Visionary Leadership
Guided by our vision, under the leadership of the Executive Director, and the oversight and direction of the Executive Committee (with Pastors from all the Mission Committees of the different Presbyteries across the Southwest), our mission for the next 10 years (by 2029) is to assist the PCA in the Southwest to strategically plant an additional 100 new PCA churches and 10 new RUF chapters in the Southwest Region. We seek to plant churches that are…
- Deeply informed, shaped and fueled by the centrality of the Gospel, in their message, culture and practice.
- Vibrant, faith communities, which nurture individuals in both the knowledge of the grace-centered mes- sage of the Holy Scriptures and the practice of Christian love, for the sake of the church being built up unto the worship and witness of Christ, our King.
- Missional, which means our churches seek to demonstrate and thoughtfully contextualize the truth, beauty and grace of the Gospel in every facet of their ministry, so that the Kingdom of Christ is extended. Such a missional priority aims at the renewal of cities and regions, creative, winsome cultural-engagement and the further multiplication of the Gospel, evidenced by growing churches and new church planting initiatives.
In addition, the Southwest Church Planting Network strongly embraces the strategic, national campus ministry of the PCA, Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), and the synergistic relationship that can exist between church planting and campus ministry. Therefore, in conjunction with our church planting focus, it is our mission to financially assist in starting new RUF chapters on the universities in our region.
Strategic Opportunity
In God’s providence, the Southwest has long stood at the confluence of the cultures of the Americas—both of North and South. This mixing of cultures and peoples fosters an independent, yet innovative spirit, which informs every facet of life in the Southwest—family, ethnicity, spirituality, the arts, business, education, community and city. This rich history and vibrant life has contributed to this area containing 4 of the 5 fastest growing cities of over a million in population in the United States. Combined with other growing, population centers of greater than 100,000, this region’s culture, growth, diversity and lack of Gospel witness summon the Church to strengthen its efforts to extend the Kingdom of Christ.
Resources
In addition to both vision and strategic opportunity, the Network is richly blessed with the economic contributions of our member churches to fuel such a bold church planting vision. With a growing, current, annual budget of more than $800,000, the Network is blessed to be in a position to plant multiple churches and a new RUF chapter in any given year across the entire Southwest Region, now consisting of five Presbyteries including parts of Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri in addition to all of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona.