Nolan Luther Called to Be Church Planter
In August of last year, Stu Streeter, the Vice President of Ministry Advancement and Church Multiplication for the North American Baptist Conference (NAB), met with our Shepherding Team via Zoom to talk about church planting. At that meeting he said, “We tend to think about what and how, but the first point of priority should be, ‘Whom do we send?’”
Stu then went on to challenge us, “If you haven’t already, begin at an appointed time to fast and pray about who is the one we shall send?”
Our team made a commitment to fast and pray on Wednesday noon times for several months.
In January of this year, Stu Streeter visited our church to speak about church planting. He spoke at the congregational meeting about our goal to plant a church in rural Iowa and said, “The person you are looking for is likely in your own congregation and will probably be someone it will hurt you a little to give up.”
Fast forward to this June, when I received a text from Nolan Luther, a young man who started attending our church last summer after moving back to rural Iowa from Southern California. Nolan shared that he felt God was calling him to be our church planter. I visited with Nolan about it and then shared his name with Stu Streeter, who interviewed him and encouraged him to apply to the NAB’s FIT assessment that was held this past July 10-11 at Heartland Community Church in Medina, Ohio. This assessment was designed to help ministry leaders take their next step by reporting on their “fit” for the ministry they are considering. As the sending church pastor, Stu encouraged me to come participate as an observer.
On Monday morning, while meeting with the staff and other observers for the FIT assessment, we found out the other couple that had applied were unable to attend because of a medical emergency. Now twenty-two people, including the Executive Director of the NAB, the VP of Missions for the NAB, another Regional Minister for the NAB, a pastor and his wife from a large church in Cincinnati (who are not even from the NAB), several church planters, and two therapists were all gathered for two days to assess only Nolan on ten characteristics:
1) Christlike Formation
2) Healthy Family Dynamic
3) Emotional Intelligence/Health
4) Clear Call to Ministry
5) Perseverance
6) Visionary Leadership
7) Gospel-Centered/Lost-Oriented
8) Dynamic Speaking/Preaching
9) Pioneering Spirit and
10) Fundraising/Support Building.
They evaluated Nolan on a ten-minute sermon he would plan to preach at his church’s first public service and a ten-minute presentation he would give to prospective launch team members. They trained and interviewed Nolan regarding spiritual formation habits, fundraising, personality profiles and several other areas. By the afternoon of the second day the staff and observers gathered to determine our assessment and contribute to Nolan’s final report. We were to choose between three options:
1) Recommended for church planting,
2) Recommended with conditions,
3) Not recommended.
Everyone loved Nolan’s teachable spirit and his heart for ministry. They unanimously recommended Nolan for church planting with the condition of further preparation through an intentional one-year residency at our church in partnership with another NAB-approved, context-specific church to work on five specific objectives.
Overall, it was an amazing experience for Nolan, confirming his call, and a wonderful answer to our prayers. We now have clear direction as we continue to pursue our goal of planting a church in rural Iowa!
