GOD WITH US!
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). – Matthew 1:23
During this Advent season, as we reflect on the coming of Christ, I’m struck by the significance of the promise fulfilled – God with us! How wonderful and comforting is the truth that our Creator, the King of the Universe, desires to be WITH us. This has been His pursuit throughout History. Echoing throughout the Old Testament, “I will be your God, and you shall be my people.” This long repeated promise is realized in the humble birth of a child in Bethlehem, born to a virgin, in the line of David. This child born of God’s sovereign will to rescue a people from all peoples to be gathered to be WITH Him as restored image bearers.
We are His people, and He is with us. After His death and resurrection, Jesus commissions His followers to join Him on Mission to multiply and fill the earth with disciples who will make disciples promising to be WITH us always (Matthew 28:18-20)!
And this mission will be fulfilled as we look to the end and see God declare “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” (Revelation 21:3)
This good news – this story of promise and hope, of God with us, rescuing and redeeming a people for Himself – is our single greatest motivation for planting new churches. Each new church that is started is an outpost for this good news AND the embodiment of God’s promise fulfilled. Each week, all over Central Florida, men, women, and children gather up in a variety of spaces to celebrate, remember, and rehearse the incredible reality that God is WITH us and He has made us His people. We gather as God’s people and then we scatter throughout our cities and communities as ambassadors for our great King and His Kingdom carrying with us this good news as we actively look for opportunities to demonstrate and declare to every man, woman, and child who have yet to respond to the invitation to know this God and experience His goodness, truth, and beauty.
By God’s grace, we are building a movement in Central Florida of multiplying, missional churches committed to and engaged in the work of saturating our city with the Gospel so that every man, woman, and child has repeated opportunities to hear, see, and respond to the good news of the Gospel. We want Central Florida to become a place where Jesus is impossible to ignore. And we believe that this movement will spill out from Greater Orlando (our Jerusalem, Acts 1:8) to the ends of the earth!
To that end, we are committed to developing and equipping church planters through our residency programs to lead healthy and effective churches. And we are committed to doing this work in collaboration, working together as a unified effort of local churches to see Kingdom impact in our city and region.
This Christmas season, I want to invite you to join me in reflecting on God’s goodness and blessing in your own life, and to daily experience the reality of God WITH you!
I also want to invite you to join me in reflecting on what it will take to extend this blessing of knowing and belonging to Immanuel, the God who is WITH us to more and more people in our cities and communities. In what way is God inviting you to participate with Him today in making Him known throughout our city and world?
OCPN Updates:
Pastor Kenny Ortiz and Horizon City had their launch Sunday on October 6th at Sunridge Elementary and in November they celebrated their first baptism as a new church plant!
Also in November, Esperança BPC Tampa just celebrated their one year anniversary, they welcomed new members, and Pastor Samy Anderson was officially installed as the Pastor of Esperança Tampa.
Justin Serra and New City Fellowship hosted a prayer and worship night in November. Several churches came together for an encouraging night of seeking the heart of God and savoring His goodness. They officially launched in February of this year and have celebrated 8 baptisms so far in 2024.
This Fall we are hitting our stride with the leaders in our 3 training cohorts. We are currently working with 18 leaders between the 3 cohorts (6 Finishing, 4 Foundational, 8 Español). We are excited to see 6 more new churches started out of these cohorts in 2025! As the pipeline of leaders continues to grow, we are continuing to network with individuals and churches who want to partner with us in this work.
Here are some practical ways you can participate with us in this collaborative work of the Orlando Church Planting Network:
Pray - Join us in praying for our city and the churches, church planters and church plants that are working together to share the gospel, make disciples, and plant more churches. Pray the more people would come to know Christ during this Christmas season in our churches and church plants. Pray that more leaders would be raised up and that more churches would be planted among every neighborhood and among every people group in Central Florida.
Give - Give an end of the year gift to support our shared mission of gospel saturation through church planting. https://www.plantorlando.org/give
Attend - Join us for our monthly OCPN luncheon on Wednesday, December 11th at 12pm at Mosaic Church in Winter Garden. Our Guest Speaker this month is Pastor Marcelo Robles. Marcelo is a church planter and the senior pastor of La Misión Church in Buenos Aires, Argentina. La Misión is a movement of 5 congregations in distinct neighborhoods of the city that focus on training church planters and pastors, ministering to children and the poor. Marcelo is also the co-founder of “Misión Beta” movement dedicated to urban church planting and a member of the Advisory Council of the Latin American City to City movement. Marcelo coordinates the Faith and Work Initiative in Latin America.