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Granite Springs Church, near Sacramento, August 15

The last day of our stay in the US we drove from San Francisco out to a place called Granite Springs, just north east of Sacramento – about a 2 hour drive along the seemingly endless maze of four-lane-each-way concrete expressways. Our object was to meet with Dr Kevin Adams. We learned about Kevin through the pages of the small devotional booklet called “Today” (copies often available at the Information Booth). Kevin Adam pastors a congregation of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. Kevin and his wife Gerry started Granite Springs church as a ‘no nucleus’ church in 1991. They were commissioned to go to the area, be used by God to draw people to Christ, and form them into a new church. This, by God’s grace, they did. No doubt, Kevin is one encouraging guy to speak with!

We chatted in a genuine Tacqueria a little restaurant serving authentic Mexican food. The beef Chimichanga was good, but Todd tells me the chicken variety was still kicking, and least for a few hours after the event... Obviously, the chicken did not survive, but thankfully Todd did.

Our discussion with Kevin reminded us that growing churches are often unstable and face challenges: not the least being the development of a unified ethos. Today, Granite Springs is a moderately sized congregation (about 500-600) that seeks to act as a church planting ‘farm’. The idea is that the congregation resources other church plants in the area, and seeks to be a context to raise and train church planters. This really resonate with us, as this type of idea had been raised in our church breakfast in June. Of course, there are lots of social and cultural differences between Ormiston and Granite Springs: but the idea is inspirational. It would be great to consider whether this could become part of our future here in Redlands.

We also warmed to Kevin’s warm faith that God was still to do more work in their community. Their auditorium is about the same size as ours, and when we asked whether there were plans for future expansion, Kevin replied “let’s just say we’re basically worshipping in the youth hall…” The larger church community will afforded more resources for the ongoing work of church planting in the future. This presented an interesting contrast to the church planting approach of Redeemer. The latter insist that the large a church grows, the more internalised it becomes. Granite Springs’ intention is to increase the outward focus of their growing church by continuing to plant other congregations in their region. In 1991, when the Adams family started their ministry, there was only one other sister church in the area. Now there are seven. God is good!

We also were keen to ask what about the import factors God was using to draw people into Granite Springs (assuming the work of God through His Spirit). Kevin’s response:

·         Relationships. People are encouraged and urged to use their relationships as a context for witness to what the Lord has done in them. This is the philosophy they commenced with. The hairdresser, the car salesman, the people on the factor floor were all seen as people with whom relationships could be built where the good news could eventually be shared.

·         Small groups: they create relational pathways for people to find a way into new community, then to larger church meetings, with conversion and renewal somewhere there in the process

·         They are developing a Scripture memory program. The idea is that the whole church gets into the program and this will develop some cohesion across the increasingly varied community

·         Leader development within small groups assists in the formation of new groups and for small groups to improve on how they enfold new people. Every small group is encouraged to have and support someone who really works hard at bringing new people along

·         Testimonies: they are aiming at one per month. Stories of change are powerful instruments for God to work in people’s lives

Feedback: dave@redlandscrc.org.au