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Feb 01

Total Community Involvement Leads to New Church Plant in Eastern Kentucky

Paola Mora Zepeda

Kevin Burk, pastor, delivers the divine worship sermon. Burk spoke about “Sola Escritura,” encouraging members to trust God’s Word above anything else.

Paola Mora Zepeda

Narlon Edwards introduces Willy Means, incoming Stanton mayor, who attended the special Sabbath service to show his support for the church plant. During a short speech, he thanked the Red River Outpost for their work in the Stanton community.

Paola Mora Zepeda

Church members kneel for dedicatory prayer in which they thanked God for the new church plant in Stanton, Ky., and asked for blessings in the growth journey ahead.

Paola Mora Zepeda

Total Community Involvement Leads to New Church Plant in Eastern Kentucky

Through the outreach efforts of the Red River Outpost, a faith-based wellness center and training school, members of the Winchester, Ky., Church have started a new mission group in Stanton, Ky. The church had a dedication service on December 3, 2022, with more than 35 people in attendance.

The Red River Outpost began its ministry in 2018 with the goal to demonstrate Christ’s healing love through service, one community at the time. In addition to a wellness program, training school and plant-based bakery and restaurant, staff and students wanted to focus on Total Community Involvement (TCI) – an initiative that is designed to find and meet the needs of people in Stanton, where the ministry is based.

“So, we were basically going out into the community and offering real physical help for free, like cleaning people’s gutters and helping people fix their floors,” said Narlon Edwards, Red River Outpost director. “We also started doing Bible studies, but when we invited those people to the Winchester Church, it was a struggle because they saw it as a long drive.”

For six months, Stanton Church pioneers, with the support of the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference, created a strategic plan for the growth of a new church plant. As they were in the planning stages, their Red River Outpost connections led them to the Shiloh United Methodist Church, which was willing to rent its building.

“The biggest concern was, can we afford to do this?” said Kevin Burk, pastor of Winchester and Stanton churches. “By God's grace, the Red River team had some funds that had been donated to them for evangelism. And so, we had the Red River Outpost contribute half [of the funds] and the Winchester Church contributed the other half. Now we have a year’s worth of rent in the bank.”

The Stanton Church had a special service on December 3, 2022, to dedicate the new church plant. Attendees included Rocky Davis, Conference publishing director, and Willy Means, incoming Stanton mayor. Many community members also came to support.

According to Edwards, a big focus of the Stanton Church will be service and health paired with evangelism. They want to continue encouraging TCI by creating a model where every member is participating in ministry. Burk adds that they want to replicate this strategy for future growth.

“My desire and prayer are that God will richly bless this new effort, because it's His power that makes things go,” said Burk. “I pray that a year or two from now, there will be another story talking about another church plant somewhere out in this area.”

Kentucky-Tennessee | February 2023

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