For any family to be strong it must value reuniting on a regular basis to reconnect and refresh one another. Every year Network church planters, their wives, and invited guests fly in from over 14 countries for the annual Church Planters Retreat at Spanish River Church in Boca Raton, FL. They come for worship, refreshment, fellowship, teaching, and more.

This event is open exclusively to Network Planters and invited guests. If you are not a Network planter and would like to attend, you may fill out the contact form at the bottom of this page, and a representative will contact you.

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Ron and Miriam with Joel and Michelle Miller

We arrived in Plano, Texas in time to have dinner with Joel and Michelle Miller. Joel serves as the senior pastor of The Summit Church in Allen, Texas. Joel planted this church just two years ago after planting a church in Mississippi. The Summit Church has had to move locations three times this year, and that has caused some struggles for the Church. Allen is located just north of Dallas, and the area has been greatly affected by the economy. Joel has lots of stories of folks coming to Christ through his ministry, and is starting to see some real leadership being developed in the Church.

Michelle is not only very busy with their four children, she also substitute teaches at a local Christian school. Joel and Michelle are excited to see what God is doing through The Summit Church and appreciate the support of Spanish River Church. Joel also appreciated the coaching he received from David Nicholas, and is committed to preaching the Gospel.

Please keep the Millers in your prayers as they deal with all the changes and challenges of this community.

After leaving Dallas, we are making a beeline to home, and will arrive in Boca Raton tomorrow. It has been a great trip, but we are ready to be home. We have travelled over 13,000 miles, seen 33 states and visited with 51 pastors. Most of the pastors have been supported financially by Spanish River Church. It has been amazing to see what this investment has returned. The vision that God gave David Nicholas and Ernie Tomforde has resulted in an unbelievable network of Churches that are preaching the Gospel and serving their communities. It is a great honor to serve at a Church that is so kingdom minded.

Miriam and I will arrive home four days before I leave for India to visit with our church planting partners in that country. Please keep us in your prayers as well, there is much to do.

Phillip and Angie Glassmeyer

We rolled into Las Vegas in time to have dinner with the Phillip and Angie Glassmeyer, Phillip serves as the senior pastor of City-Wide Redeemer Church. Phillip along with Eric Phillips came to Las Vegas in 2007 to plant City-Wide. The church currently meets in a local school and averages 130 on a Sunday morning.

November, 2009, saw the formation of CWR’s first missional community. These missional communities number between 20-40 people and exist to give localized expressions of the gospel among neighbors. They meet regularly to consider God’s word, pray, share a meal, and to serve the neighborhood. At present there are three of these MC’s meeting around the city. The vision is for many more neighborhood missional communities to form throughout the city for local transformation through word and deed ministry.

In February, 2011 They launched their second site, City-Wide Redeemer, Paradise. This congregation, centered just east of the UNLV campus, meets for worship Sunday afternoons. Keith Robinson has come on staff to oversee this second site. Please keep Phillip, Eric, Keith and their families in your prayers as they build a church in a very difficult and challenging city.

After leaving Las Vegas we continued east and took a quick detour to see the Grand Canyon. We arrived there right at sunset, and braved the sleet and cold weather to get some great photos.

We then headed out of the park but got delayed when we hit a deer crossing the road. The car had some minor damage, not sure about the deer, he trotted away.

Shaun Garman and Ron Tobias

Seed Church

This week we headed south to Ventura, California to meet with Shaun Garman. Shaun is starting a new church in Ventura County which is just north of Los Angeles. SRC partnered with Shaun to plant a church in Portland about six years ago, that church, Red Sea has now sent Shaun south to plant once again.

Shaun’s new church will be called Seed Church and they will begin Sunday gatherings this coming weekend in a local pub. They have already begun building a core community which includes 12 people who have moved into the Ventura area from Portland.

Shaun and his wife Daisy have seven children ranging in age from 5 to 21. This past summer they went on an 8 week road trip across the United States. Realizing how exhausting a road trip like that is I can’t imagine doing it with all those children, but Shaun said it was a great time for his family and a little break before settling down to another challenging role as a church planter.

After meeting with Shaun we headed across the desert to meet with some pastors in Las Vegas, and then we are heading home to Florida. Looking forward to being in our own bed soon.

How to pray

Please keep Shaun and his family in your prayers. Ventura is an upscale community which has very few churches and lots of challenges. They also have a large hispanic population and Shaun has a real desire to see these two distinct communities come together as a worship community.

We have spent a long weekend in San Francisco visiting with pastors, and also taking some time to visit with our son Calvin and our daughter-in-law Alexandra.

Fred Harrell and Mike Hayes

Grace Church of Marin

On Saturday morning, I had breakfast with Rod Miles the senior pastor at Grace Church of Marin. This church is six years old and is located in the upscale community on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge known as Marin County. An amazing 30% of the people that live here are self-employed and the average income is almost $100,000.00/yr. This makes the cost of living and raising a family here very expensive. The Miles are parents of three teenage boys and are very involved in the community.

Grace Church of Marin averages around 130 in attendance at their Sunday worship services. Rod shared some stories of some men in the community that have recently trusted Christ, and have gotten involved in the Church. Rod is very appreciative of the financial investment that Spanish River made to Grace Church, and also of the coaching he received from David Nicholas in the early days of his church. He hopes that Grace Church will be able in the near future to have the same kind of impact for other bay area church plants.

City Church of San Francisco

On Sunday morning we drove into downtown San Francisco to worship with City Church of San Francisco. City Church is led by church planter and Senior Pastor, Fred Harrell, and Mike Hayes who serves as the Executive Pastor. City Church began in February 1997 and has grown to a congregation of around 1600 attendees. They partner with ministries throughout the city and the region ranging from homeless shelters, to AIDS hospices, and women’s crisis centers.

Christ Church East Bay

City Church is also active in new church development globally, nationally, and locally. Spanish River has partnered City Church to plant several churches in the Bay area. One of those churches is Christ Church which hold services in Berkeley and Rockridge. On Sunday evening we attended the service in Rockridge. The senior pastor Bart Garrett was away on vacation, so the service was led by Jonathan St. Clair. Bart and Jonathan came to the East Bay Area in 2005 to start this ministry with the help of SRC. The church is growing and is actively engaged in serving their communities.

We visited with two partner churches in Oregon in the Portland area. The first was Imago Dei Community in downtown Portland, followed by Evergreen Presbyterian in Beverton, Oregon.

Eric and Tara Brown of Imago Dei Community

Keith, Nathan and Eric of Evergreen Presbyterian

Imago Dei Community Church

Miriam and I had dinner with Eric and Tara Brown. Eric is the director for Church planting for Imago Dei Community, a church Spanish River helped start in 2000-2001. Eric also served in this capacity for Spanish River almost 10 years ago. We had a great time reminiscing about past mission trips and other memories from when Eric and Tara lived in Boca Raton.

Imago Dei just celebrated their 11th year and average around 1900 per weekend at their 4 services. Their lead pastor and church planter Rick McKinley has done a great job leading this ministry.

Imago Dei is very involved in their city where they have several ministries that serve Portland. They also have been engaged in starting churches and have recently made the decision to form their own church planting network. Several other churches are partnering with them in this new venture.

Evergreen Presbyterian Church

Our next visit was with Nathan Lewis the senior pastor of Evergreen Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, Oregon. Nathan planted Evergreen almost 20 years ago with the support of Spanish River Church. Evergreen started their own Christian school several years ago that is doing very well. They also are planting another church that just started a few months ago called Ascension Presbyterian with church planter Eric Costa.

Nathan expressed great appreciation for SRC and David Nicholas for not only the financial investment, but also for the training and encouragement he received from David.

Ways to Pray

Please pray for Eric and Rick and their new initiative in planting churches in the northwest. Also, keep Eric and Tara in your prayers as they prepare for their oldest son, John to go off to college next year.

Dave, Vicki, Ron, Miriam and Jim and Kim Waddle

During our stay in Seattle, we stayed with my college roommate David Carlson and his wife Vicki in Bellevue Washington. It was great to renew this old relationship, and we enjoyed trying to remember the good old days at Geneva College.

Sunday morning we left Seattle and took the ferry to Bainbridge Island. Cross Sound Church is a PCA Church that SRC helped to plant several years ago. David Sellers is the second senior pastor to serve this congregation. Paul Schuler, the original church planter, and his family recently moved to Honolulu to take the senior pastors role at another SRC plant on the island.

David Sellers and Family

We were able to attend the worship services at Cross Sound at Bainbridge Island High School. It was a wonderful time of worship and we felt very welcomed and thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

We later went to the Sellers’ home for lunch, and were able to spend time with David, his wife Carrie, and their four active and wonderful children. David grew up in West Palm Beach and lived next door to Tommy Kiedis, Senior Pastor of Spanish River, as a child. Originally, David served Cross Sound as the assistant pastor before taking the senior pastors role this year.

Cross Sound’s staff is growing and so are their efforts to be engaged international ministry. Cross Sound just recently hired a Youth Pastor who shared some of his vision at the services we attended. They also are very involved in doing ministry in Mexico. Their strategy is to send construction teams and/or funds to Tijuana to build homes.

Cross Sound also supports Victor Cruz of Redeemer Church in Mexico. SRC has partnered with Victor on several projects over the years.

If you feel so led, please keep the Sellers and Cross Sound in your prayers as the minister on Bainbridge Island.

Mike Kelly, Ron, John Haralson, and Michael Subracko

On Saturday morning, Miriam and I met with three pastors that have some incredible ministry going on in Seattle.

Green Lake Presbyterian Church

Mike Kelly is the senior pastor of Green Lake Presbyterian Church, he also is directing a movement to plant more churches in the northwest. Mike and his team serve a multi-site ministry called CrossPoint Churches. Think of CrossPoint as a family of churches in missional partnership to cross barriers that divide the Seattle area–and the world–and more together than any single congregation could imagine.

Grace Seattle

John Haralson and Michael Subracko serve at Grace Seattle, which is a church that Spanish River was instrumental in helping to plant several years ago. John has done a wonderful job as the senior pastor. The church has gone through some difficult leadership challenges, and John has stepped in and has righted the ship and Grace Seattle is growing and serving the community in outstanding ways.  Michael who serves as the associate minister at Grace Seattle also served in the mission field alongside Tom Hudson in Portugal. Grace Seattle is also just recently planted a church in West Seattle. Andy Pelander is the church planter at All Souls Church.

Acts 29 Network

Scott Thomas of Acts 29

We later met with Scott Thomas, who is the President of Acts 29. Scott has led this ministry for several years which was founded by David Nicholas and Mark Driscoll. Acts 29 is a church planting ministry that has played a role in hundreds of church plants around the world. SRC has partnered with Acts 29 on several of these church plants. Scott just recently wrote a book called “Gospel Coach” and his is very busy teaching seminars around the country on this subject.

Please keep all these men in your prayers as they serve the Lord in Seattle.

It has been quite a summer for the Tobias family. Our daughter Hannah married Justin Mezzell in August, and last week we were able to attend our son Calvin’s marriage to Alexandra Werlinger (now Tobias). Calvin and Alexandra were married on Buttercup farm in Clayton, California, just east of San Francisco. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful ceremony. Our son Josh and daughter Hannah were able to fly to California and celebrate along with us in this joyous occasion. There were about 30 in attendance including SRC members, Pat and Jen Prater, who happened to be in the area for a business conference.

Click Photos to Enlarge

John Qualtrough, Ron, Calvin, Alexandra

Ron, Miriam, Calvin, Alexandra and Dawn Werlinger

After the wedding, we resumed our trip by flying back to Denver. We spent an evening with Andy and Tina Kasanicky. Andy was on staff at SRC several years ago. They now make their home in Fort Collins and love the area and their lives in Colorado.

After leaving Colorado, we headed north to Wyoming to visit the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. The scenery was spectacular and Miriam took lots of pictures.

Click Photos to Enlarge

Andy and Tina Kasanicky

Grand Tetons

Yellowstone Falls

The following is a brief interview with Adam Flynt on his recent launching of The Crossing Church in Jacksonville, Fl. Adam, his wife Kristen, and the rest of his team launched Crossing Church on September 18th, 2011.

Q: How did your launch service go?

A: It’s hard for me to say that we’ve launched. I’d rather say “launching.” As my father-in-law says, “rockets don’t launch all at once. Every launch is really a series of launches.” So we say we are “launching”. And God has been really gracious to us as we are launching.

On our first Sunday, we had over 150 total people in attendance. Our launch team consisted of about 40 adults.

Q: Did anyone make a profession of faith?

A: Though we did not have any come to Christ on our first Sunday, I have had a number of follow up conversations with individuals who are not followers of Jesus or who invited friends who are not followers of Jesus. They have all expressed a real joy about coming to church and wanting to know more and talk more about Jesus. We are praying hard as we share the bad news/ good news of the gospel with everyone

Q: In what way did God move that excited you the most?

A: I was most excited about how many people who don’t go to church and who are not followers of Jesus came on Sunday.

Our first Sunday was a great day because God gave us a great team of leaders. They really took on so much our first Sunday and really owned it. We also did as much as we could well in advance. This meant that everything we could do the week before, we did. That left a lot of margin to spend with people the week of the launch. I loved that I wasn’t holed up with printing, folding, putting ProPresenter together, etc.

Q: How did you budget in rest after?

A: Knowing this is Jesus’ church has helped tremendously to stay rested and avoid burning out over the idol of working too hard. We had family in town who came to our house on Sunday and cooked lunch for us. I also took the following Monday off to just rest and spend the day with my wife.

Keep Up with Adam:

Twitter: @adamflynt

We had a very busy day in Denver yesterday. It started with a breakfast meeting with Shane Sunn. Shane is planting a church named Saint Patrick Presbyterian Church in the heart of the city of Denver, the planned launch date will be in November. Shane also serves as the director of the Western Church Planting Network. WCPN exists to assist western presbyteries in the planting of new churches and the establishment of Reformed University Campus ministries throughout the region. Shane and his family have recently moved from Greely, Co. where he planted St. Patrick Church. Please keep Shane and his family in your prayer as he carries on this important and needed work. Church planting has been difficult for the PCA in the west. There is a huge need for more reformed churches that preach the Gospel in the Denver area.

For lunch I met with Steven Reese. Steve is the senior pastor of Redeemer PCA in Parker Colorado. Spanish River partnered to plant Redeemer several years ago, and Steve has faithfully served this church. Redeemer meets in a local theater and averages around 120 in attendance at the worship service. Steve talked about the influence that David Nicholas had in his ministry, and how appreciative he was of the investment that SRC made in him and his church. Parker is a growing community , but also has one of the highest numbers of bankruptcies in the country. Parker is a beautiful community with near perfect weather, and a great view of the Rocky Mountains.

Ron and Miriam with Duane and Holly Cory

Miriam and I connected with Duane and Holly Cory in the evening. Duane was serving as an intern, when Miriam and I first came to SRC. He later served on staff for several years before heading out to Littleton, where he and Holly planted Deer Creek Church 25 years ago.

It was wonderful spending the evening with Cory’s, sharing some fun memories of SRC and hearing about great ministry through Deer Creek Church. Duane shared some special memories of David Nicholas, and talked about how much he learned from David.

Deer Creek has a beautiful facility and averages around 350 in attendance. They have a large and active youth ministry. They also have several international partners and have had several teams serve in foreign countries for short term mission trips. The church is also engaged in helping plant a church in a community close by Littleton.

Please keep the Cory’s, their 4 grown children and three grandchildren in your prayers.

Driving through Iowa and Nebraska involves looking at a lot of corn. We were able to break that drive up by stopping in Omaha, and having lunch with Ethan Burmeister of Core Community Church.

Ethan planted this church about 10 years ago with the help of Spanish River Church. The church has seen steady growth and has an amazing ministry in Omaha. Ethan and his wife Erin have four children, and have reached that important moment in their lives when the oldest child can babysit.

Core Community has an average attendance of around 350 on Sunday morning, and the church is very involved in serving the community. Ethan also has a heart for planting churches, he spends time coaching new church planters.

Probably the most exciting news about Core Community is that they are merging with another church in Omaha called Coram Deo. This merger will be a huge benefit to both staff and members of the churches. Ethan and the senior leader of Corem Deo have had a great and long relationship. This merger will give both leaders the opportunity to use their gifts in a more effective way. The merger just officially happened this past weekend, and as in any marriage, many details will need to worked out. However, both chuches are excited about the future and the opportunity to work together.

Please keep the Burmeister’s in your prayers as this new chapter in their ministry begins. After lunch we hit the road and headed towards Denver, but only made it as far as North Platte. Nebraska. Which is famous for trains, they have over 10,000 railcars pass through this city daily.

Ron Tobias and Chris Hodge

Naperville Presbyterian was the second church that Spanish River planted, and the first outside the state of Florida. It is located just outside of Chicago.

Chris Hodge is the senior pastor of Naperville Presbyterian. Chris was formerly the pastor of Treasure Coast PCA in Stuart Florida, before he was called to serve here a few years ago. The church has a beautiful facility and has two services that meet Sunday morning. We attended the 8:30 am service and were surprised to see a great number of people attending such an early service.

Naperville has had a history of being a church planting church, and they are now refocusing their efforts to once again plant more churches in the midwest.

Riverwalk in Naperville

Miriam and I enjoyed spending the day in Naperville, Il. They have a beautiful downtown, and a great place to take a walk along the river. Fall is arriving here in the Chicago area. It was nice seeing the color of the leaves and feel the cool air.

Please keep Chris and Karen Hodge in your prayers as they lead this great church. Pray for them as they refocus on planting more churches.

After service, we hit the road and started for Des Moines and points west.

Gary and Kim Treichler and Miriam and Ron

This past Friday we spent the morning with Gary and Kim Treichler in Dublin, Ohio, which is near Columbus. Gary serves as an assistant pastor of Vista Community Church.  Vista is not an SRC church plant, but Gary served for 11 years as the Small groups and Executive Pastor at SRC. We were joined at breakfast by Mike and Tammy Smith, Mike is the senior pastor of Vista. They were gearing up for a big weekend, Vista opened up their second site on Sunday. The church has outgrown the school where they currently meet, and decided to hold a second service in a local movie theater nearby.

Vista is a church on the move, they own three used Uhaul trucks, and move their church into the school and movie theater every Sunday morning. It takes a huge commitment from lots of volunteers. Vista is a growing church and with Gary’s leadership in small groups and discipleship groups, they are growing deep as well as in numbers.

Gary and his Trucks

On the Road to Chicago

Vista is also getting involved in planting churches in Kenya. They have a great movement leader and have committed to partnering to plant many churches in Africa. Please keep the Treichlers and Smiths in your prayers as they continue to reach their community for Christ.

After our time in Ohio, we headed to Chicago. More on that tomorrow!

We left Boston on Wednesday morning to start the long drive west. Driving through the mountains of Pa. was beautiful. The trees are starting to change colors and the views were great. We were able to stop for a moving and inspiring visit to the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville, Pa., and then we went to Falling Water, the famous home that Frank Lloyd Wright designed. The home is actually built over a waterfall. The home was built in 1935 for the Kaufman family, it was their weekend getaway home. They owned a department store in Pittsburgh.

On Thursday morning we were also able to visit with some family that live in the area. My cousin Jill and her husband Jeff live in Rockwood Pa. and my uncle and aunt live close by as well. It was the first time we have seen them in about 25 years. It was a brief but good time seeing them, and hearing all about their families.

We then started the drive to Columbus, Ohio, where we spent the evening with Gary and Kim Treichler. It was great seeing them and spending the night in their home.