Coffee for God’s Kingdom
A Church Planter’s Story
by Jason Egan
The Lord led us to Downers Grove, Illinois to plant a church because of the great need in the community. Of 350,000 churches in U.S., four of five have plateaued or are declining. There are over 200 million unchurched people in the U.S. This makes us number four on the list of unchurched nations in the world. These are some of the realities that God used to lead my wife and me into church planting with CCCC. About two years ago God led us to a town outside Chicago where He wanted us to plant a church. Without a team, and knowing no one, we had a significant task and some big questions to answer:
1. How do we find like-minded believers to form a team?
2. How do we lead people to Christ in this culture?
3. How do we make disciples like Jesus?
We began by submersing ourselves into the community. I started working as a barista in a local coffee shop. Meghan joined a group for moms at the library. We met people at parks, got connected with the local music scene and also with local artists. Through these relationships we prayed for open doors to talk about Jesus. This led to small Bible studies, and then new life. We’ve seen a handful of people come to salvation, and are now on the path of making disciples. We praise God for this, yet are by no means finished. Discipleship takes years of walking with people in close relationship where they are able to live life with us and learn God’s word as we teach them regularly. Battles with sin, complacency, and being too busy are common. However, when we see growth, it is beautiful. Truly, we have no greater joy than when our “children” (so to speak) walk in truth. (See 3 John 4.)
Another challenge we face is funding. Since discipleship is slow, finding income from giving is minimal. This has led us to start a small tentmaking business called Hope Around the Corner. We provide coffee and soap to individuals and churches. This is a very simple way to support church planting without extra expense. The idea is to get the soap and coffee that you currently use from us instead of your current supplier in order to support three causes:
1) Our church plant, The Upper Room Church
2) The Life Changing Churches Fund of the CCCC
If you would like a simple way to support church planting in CCCC, contact us at hopearoundthecorner@yahoo.com to get some free samples of soap and coffee to try. If you would like an even more simple way to support church planting, pray for us in this most challenging, yet wonderful mission of making disciples.
