Summers can be hard for church planters. Numbers typically wane in summer. Fewer volunteers are available to help with set-up and Children’s Ministry. Church planters and their families can struggle to get away for vacation because the demands on them are even greater. They often come out of the summer months tired and discouraged. Then, before they can even catch their breath, a new ministry year is upon them. In my experience, the beginning of school is the most trying time for planters. Yet, God is faithful. He continues to work in our weakness to accomplish beautiful things.
Please take the time to read the reports from our planters and to pray specifically for renewed vision and energy this summer as they gather themselves and their churches and prepare for the ministry year ahead.
Grateful for your gospel partnership in this great work.
Drew Bennett | Executive Director
1410 Dundee Road
Winter Haven, FL 33884
(863) 298-9849 - work
(863) 286-2310 - cell
drew@redeemerwinterhaven.org
SEVEN RIVERS THE VILLAGES
THE VILLAGES | Stephen Speaks
LAUNCHED: 2021
WORSHIP SPACE : Because of scheduling issues at our previous worship space, SRVC began meeting on January 3 at Silo Oaks, which is a wedding venue in Summerville, 25 minutes south of where we previously met. Silo Oaks was previously a wedding venue, but the new owners have other plans and is gracious enough to let us use it. The added distance meant that we lost some of previous attenders, but we have also added new people. We recently entered into a friendly agreement with The Villages to purchase property, in an as-of-yet undeveloped area, at the end of 2027.
LEADERSHIP : In spring of 2025, we began a study on church leadership as we prepare for elder training this fall. Fourteen men met weekly for 10 weeks to talk about leadership in the local church, focusing on character, theology, and ministry. The men were very excited to be included, and we have five potential elder candidates who will begin training in the fall.
Please pray with us:
Leadership Training
Financial Growth
Outreach and Community Visibility
Health (Both the Speaks and Brooks families have faced serious health issues over the past several months.)
KISSIMMEE FELLOWSHIP
KISSIMMEE | Heath Zuniga
LAUNCHED: 2023
We had another adult receive Christ through our church just before Good Friday. Praise God for new life in Raymond! On Easter Sunday we had our largest Sunday ever with 80 total in attendance and some of our visitors invited visitors. Many of these visitors on Easter have returned regularly. There are two families in particular that our church has been sharing the gospel with in their homes and/or using Christianity Explored. The field is white for harvest! Alex Hurst has expressed interest in exploring a calling to the office of deacon. Praise God for this!
Some of our more urgent needs and places where we feel some pressure are 1) incorporating new volunteers into our Sunday ministry teams 2) growth in internal giving. For #1, I'm currently working on a leadership pipeline that will take someone from a volunteer to a leader of leaders. For #2, when we set our budget for 25'-26' I'll be communicating to our people with concrete number what our internal giving needs to grow to in order to be at 66% self-sustaining by June 2026.
Pray with us:
These two families to believe in Jesus
Volunteers to join our Sunday ministry teams, especially our production and hospitality teams.
For an increase in internal giving both from numerical growth and members tithing.
UNIVERSITY PRESBYTERIAN
TAMPA | WRIGHT BUSCHING
LAUNCHED: 2023
Our membership continues to grow. We currently have 60 communing members and 18 non-communing members. Worship attendance has been steady and we continue to welcome new visitors most weeks.
We received elder nominees at the end of 2024. Officer training is ongoing, and we hope to be able to examine men in the coming months. God has been very gracious to our young congregation.
Pray with us:
Pray for our elder nominees. Pray that the Lord would protect their families and prepare them to shepherd our people.
Pray that the Lord would gift men in our congregation to eventually be nominated, trained, and serve as deacons.
Pray that internal giving would continue to grow.
OAK CITY CHURCH
BARTOW | BRIAN MACDONALD
LAUNCHED: 2023
Overall, we are doing fine. The first quarter was particularly hard for me as I believe I was experiencing the delayed affects of our difficult fall with the affair of our assistant pastor and betrayal of pastoral intern. I do feel like I have come out of the fog and feel re-engaged emotionally and mentally to vision cast and dream again for Oak City Church. Our church experienced a big loss of the number of people [about 30 in total] which was related [directly and indirectly] to the drama of the Fall. These included families with several children each so about 6 families in all. God has brought some new families since and is slowly rebuilding but the process can definitely be discouraging. Yet, when it is all said and done, we are a far healthier church now than before. The people that are with us now are happy and committed to the vision of OCC. So we praise the Lord for that!
We also praise God for increased tithes and offerings each month! We are moving toward our financial goals to seek particularization in 2027. Along those lines, we have several eligible men for the office of elder and deacon. Our plan is to have nominations in the fall and start a year long officer training program by January 2026!
Finally the Lord has been bringing more unbelievers in our midst and we are looking to start new seeker studies reading through the gospels with them!
Pray with us:
More healthy families [praying for 7 more new ones by end of year]
Encouragement for Brian and Ella and the body
Continual growth of finances
3 new conversions who will be integrated into our church
Future officer nominations and officer training
ANCHOR PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
EAST COLLIER | GREG BLOSSER
LAUNCHED: 2025
The church community is slowly growing. Unchurched/ mostly unchurched people are attending. Some are even bringing other unchurched people with them. Curious visitors from the mother church are beginning to decide if they want to join us or stay at the mother church. Some are staying and some aren’t.
My bjj instructor & family has begun attending as has another class member & family. Various unchurched people from our neighborhood are attending sporadically, some regularly. A Bible study targeted to reach unchurched people recently had 27 in attendance (19 adults, 8 children). Ministry teams (set up, music, children’s church, nursery, ushers, welcome team etc) are staffed with volunteers and are operating well. Some teams need more volunteers to give others a break. I can provide more personal & specific stories if requested.
Pray with us:
A few people/ couples seem really close to believing the gospel and others have shown a new openness to talking about the gospel. Pray for SL, the M family, the S family, C & S, & A
Lots of uncommitted churched people floating around. Pray the right ones commit to the church plant & the mission and the others move on.
Many believes are willing to invest in relationships with unchurched neighbors but are insecure about how to do that. Pray God will open doors for this. We need many team members investing in and inviting unchurched people.
Our churched people are not getting involved in small groups. It’s a key piece of our ministry structure and we need them to catch the vision for it.
NEW RIVER FELLOWSHIP
FT. LAUDERDALE | CHAN KILGORE
LAUNCHED: 2023
We recently moved into a new Sunday morning space at an elementary school, and God has blessed us in this new location by allowing us to reach more families. So far this year, we’ve seen 10 people come to Christ and 8 baptisms, with two more on the way. We’re also seeing our leadership base grow stronger—a much-needed development, since about half of our congregation has come to Christ since we launched in September 2023.
Pray with us:
Pray that God continues to send us leaders to help disciple those who have recently come to Christ.
Pray that my wife and I can get a little rest as we take some time off this summer.
Pray that our internal giving will continue to increase.
LAKESIDE COVENANT
MT. DORA | MATT MATULIA
LAUNCHED: 2024
Since we've launched, we've seen a lot of "ups and down" as it pertains to who the Lord has brought to us as a new church. We've seen a lot of different faces and interacted with many different people. With that being said, after year one, we have "settled" a bit into a "core" of people who are making up this new church. These folks include our initial launch team, but this "core" has also grown as we have received a number of new members this past year. As we have "settled" a bit, we are still thankful to have new people visiting and to be able to interact with new folks we are meeting as visitors and in our community. In addition, I'd like to add that we have progressed as a church plant in terms of our overall "health and maturity" as we seek to advance toward particularization. We have been financially healthy, and we have been healthy in terms of how we are developing leaders and ministries. We are going through a process of officer training with a group of men with the goal to be able to elect officers in 2026 (as the Lord wills). We have and are continuing to develop healthy discipleship ministries through home groups, journey groups, and bible studies. We have and are continuing to develop outreach ministries through a mentoring and tutoring program that we are participating in. We are planning to establish a midweek children's ministry this next school year and to continue and advance in our youth ministry. All in all, we are thankful for how the Lord is building this new church and seeking him to continue this process.
Pray with us:
My wife Lindsey, will be officially joining our staff as the children's director and ministry coordinator. Please pray for this transition that this will be a blessing for her, for our church, and for our family. Please pray that the Lord will use her leadership to develop a thriving children's ministry that will be a means of ongoing discipleship for our children and a means of reaching new families in our community.
Please pray for me that I would "abide" in Jesus and through Him would be able to continue to lead this new church in terms of how I am shepherding the church, but also in terms of wanting to continue to have a clear vision/direction and communicate that vision for how the Lord is leading us forward.
Please pray for sustainability for our church in terms of the weekly set up and take down for worship. Please ask the Lord to bring us more people who are willing to jump in and help serve.
Please pray for our multiplication and evangelism. Please pray that we would have a growing vision for our mission to make disciples and that the Lord would lead us to new and effective ways of meeting new people and engaging them with the gospel. I can tell that I personally and our church have "slowed" down a bit in this area as we have focused on developing our discipleship ministries.
Please pray that we would be able to develop in terms of church operations and organization from an administrative perspective. As we have over 100 people that we are ministering to, we need to grow in our organizational skills and strategies.
CHRIST THE KING CHAPEL
DADE CITY | CHUCK WILLIAMS
LAUNCHED: 2024
MERCY HILL CHURCH
WINTER HAVEN | TONY ELSWICK
LAUNCHED: 2024
Mercy Hill has been growing based on every matrix. We have been growing in average attendance which represents a continual flow of new visitors and those visitors becoming regulars. Almost all of them have been out of church for a significant period of time or are new to the area. We’ve also grown in the number of people giving. I’ve been preaching about being “all in” and people are responding. We have more people joining our community groups. In April, we had a Monday night theology class and averaged over 40 adults a week! So I am very encouraged as we go into the summer.
It’s also been encouraging to hear why people are coming back. We have people who mention the children’s ministry, the worship, the general friendliness. One lady said that she has never felt more welcome at church in her life. We’ve had several people comment that this is the first time that they have been able to understand the Bible. As we look to the Fall, I am hoping we can start a youth ministry and a mercy ministry team. Overall, I feel like the Lord has been blessing us during this season and am excited about the future!
Pray with us:
We have been blessed by the Lord increasing the number of children, especially special needs children. Pray for wisdom as we adjust our children’s ministry and that we would have a greater number of volunteers.
We’ve been blessed with a lot of people who are new to the faith or who need a lot of discipleship. So please pray that we would be able to help them grow to maturity in Christ.
As we continue to grow, we are needing more leaders for community groups and other parts of the church. Please pray for our process of training these leaders.
We have a really great relationship with the principal of the school where we meet. Please pray that this will continue.
We’ve been blessed to have a real unity and friendship among the people. Pray that this would continue and grow.
COVENANT LIFE COMMUNITY
ORLANDO | MOSES HAN
LAUNCHED: 2024
We are in the season of preparation for leaders of the church as we move towards particularization. In the mean time, we wanted to build on several other ministries, including evangelism and outreach.
Pray with us:
That leaders will emerge who will be committed to lead the church plant as elders and deacons.
That we will be able to hire a part-time intern/assistant to help with the growing church ministry.
That we will continue to have an outward face instead of becoming ingrown as we become more comfortable with the church gathered.
NEW SONG CHURCH
WEST PALM BEACH | RONNIE PERRY JR.
LAUNCHED: 2018
We have seen a slight increase in weekly attendance this quarter going from an average of 42 in attendance/Sunday to about 51 this quarter. Yet we have lost two core families to relocation out of state and our newer attendees are new Christians/seekers.
Pray with us:
Pray for our Pastor Intern Anthony Austin who is reconsidering a call to vocational ministry for a variety of reasons. He graduated with an MDiv from Knox Theological Seminary last year.
Pray for my sister-in-law Kristel who began attending church in November after losing her eldest daughter in a car accident and is coming close to a profession of faith in Christ and baptism (she has never done either) and my brother Charles, who is regularly attending church for the first time in over 20 years.
Pray for our giving to increase as we have lost core families and replaced them with mostly new Christians and seekers.
HOPE FELLOWSHIP
OCALA | JOSH GILMAN
LAUNCHED: 2025
This Spring, we have seen so many reminders of God’s faithfulness as we have continued weekly Sunday worship services, welcomed hundreds of guests/visitors, and begun our first two bible studies. This week we will wrap-up our first class of membership interviews! The fingerprints of God are everywhere we look. West Marion County experienced a drought from March to April that left many of us longing for spring & summer rains to bring about new growth. Our men’s and women’s bible studies launched shortly after Spring Break on Thursdays (10:30AM-12:00PM) & Fridays (6-8AM) with opportunities to be refreshed in God’s Word midweek and to build community with friends new & old. Wednesday evenings we gathered in our new bank space for 6 weeks to cast the mission and vision of Hope Fellowship and to invite folks to consider taking vows to enter into membership. Our women took a retreat together to Davenport, FL where they deepened their relationship with Jesus and one another.
April brought with it a flurry of activity as we prepared for our first Easter services. In an effort to provide space for our friends and neighbors we hosted two services 9AM/11AM with a reception in-between and hosted over a hundred folks in our building as we celebrated our Risen Savior Jesus together. What an amazing reminder of the reality that God is giving the growth as many have joined us over the past few months. Those who joined us were gifted with bibles and/or mini succulents since we are in the “plant stage.” Following Easter Sunday was our women’s retreat (4/27)- an opportunity for our guests and new visitors to consider joining in on our community. Our launch team and volunteers did such an amazing job of welcoming and inviting our community and we are so grateful for everyone who helped it come to fruition.
Pray with us:
Please join us in praying for growth in grace for our people
Daily time in God’s Word
And evangelism/outreach opportunities this summer. We are praying and planning for our Backyard Bible Clubs later in July in some of our new neighborhoods like Kingsland Estates and Calesa.
MIAMI PCA PLANT
MIAMI | STEVE LANTZ
We're excited about what God is doing, as I finish my 20th school year at Booker T. Washington High School. With the exit of our longtime Head Football Coach, Tim "Ice" Harris, things looked bleak at the start of 2025. However, his absence has allowed our ministry to move into the general student population, with a new partner in the band director. We have planned a Civil Rights Bus Tour through the American South in March, 2027, which is causing great awareness and opening doors to relationships with new parents and community partners. Based on current trends, we are looking to offer Christmas services, with a possible launch of public worship in January, 2026. If not, we will soft launch on Easter, casting a vision to join our plant and start public worship in the fall of 2026 or January, 2027. We have a unique problem. The people are ready and willing. We just need a space in which to meet.
Pray with us:
Financial stability and emotional security (mainly for my wife) through consistent and full funding.
A storefront office space that can also be used for small worship gatherings and storage of a food pantry and hurricane supply boxes.
A fellow minister to join me in planting.