Introducing the Pillar Network (Proposed New Gospel Partner)

…the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
1 Timothy 3:15

Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at Feed My Sheep pastors conference in Atlanta. The evening before the conference, I met with the leadership of The Pillar Network, along with other pastors who are part of the network. I came away tremendously encouraged, and I want to tell you why.

I love their mission: The Pillar Network is a community of SBC (Southern Baptist) and International Baptist Churches that are doctrinally aligned, missionally driven, and committed to equipping, planting, and revitalizing churches.

It’s almost as if we had written their mission statement. That’s what we’re about! What is most encouraging about Pillar is that they see the long-term health of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is contingent on the ongoing planting of gospel-rooted, doctrinally-clear, mission-driven, kingdom-minded churches. Here is the DNA of Pillar Network churches:

• Gospel Proclamation: We proclaim the gospel of our Sovereign Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
• Bible-Based: We submit to the Bible as our final authority in all matters of belief and life.
• Live Exposition: We promote live expository preaching to equip the church.
• Elder-led: We encourage churches to be led by a plurality of male elders/pastors.
• Confessionally Baptistic: We cooperate as Southern Baptists to fulfill the Great Commission.
• Kingdom Minded: We commit to kingdom multiplication through church planting and revitalization.

Again, these are the very marks that concern us as a church. They're doing what we're already doing. By partnering together, we can do it better and have a broader kingdom impact.

I love their approach to fulfilling their mission: Equip, Plant, Revitalize. These are the three primary emphases by which Pillar cooperates with other like-minded SBC churches to accomplish its mission.

• Equip: We serve and equip pastors and church planters to establish and lead faithful and healthy churches.
• Plant: We partner with churches to ensure their success in planting new churches that share our convictions and DNA.
• Revitalize: We partner with churches to see them move from surviving to thriving, reproducing congregations.

Again, this is what we’re about. We identify young men who are faithful and able to teach others also in order to deploy them to plant, revitalize, or serve other churches. By joining with Pillar, we will be able to further help other churches who want to do what we’re already doing.

At our members’ meeting this Sunday night, February 28, the pastors will introduce The Pillar Network so you may have an opportunity to learn more about it. The Lord has exciting things ahead for us, and it is a joy to be able to partner with other churches for greater kingdom impact.

Love,

Pastor Juan