EDITOR’S NOTE — Alabama Baptist Derek Allen planted Christ Centered Church in Miami in 2014. Since that time several Alabama Baptist groups, especially student groups and Baptist Campus Ministries teams, have traveled down to help him and his wife, Lindsay, in their work. Etowah Baptist Association also has an official partnership with the church.
By Derek Allen
Church planter, Christ Centered Church, North Miami, Fla.
When baby boomers think about Miami, Florida, they think about drugs, crime and gangs — as seen on “Miami Vice” or “CSI: Miami.” When college students think about Miami, they think about a vibrant, cool, modern city with beautiful beaches and a hipster culture — possibly envisioning Justin Bieber driving a Lamborghini on South Beach. I think that’s why college students are always excited about coming to Miami to work with us and their parents are always a little nervous. The truth is Miami is a little bit of both.
From the very beginning of the church planting journey, my wife, Lindsay, and I knew we could not do this alone. We prayed the Lord would send people to help us. We have been amazed at the way He has answered that prayer.
During March and April teams from Baptist Campus Ministries and church-based college ministries helped us invite more than 10,000 people to our Easter services, handed out water in the name of Jesus, witnessed to people at bus stops and on college campuses, did service projects at a local elementary school and even helped us explore another part of Miami where we are trying to start a second location.
As a direct result of the work of college ministry teams from Alabama, we saw our highest attendance ever on Easter Sunday at 329, with nine people making professions of faith. Another long-term benefit of our partnership with Alabama college ministries is that several students from the collegiate teams have applied for our intern program, which is a crucial part of our strategy.
I’m really excited to have another college team this summer because they will help us make crucial contacts for our second location. Please pray that God would lead them to people who share our passion for reaching Miami and would be willing to help a new church get started. Pray that the team has the opportunity to lead people to Jesus and that they find Christians who have lost their connection to a local congregation.
Missions teams of all ages are very beneficial to church planting and I am thankful our missions teams have always understood that working with a church planter is different than a traditional missions trip. It’s different because church planters need to make thousands of contacts to generate traction and it’s different because most church planters don’t have a facility where they can use a Vacation Bible School team, a construction team, a revival team or some of the other, more traditional missions teams. The most beneficial teams for church planters are those who say, “Tell us what to do and we’ll do it.”
Importance of prayer
Preparing for missions work with a church planter starts with prayer — real, spiritual warfare prayer. It’s also important that the team learns as much about the new church, the church planter and the culture as possible.
We’ve found that training teams for what they will actually do is not that hard. Anyone can hand out a bottle of water or hang a door hanger as long as they are willing to trust the church planter’s strategy and be flexible. If any of our Alabama churches or teams are looking for a church plant to connect with, we would love to put them to work in Miami.
For more information, email christcenteredchurchfl@gmail.com, call 305-495-0293 or visit www.c2church.org.
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