Faron Golden and his wife, Nancy, have been in ministry together for some 25 years.
After more than seven great years in the last pastorate, when he resigned in September 2014, Faron sensed God leading him to “go out with joy, and be led forth in peace.” (See Isaiah 55:12.)
Just more than a year later, Faron accepted God’s call to his new role as a church planter in the Walnut Hill area just south of Dadeville. Faron and Nancy are now serving with Lake Pointe Baptist Church, located on Alabama Highway 50 near its intersection with Alabama Highway 49 in Walnut Hill.
They are very excited and thankful to see how the Lord is at work in Lake Pointe church.
Lake Pointe Baptist Church now has 51 resident members. Since the beginning of 2016, the church had 109 present for a high-attendance Sunday and 10 baptisms. With morning worship services regularly having between 40 and 50 present, Lake Pointe is thankful for the way God is moving and for the guests who join the worship regularly.
Faron has been a pastor of several churches in Alabama and served in ministry with churches in the Carolinas and in Georgia. Nancy is the firstborn daughter of the late Alfred Ikner, an Alabama Baptist pastor for more than 55 years.
Having sensed God’s call to missions several years earlier, both Faron and Nancy are humbled and thankful that God has now given them the assignment to serve “on mission” as church planters. They are committed to exalting Christ and sharing His love through their ministry with Lake Pointe.
God has been blessing their commitment, and it is evident through events at Lake Pointe. The church, still in its first four years of existence, contributed more than $5,200 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions in December.
When the chairman of deacons announced on the last Sunday of the year that Lake Pointe was going to purchase a new, permanent sign and offered congregants the opportunity to contribute toward that goal (separate from regular tithes and offerings), the members gave enough to fully fund the purchase!
Lake Pointe’s strategy for the next three to five years as they move forward in Christ is “Come! Let Us Build!” and includes four lines of operation: faith, leaders, ministries and facilities.
Faron plans to lead the church in “building faith” — both in the sense of growing people’s faith in Christ as well as in the sense of the F.A.I.T.H approach to evangelism (in which many of the church members are already trained). With God’s help, Faron hopes to challenge the church to build leaders.
“We have far too many people in our churches today who are comfortable coming to church on Sunday morning, hearing a good sermon and then going home, often without being challenged and without being changed,” he said. “What we hope to do at Lake Pointe is challenge followers of Christ to grow in their walk with Christ and to become leaders of other followers of Christ.”
The core membership of Lake Pointe has been committed to missions and ministries from the start. Faron and Nancy hope to lead the church in “building ministries” as the third line of operation in the Come Let Us Build strategy.
“When we talk about building ministries,” Faron explained, “we aren’t just talking about Lake Pointe ministry per se. We are talking about ministries in the Kingdom of God. For example, we may be able to partner with other church planters or missionaries or other ministries and help grow their impact in God’s service.”
This year, Faron and Nancy are looking to God to lead Lake Pointe in constructing permanent facilities on the 15-acre campus God has graciously provided. They have already had offers from churches they have previously served to send teams to help with the construction effort, so the Goldens and Lake Pointe are eagerly seeking God’s leadership for the “building facilities” phase of Lake Pointe’s strategy!
For more information about church planting among Alabama Baptists, please contact State Missionary Lamar Duke, lead church planting strategist, at 334-613-3332, or via email at [email protected].
Article originally published at PlantAlabama.org.
by Dogwood