But that’s not all that is happening this year. We’re excited to announce that beginning this month, we will be building a team to plant our latest church in…Baltimore, MD!

Redeemer City Baltimore will be led by the Summit Church (RDU) pastor Brad O’Brien. I recently sat down with Brad and asked him, why plant a church in Baltimore?

My wife Jena-Marie and I were both caught off guard when we sensed God calling us to plant a church. We love Durham deeply and have been blessed immensely in the time that we have spent at our church, the Summit Church. However, as we considered how we could be used by God to leverage our lives for advancing the Gospel, we couldn’t ignore this opportunity. A lot of people have asked the question “why leave the Summit to plant a church?”

We don’t really see this as leaving as much as being sent out. In my 9 years of ministry here, I’ve seen numerous friends commissioned to take the Gospel around the world. Now we are on the other side of that experience. Rather than praying for someone that is going, we are going to be the ones being sent. We couldn’t think of a better church to be sent out by as ministers of the Gospel.

As far as “why Baltimore”, there are two main reasons:

Baltimore is a very strategic city.  This is something that I didn’t recognize 18 months ago, but I’ve discovered that Baltimore is a city that possesses global influence. There are nearly 100,000 college students in Baltimore that attend one of fifteen different colleges/universities. They come to Baltimore from all over the world to attend schools like Johns Hopkins. Also, Johns Hopkins Hospital has been ranked the #1 hospital in the country for 20+ consecutive years. There are people that come to Baltimore for medical care from many unreached nations. Also, Baltimore is one of the most livable cities in what some consider as the most powerful mega-region in the world. Baltimore is a great place to live in the middle of the Northeast mega-region that stretches from Boston down to Washington D.C.

Baltimore is a city that needs the gospel. As soon as you mention Baltimore to someone, they often have an image that comes to mind. For many people it is the idea of violence. Baltimore is ranked the 11^th most violent city in the country. It’s a city that desperately needs the gospel. Less than 4% of the population in Baltimore consider themselves to be evangelical. Within four miles of the neighborhood we’re targeting (Riverside) there are some pretty alarming realities: 56% of the homesare led by single moms; 25% of the homes live below the poverty line. We believe that the Gospel not only transforms individual lives, but entire cities. We are asking God to bring peace in the midst of violence, the family of God to the fatherless and generosity in the midst of poverty.

Want to help? Or just want to get more information? Fill out the interest form below and Brad will follow up with you. Also check out their website at www.redeemerbaltimore.com.

Audio

On Sunday, April 1, at 1 pm at the Summit Church’s Brier Creek Campus (map) we will host a vision meeting for our upcoming church plant in Indianapolis.

This is your chance to meet lead planter Brandon Shields and find out more about the vision of Soma Church Indy. Whether you just want to come out and show your support, you’re interested in joining the team, or you know people in Indy you’d like to get connected to Soma Church, you won’t want to miss this opportunity.

Please RSVP below if you plan to attend. Lunch will be provided. You’ll receive an email with details of the location next week.

RSVP

SESSION 1: J.D. Greear – Marks of Gospel Movement in a Church
SESSION 2: Tyler Jones – Overcoming Hurdles for Kingdom Growth

Video coming soon!

We’re excited to share this upcoming event May 3-4 at the Summit Church in RDU:

The gospel changes everything. The gospel produces in us what religion never could: a heart for God. That truth has radical implications, not only for our lives but for how we DO ministry. It completely reshapes the content, character and strategy of all that we do.

That’s our story. Ten years ago Homestead Heights Baptist Church was a 40-year old, declining Baptist church. In many ways we had lost the gospel. The last 10 years have been a rediscovery process. As we’ve rediscovered the revolutionary power of the Gospel, we’ve seen God move in amazing ways. We’ve grown from 300 to over 6500 worshiping across the Triangle at 6 campuses. We’ve had the privilege of sending out over 300 people in a long-term capacity to advance the gospel and plant churches around the world.

Now it’s time to open up the hood. That’s the purpose of THE GOSPEL SUMMIT…to invite you and your team in for a 2-day conference about how the Gospel directs real, day-to-day ministry….to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the best and worst of the Summit as we seek to become a church that is built on and around the gospel.

We don’t believe you have to choose between growing deeper and wider. We believe that depth in the gospel will produce more fervent faith and more effective evangelism than any program or hype ever could. We believe the gospel is the power for transformation—for the individual, for the church, and for the community. We believe that a gospel-rich church will both reach its community and send out its people into the most unreached places on the planet.

We hope you’ll join us May 3-4 in RDU. Register and get more details at www.thegospelsummit.com. There is a special discount for the first 100 to register – limited number remaining.

1. You see people as working for you and not with you.
2. People who push back on your ideas are automatically branded as disloyal.
3. When someone says something good about someone else you always have to be the person who says, “yes, but what you don’t know about them is…”
4. You get jealous when someone on your team receives any sort of public affirmation but you are not mentioned at all.
5. You cannot celebrate what God is doing in other churches.
6. You always believe someone on your staff is going to attempt a coup to take over your role as a leader.
7. You dismiss what God is doing in another church/ministry because it doesn’t line up exactly with where you are theologically.
8. You lead through intimidation.
9. You secretly like the fact that people on your staff are afraid of you.
10. You feel the need to prove yourself in every meeting you are in by seizing every opportunity you have to speak.

Brandon is one of our current church planting residents. He and his wife Emily and their four kids recently moved from West Palm Beach, FL, to Indianapolis, IN, to plant Soma Church. They are building a team of people to plant their lives in Indy for the sake of planting a gospel-centered church.

How did God call you to plant in Indy?

My calling to church planting began with a series of events that transpired when I was 19 years old. First, I participated in a short-term mission trip to the Philippines with my church. On that trip, I was gripped by the reality of global lostness and urgency of taking the gospel to the nations. Second, I attended the first Passion One Day in Memphis, TN with my college ministry group. God used a message by a old nerdy guy wearing a tweed jacket (who I would later discover was John Piper) to rock my heart with a message entitled, “Don’t Waste Your Life.” As a result of those events, I committed in my heart that I would go anywhere, do anything, with anyone for the fame of Jesus’ name.

10+ years later, I found myself as a teaching pastor at a great church in South Florida. My life, in many ways, was comfortable and successful – great weather, growing ministry, and an incredible team of people to serve alongside. Despite these “comforts,” I began feeling a restlessness that God had something different in mind for our family. As I reflected, prayed, and discussed my opportunities with close friends, I became burdened that God wanted us to plant a new gospel-centered work in a strategic, underchurched metropolitan area. My wife and I knew that if we didn’t step out and join God in this risky venture, that we would look back years later with regret on a missed opportunity to believe Jesus’ promise that “I will build my church.”

Why Indianapolis?

Once we made the decision to plant, our hearts were quickly drawn back to the Midwest where we grew up and to Indianapolis in particular. Indy is a city of tremendous need for the gospel. One hundred years ago, Indy was dubbed “a city of churches,” as the number of churches grew by such a rapid rate that they outpaced even the city’s population growth. Today is a much different story – of the 2 million people that make up the Indy metro area, only about 15% attend an evangelical church. A recent study conducted by the IMB showed that at the current rate of church planting, it would take more than 1900 years to reach Indianapolis, which ranks dead last among major U.S. cities.

How can people get involved?

Right now, we’re in the process of forming a team to help plant this gospel work in Indianapolis (we’ve had several join us already). We are asking God for 30 people to partner with us in this journey.

• Families – maybe you find yourself asking how God can imprint the Great Commission into your marriage and children. Indianapolis is a great place for families – the economy is great, schools are top notch, and the city was recently ranked as one of the top 10 cities to live in the U.S.
• College seniors – the decision you make about what to do after graduation will set the course of your life for the next few years. Why not join us in Indianapolis and commit to intentionally leveraging your life for God’s mission?
• Young professionals – spend the next season of your life making God’s name great in a major U.S. city where the gospel is not known.
• Or maybe you have a connection to Indy and God has put this city on your heart.

Wherever you’re at, I want to challenge you to come on board with Soma Church – to move, get a job in the city, and be a missionary to this great city that desperately needs the gospel. To find out more, fill out the form below and someone from our team will follow up with you.

Or maybe you know people in Indy who need a church – we would love to connect with them as well.

Get Connected

Greensboro

It’s not too late to get in on the Mercy Hill church plant. In May/June, those that aren’t in Greensboro will begin moving out there. They’re looking for people who will go, plant their lives and get jobs  in order to live as missionaries to the city. For more details or to get connected, go to www.mercyhillgso.com.

Indianapolis

A couple of weeks ago we announced that our next church plant will be in the great city of Indianapolis. Indianapolis is the 12th largest city in the U.S. and is desperately in need of more Gospel-centered churches. Stay tuned later this week for more details on this plant, in the meantime, you can get connected HERE.

We are looking for additional church planting residents for this years. HERE is some information on what a residency is all about.

Advance Regional

Join us this Friday for Marks of a Gospel Movement at Vintage21 Church in Raleigh. J.D. Greear, Tyler Jones & Elliot Grudem will be teaching on what Gospel movement looks like in the life of a church, as well as the potential dangers of Gospel-centrality. For a preview, check out this post from J.D..

You can register for this FREE event HERE.

Our upcoming Advance Regional: Marks of a Gospel Movement, is only a couple weeks away. You don’t want to miss these FREE event with J.D. Greear and Tyler Jones. We’re also excited to add Elliot Grudem to the lineup.

As if that’s not enough incentive, everyone who registers online will be entered into a drawing to win 1 of 5 FREE tickets to ADVANCE13, March 19-21, 2013, in RDU. John Piper and David Platt will be joining us, along with several other pastors and leaders from around the country. Ticket winners will be announced at the regional.

REGISTER HERE. For more details, go HERE.