’s launch last fall, North Road has baptized 16 people. Planting a church near where he grew up has aided in North Road’s early growth, Bartig said.

“I knew the demographic already,” he said. “I knew the culture. Nobody had to teach me what the people were like in Lincoln County. Nobody had to tell me what the per capita income was. No one had to tell me that hunting was big here. I grew up here.”

For more information on Send North America: St. Louis, visit http://www.namb.net/stlouis.
–30–
Tobin Perry writes for the North American Mission Board. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).

    About the Author

  • Tobin Perry