Church Planting Testimony — Jeff Christianson

From Bible College Ministry to a Call to Church Planting

Hi, my name is Jeff Christensen. I'm in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Part of my calling was I was here at the Bible College where we're recording this session, and I was bearing fruit. You know, I was a teacher here, taught hermeneutics, taught biblical counseling, Book of Colossians, senior staff member, salary, had a three-bedroom condo.

Things were just flowing for me in ministry. Just enjoyed my life here in Southern California. And one of my students had a dad that owns a youth camp in Colorado, and he asked me to come on out and do a family camp.

And it was in 2008, three years ago, that he just dropped the bomb on me, Jeff, I want you to take this youth camp. And I'm thinking, well, there's no way. I'm bearing fruit, I'm in Southern California, I'm not going to move to the middle of the mountains, nowhere, when all this fruit is happening.

And then God brought a verse to mind. It was in John 15 -2, and he says, yes, Jeff, you are bearing fruit, but those who bear fruit, I prune. And one thing I want to exhort any of you, if you're called to church planting, to not shy away from the cross.

The Cost of the Crucified Life in Ministry

Make sure that the cross is included, the crucifixion, the crucified life, if there's a cost. If you're looking for a comfortable, you want to stand up on the stage and be a popular guy and a movie star or whatever, a rock star, church planting is going to eat you alive.

And there needs to be that willingness to go to the cross, not go around the cross or over it, but to be crucified with Christ. And I think that when that call came, it was a sacrifice. It was, okay, I'm going to give up the comforts.

And that pruning came, and I needed the pruning. There were some areas of my heart, there were some areas of my life that needed to be pruned. And when I went there to take that, the next thing you know, the Calvary Chapel down the road, the pastor come and asked me, he says, hey, I want you to take the Calvary Chapel.

My wife is sick, and it's time that we move on. Will you take the church? So I took a little mountain town church. And my heart began to stir for these mountain towns. And so what has happened in the time that I've been there we took a team from the Bible College, and we planted a Bible College extension campus that we equip church planters at.

Equipping Church Planters Through Local Ministry

And so we use this mountain town church to raise up church planters, to raise up pastors in the context of real lives, real people, real church, men and women that have prodigal sons, those that are sick and in the hospital, visitations, pulpitime.

So that's what we're doing with that. In the meanwhile, I drove up the mountain to another town called Glenwood Springs, and we've been there for a year planting Calvary Chapel Glenwood Springs. And so much favor, even in a kind of a new age community.

And it's been a real blessing, but the battles have been excruciating. It's been a, it has been a battle. And in a couple of verses that I'm reminded of, and one of the pastors shared the same thing, is know your calling.

Calling, Sending, and the Holy Spirit's Guidance

Make your calling and election sure. There's got to be a calling. Paul, called to be apostle. You, called to be a pastor teacher. That's the calling. But then there's the guidance. Where do I go? There's the leading.

And I'm called to a certain area, called to be a pastor teacher, but where am I guided? Where am I leading? And remember in Acts, Acts chapter 13, as they were sitting together ministering to the Lord, the Holy Spirit sent them.

You need to be sent. There needs to be a sending. And so I sensed that we were being sent by the Holy Spirit. And it was my wife and I. It's a team. It's a partnership. She had to be fully in agreement, and actually she heard the call before I did, the leading and the guiding before I did, and I was not wanting to leave my comfort zone.

And she was willing to step out and do that. And so God really speaks to our wives. We've got to listen to our wives. It's just important they get that intuition, don't they, where they can have such a tight walk with Jesus.

And a lot of times we want to listen to what our wives have to say. And so sit long enough to hear from God. Where am I going? And God will give you a heart for community. I love the mountains. I'm a mountain man.

I live near Aspen, Colorado, where it's just rivers and the culture of fly fishing and hunting and hiking and camping and all of that kind of stuff. I can go about and do the things I love and tell the people the culture about Jesus.

Mission to Rural Mountain Communities

And so I'm right in the midst of things I love to do, and I talk to people about Jesus. I'm a missionary in the mountains, and I just love it. And those small mountain towns, and so I have a heart for villages, and it's very rural.

It's not city by any means. Our towns are 1 ,500 people here and maybe 8 ,000 people there and small mountain towns. Another verse that just was strong in my heart was in Acts chapter 20 where Paul said, None of these things move me.

Tenacity Amid Spiritual Opposition and Discouragement

There needs to be a tenacity because of the battles. In Nehemiah, you see the sand ballots, the Tobiahs, the Gershom, the Arab. They'll come against you like a flood, and it's like, What in the world is going on?

I'm serving you, Lord. And the battles that can come, but you have to have a tenacity. None of these things move me. I'm pressing forward. I'm moving upward with Jesus. And so I think there needs to be, even in the times of discouragement, when I say, You know what?

I'm done. I'm going to go back, and I'm going to be a mechanic. I'm going to just go to church with my wife and my kids and just be a good Christian. Oh, man, why am I doing what I do? But you know what?

I've been ruined for Jesus. I can do nothing else because of my testimony. I'm an ex-druggie, and, I mean, God pulled me out of the pit, and He saved me, and so I want to apprehend what I've been apprehended for.

And I know it's to be a pastor teacher, and I know it's to bring the gospel to these small villages and mountain towns. There are so many towns out in Colorado. If you want to do a mountain town church plant, we've got a Bible College Extension Campus.

I'll let you live in a cabin. I'll feed you. I'll let you commute until you get established in Salida, maybe Rifle, maybe Gunnison, maybe Crested Butte, some surrounding small mountain town communities.

Get a job, get settled, and plant a church. It's my heart. I want to see the Rocky Mountains, all the villages, filled with little churches. And it's not going to be a big mega church ever, but it will be a joy.

Planting Churches by the Spirit and the Word

And I really am praying that that's what our college and campus is about, is equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. And, you know, another verse that really impacted me is, as I was teaching, you know, verse by verse, it's what we do, what I'm going through in my mind.

Acts 1, verse 8, and I was just flooded with the reminder that we're to plant churches, and it needs to be by the power of the Holy Spirit. And I think that we don't want to forget that. Acts 2 .42, keep it simple.

You know, you look around at all the other churches and what they're doing and how they're growing, and, you know, they've got the emergent, and they've got the seeker-friendly, and they've got the mixture of everything.

I really fit because there's nothing like exposition going on in the community. Actually, for 20 years, there hasn't been a new church plant. There's actually been churches that have dissolved or gone liberal.

And so I just am so encouraged. As you go in there and you bring forth the Word of God verse by verse, it's small beginnings. We rented, I drove by a high school, went and talked to the principal. I says, was there any place in here where you could, you know, could we rent to use it?

And she goes, well, let me show you. Beautiful auditorium. It's an auditorium slash cafeteria where they do dinner plays with a stage, sound system, everything. Nice, brand new, 2010, just built. Well, this work, 250 people seat, I'm thinking, wow, this is awesome.

And I'm just inquiring. Well, she pulls out the paperwork and she says, when do you start your church? I says, well, I'm just kind of, you know, inquiring. This was January 2010. She goes, I want a church in here.

And I'm thinking, okay. She goes, when do you start? And I says, well, how about Easter? I mean, I was almost, and I went home. I said to my wife, Jenny, I says, you know, we're starting a church. And so that's pretty much the story.

It's a neat thing to step out in faith. So may God bless you guys. In Jesus' name, amen.