As with any church plant, the Rancho church plant needs committed prayer supporters, one-time financial gifts for startup costs, and short-term financial support for the Trues. But the financial model we are following for the Trues takes a little bit of explanation.
When Grace Bible Church of Menifee was started, the people and nearly all of the resources came from outside of Southern California. Over the long term, our goal is that both the people and the resources for new church plants in Southern California would come from within Southern California (this is what we mean when we use the word “indigenous”). But this won’t happen all at once. As we prepare for church plant #2 in Rancho Cucamonga, we have to admit that we don’t have all of the resources necessary to accomplish this on our own. We will need outside help. But at the same time, we are doing everything we can to make this a church plant from within Southern California.
As part of this commitment, we decided not to send the Trues on the road for years of deputation. We wanted them to be an active part of GBC Menifee, gaining experience in Southern California and building strong relationships with the GBC family. This not only helps to prepare the Trues for the next church plant, but even more importantly it increases the ownership of the church family at Grace in Menifee. In other words, it really helps the GBC Menifee family feel like they are an important part of this next church plant – and that is a big step toward “indigenous” church planting.
This model is possible because Eric is willing to work hard in the dental lab to make up the income they need. Right now about 20% of their income comes from supporting churches and 80% from the lab. That means that Eric is able to put 20% of his work week into GBC ministry, and 80% into the lab. That will obviously not be sufficient ministry time once the next church plant begins.
We are praying that the Lord will provide more short-term church planting support for them, so that when the next church plant launches Eric will only need to work 40% or 20% of his time in the lab.
With the help of the new church family in Rancho and GBC Menifee, the goal is that the Trues would have full-time ministry support very quickly after the new church launches.
