Pastor Ron Smals (Mansfield Woodville), missions chairman for the North Central Ohio district, sends out a monthly district missions newsletter, assisted by Dean Risser and Vilas Dean. Featured this month is Sean Spoelstra (pictured, with wife Melissa and children) of the Powell, Ohio church (Rick Nuzum, pastor), which is sponsoring one of six church plants now underway in the NCO district. Here are a few excerpts from the interview with Spoelstra:
What led your church to plant a church in Jerome?
My wife Melissa and I were praying for a location to “rise to the top”. There were at one point a half dozen on our radar. Then one sunny afternoon in August of 2007 one of our staff pastors drove me out to Jerome Township and showed me all the home construction that was underway. I began hearing about the major development plans for the area and so we prayed. Jerome Township then rose to the top for us and all the while a sub-committee of our elders had been working on viable locations in the greater Columbus area to do a church plant. Without knowing about our desire to church plant or the location we were leaning towards these men also landed on Jerome Township (hwy. 33/42). What an incredible gift it was to hear their findings!
Do you have a team working with you?
Four of our church elders are walking through the process with us. They are already supporting us through prayer, encouragement and accountability. Two of them have planted churches before.
As far as a “launch team,” to date there are nine families who have verbally committed to planting the church with us and another ten or so who are still praying about the opportunity. Most of these individuals are between 35-45 years old with elementary or middle school children. Many have been very involved in children’s ministry at Grace Church.
How did you get the job of planting this church?
It was God who laid this idea on our hearts in the Fall of 2006. We prayed about it for a while, I took the RU a Church Planter questionnaire, spoke and met with Tony Webb and Ron Boehm, then brought it to my Sr. pastor Rick Nuzum. The church elder board also confirmed our desire and ability to lead in this church plant.