On June 4, 2012, my wife and I began a journey that would take us halfway across the United States of America. We were moving from our home state of Oklahoma, leaving all of our friends and family behind, and would arrive 2 days later in our new home state, Connecticut. We had no idea what would happen as we had accepted a call to start a new church in the town of Putnam in what is called the “Quiet Corner” of the state. It’s one of the last truly rural areas of southern New England, and I quickly fell in love with the people, the pace of life, and all that this region has to offer. I knew I would love serving Jesus here.
I recently stood before our church’s covenant members and shared a bit of GVC’s history with them. Many of them have joined as a member in the past two years and haven’t had a chance to see all that God has done to get our church to where we are now. Allow me a few minutes of your time as I share our journey with you.
Shortly after arriving in Connecticut, we began a Bible study for our core team. There were a few families that had a dream of starting an SBC church in Putnam for many years, but they went through several different planter candidates before they found the right fit. On August 12, 2012, we met at Victoria Station Café for tasty snacks and some Bible. There were 10 people that night. This picture (below) was taken shortly after we landed in CT in June.
From left to right: Back row - Shaun Pillay (NAMB Catalyst), Bruce James, Jennifer Hamilton, Riley Prather, Marcia Buehner, Scott Hamilton; middle row - Deshni Pillay, Caleb Hamilton; front row - Bethany Hamilton, Kassie Prather, Sarah Hamilton, and Tim Buehner
Bible studies back then were simple. We opened the Bible, read a story, and applied it to our lives. We didn’t collect offerings yet, as we weren’t officially a church. No bank account. No legal status. Just a group of people with a dream. The focus of my teaching was after one singular subject: What would it look like for us to start a church that Hell could not stop? That would mean that we chased hard after one goal: to make disciples who would turn around and make other disciples. We wanted to instill a faith that would reproduce, which would eventually mean that our church would reproduce.
Worship in those days was nonexistent at first - we were a small group, so I didn't want it to be weird. Eventually we grew enough that singing wouldn't be as awkward, so we began to worship by singing along with some of the most popular Christian worship songs of the day. We were given a projector by our denominational partner, the Baptist Convention of New England, so we were able to display the lyrics to those songs. Our sound system was little more than a set of computer speakers. Although it was minimal, they could get loud enough that people enjoying dinner next door at 85 Main could hear our songs. We did that for nearly 6 months, until Joshua Smith and his wife Katie moved from Oklahoma to fill the post as our first worship leader. They arrived in Connecticut in July of 2013 with one cube worth of furnishings and a baby on the way. Katie is a very small woman...when she arrived in the northeast, the baby was ready to arrive! She would have their daughter, Dakoda, within 8 weeks of planting their lives in New England. Suddenly, our church was growing by default.
Somebody snapped this while I was teaching during that early winter. In the summer I would have to stop teaching to allow motorcycles and ambulances to pass by.
The "sermons" in that day would be a little bit of Bible teaching, followed by a discussion question for application.
We eventually began to worship together. We'd play a song on the computer, throw up lyrics on the wall, and sing. Worship in those days was lead by Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman, although they never knew it.
Around a year later, we knew it was time for us to officially launch the church. We would welcome the public in and we would cast that vision to become a disciple of Jesus. The problem we were facing was that we were a church with no permanent home, nor did we have the finances to have a permanent home. I think we were averaging around $200 per week in the offering – hardly enough to pay the bills. Since God had given Kassie and me a home big enough to house an office, we began looking for venues that we could utilize on Sunday mornings. I swung for the fence and had a meeting with Teri Bruce, Putnam Middle School’s principal. We ended up signing a contract for 6 weeks to meet in the cafeteria. We used the Teacher’s Lounge for our nursery. Our Sunday evening Bible study grew to around 25 people. When we moved to the school and changed meeting times, we plummeted down to 12 because of work schedule conflicts.
The cafeteria was quite empty on the Sunday before we launched.
But, God wasn’t finished yet. In faith, we held our first public worship service. 73 folks showed up that day. We were beside ourselves with Joy that others showed up to hear the message of Jesus.
I made someone mad in my very first sermon. I guess I said something that they took offense to. Not super proud of that. I write that here to illustrate how much we all needed to grow.
We settled into an average of 42 people in the fall of 2013, including around 8 folks who had moved over from a church that had just closed their doors. A few of those folks were a little older and had a ton of life experience. One of our young guys (who was 19 at the time) came to me and said, “Pastor Riley, I think we’re a legitimate church now. We have old people. This is awesome!”
We would show up every Sunday around 8:30 am and would unpack a 6x12 covered trailer full of equipment. Half of it would go to the “nursery,” the other half would go to the worship center. Our core team would get jacked on coffee from Dunkin’ and we would go after it. After service, we’d begin tearing it all down and packing it away.
That process got old. Especially when it was 20 degrees outside. Speakers would be cold…the kid’s toys frozen. After about a year of signing a contract every 6 weeks, hoping that the school would let us come back, we knew that our time there was coming to a close. I could just sense it. I didn’t know why, nor did I know what the Lord was up to, but we were supposed to take our 65 people (we had grown during that first year) and move elsewhere.
After passing by a building on the corner of Front and School streets in Putnam for many weeks, I noticed for the first time a “for lease” sign in the window. The awesome folks at the Complex Performing Arts Centre had found a new space on Main Street and had just vacated the property. About a week later, our core team, along with our 16 new church members all agreed, it was time for us to move and that’s where it would be. After completing the zoning approval process with the town of Putnam, along with three months and nearly $30,000 in renovations and equipment, we held our first service at 95 Front Street on December 14, 2014.
We celebrated Christmas with the grand opening of our new facility on Front Street. December 14, 2014.
During that first winter we didn't have volunteer facilities teams yet. I would have to shovel myself into the building just to do work in the offices, which are located on the second floor.
Our building was bare-bones. We barely had chairs. Joshua Smith, GVC’s Worship Arts Pastor didn’t even have a desk. He was using a cheapo computer desk (which would later be replaced by a plastic folding table), along with a chair from his house. We didn’t have near enough nursery supplies, there was no desk or work station in the admin office, and our kids ministry room downstairs had absolutely nothing but two rugs and four walls.
It was incredibly humble, and Jesus met us there. By the fall of 2015, we had grown to an average attendance of around 80 people. We had bumped 100 a few times, but we recognized that we were running out of space. It has become apparent to this Oklahoma boy that New Englanders like their personal space on Sunday mornings – sitting next to a stranger is difficult. What makes it worse is when the room is full of visitors like our church plant was experiencing. It makes for some awkward moments.
In the spring of 2016, our elders made the call that we would shift our worship schedule to accommodate two services on Sunday mornings. We’d offer childcare in the second service, which would start at 10:30 am, and the first service (at 9 am) would be a family-integrated service. Otherwise, they would be identical in structure, music, and sermon.
Because we were in 2 services in a small location, Easter would pose some problems. I had a crazy idea, and yet again swung for the fences. We rented the Bradley Playhouse downtown and hosted our Easter service there. 275 people showed up. It was wild.
As we look back on the past 5 years, we were a few people with a dream that is slowly becoming a reality. In March 2016, the church had an average Sunday attendance of 87 people. In May 2017, we averaged 126 with a high attendance of 136. We grew by 40% in just over a year. When you look at the average growth over the 4 years since we launched the church, that average ticks up to around 50%. We keep track of those stats, not because we’re all about the numbers, but because each number represents a disciple that Jesus wants to SEND out to make disciples who will make other disciples. We don’t need more attenders at Green Valley Crossing. We need more disciple makers. The mission has not changed in the 5 years I’ve lived in Connecticut, or the 4 years that our church has officially existed. We’re not doing our job unless we’re helping Christians reproduce their faith, one person at a time. If we’re not doing that, we’re losing the game. Christ calls us to do things His way, which means that we call people to follow Him, train them up in their faith, and launch them out to advance the Kingdom of God.
As Kassie and I take the month of July off as a sabbatical, we’re cherishing all that God has done in the past 5 years. We’re anticipating with incredible hope all that God will do in the next 5 years.
It’s been an awesome journey so far.
Make Disciples.
Plant Churches.
Saturate.
Replicate.
