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Church Planting Never Gets Old
By John W. Kennedy | July 23, 2008
Since this article appeared in Today’s Pentecostal Evangel on July 29, 2007, Pastor Dan Estes has once again returned to full-time ministry and church construction is complete. “We’re attracting many young people who weren’t going to church,” Estes said recently. “Stories of people embracing Christ are so refreshing. It helps me realize why I have done what I’ve done.”
Middle Age: A Great Time to Return to Church Planting
By John W. Kennedy in Indianapolis
After 16½ years, Dan R. Estes had grown to love the members of Living Hope Church in Merrillville, Ind. He led an established congregation of 550 adherents that had more than doubled in size since his arrival. He supervised a staff of 37, most of whom worked for the day-care center the church operated. During his tenure, Living Hope hadn’t experienced any splits over leadership, worship style, finances or other issues.
But Estes had grown a little too comfortable.
“I felt I had become the keeper of the aquarium rather than a fisher of men,” Estes says.
By middle age, many pastors are simultaneously looking back wistfully at their careers and carefully planning ahead for retirement. Dan Estes instead set out to find a location where Christ needed to be proclaimed. He found it in Lawrence, a city on the east edge of Indianapolis with more than 60,000 residents and no Assemblies of God church.
A little more than a month before his 56th birthday, Dan Estes embraced the bivocational life he left behind a quarter century ago. He is a church planter — and a full-time car salesman.
In order to support his family, by day Estes is a preferred customer manager at an auto dealership, able to communicate with congregants via his BlackBerry at a moment’s notice. During the evenings and on weekends he’s typing church bulletins, visiting the sick in hospitals, writing sermons and preparing a worship music set.
Sharon, his wife of 35 years, is an English teacher at a local community college as well as the church secretary, janitor and keyboardist.
At a time in life when most people are trying to minimize risk, Estes is living proof that middle age isn’t too late to go out on a limb and pursue a ministry challenge.
“If you’re not afraid to start over, this can be fun,” Estes says. Striking out on his own with no support from a mother church, Estes planted a new Living Hope Church on the edge of Indianapolis a couple of years ago. He and Sharon accessed the money they had set aside for retirement, and those funds are helping as they pioneer the new congregation. They left their home in suburban Chicago for more modest digs in suburban Indianapolis.
The move has meant both sacrifice and stretching. In Merrillville, Living Hope had excellent musicians and singers. At the church plant, Estes is the worship leader and sole guitarist. He’s learned how to be computer savvy. He even helps clean toilets in Living Hope’s restrooms.
Around 60 people attend Living Hope. Although a few have been in a pew every Sunday for decades, most have never attended church, or at least not been in a sanctuary for a long time.
“My target is people who are sleeping in on Sunday morning,” Estes says.
A month ago, Living Hope moved into its own building, after nearly two years of renting facilities from another Pentecostal church nearby. But even more than improved facilities, Estes is passionate about transformed souls.
“I want to see people change on their journey with Christ,” he says. “Sometimes that involves baby steps. I don’t want to lose anyone on the way.”
Estes knows from experience the Christian walk is a process. His parents divorced when Estes was 4. By age 17, living with his mother and third stepfather, Estes looked forward to getting away from his Louisville, Ky., home and going to college. As a senior in high school he already had landed a job with an architectural firm and saw that profession as his ticket to a better life.
He also had another obsession: a 1963 Oldsmobile Cutlass with bucket seats. His sister Pat Walters, then 31, promised to co-sign on a car loan if he would come to church with her. On his third Sunday attending, Estes made a salvation commitment to Jesus.
Despite his architecture desire and skills, Estes opted to attend Central Bible College in Springfield, Mo., for a year to start learning about Scripture. He figured the Lord would bless his architecture career if he made such a sacrifice. However, that year in school changed his thinking. He stayed at CBC for four years.
Upon graduation, Estes, at 22, planted a church in Richmond, Ky., and left five years later. By then the congregation had grown to 175. Later he pioneered a church in Paducah, Ky., that attracted 75 congregants in his two years there.
After pastoring a couple of other churches, Estes settled in for the lengthy stretch in Merrillville. When he arrived, the tight church budget didn’t even allow for the purchase of postage stamps. When he left, members donated $100,000 annually to missions.
“We loved the people a lot, but we thought it was time to leave,” Estes says. “The only logical thing seemed to be to start a new church.”
Of course, it’s a bittersweet experience to leave behind parishioners whose faith has been strengthened, babies who have grown to teenagers, a worship team (including Sharon) that recorded a compact disc, and a full-time youth pastor who had befriended 17-year-old son Daniel. In addition, the couple’s 28-year-old daughter Ashley Monroe, her husband, Sean, and their 8-month old son, Aidan, still attend Living Hope in Merrillville, 150 miles away.
But if anyone can plant a church in the wake of such an upheaval, it’s Estes, who obtained his master’s degree from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Mo., in 2004. He is jovial yet sincere; tenderhearted but frank; well educated though still in tune with common folks; full of dry humor yet serious when driving home a biblical point in a sermon.
The seasoned shepherd knows the personal touch is key to making newcomers feel welcome. A simple breakfast is served before the Sunday morning service. Children get to pick candy from a box as they are dismissed following worship. Before and after the meeting Estes inquires how various congregants’ jobs are going. If anyone misses a Sunday service he is quick with a follow-up phone call. He sends handwritten birthday greetings to attendees.
The new property is situated on 4½ acres. The initial building seats 100, but Estes has a timetable for growth and eventually believes the church will grow to 400, at which time a daughter congregation will be planted. By then Estes will be a full-time pastor, no longer selling vehicles.
Estes has assured attendees he is staying for the long haul.
“I don’t think about retirement and I have no intention of going anywhere else,” Estes says. “This is going to be a great church.”
Topics: church planting |
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:11 am
Wow, what a great, inspirational story. Gives me hope that, while much, much younger (OK, one year younger), that I, too, can make the years count for the Master.
August 17th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!