In the Trenches Chapter 1

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In The Trenches

Copyright © 2011 by David Proftt

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical,

photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher,

except as provided by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Aaron Cosner

First printing, 2011

Printed in the United States of America

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author. All Scripture quotations are from the NKJV® Bible, copyright © 1982 by Thomas

Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN-13 9780615485379

ISBN-10: 0615485375



A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

Just a quick word of appreciation to Jonathan “Speedy” Claxton forusing his college education from the University of South Florida to assist

with corrections and changes to this written project. Additionally, how grateful we all are to the church planting pastors representing the AletheiaNetwork, whose sincere faith, dedication to the body of Christ andunfailing love for God and people, have resulted in countless people being beneted for eternity.



f O r W A r D

This book is about church planting. A few years ago I found myself in a group of roughly thirty Christianleaders, hammering out ministry strategy in a hotel conference room onthe campus of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.—Ididn’t really know why I was there. The meeting was to be held untillunch time. Ten of those present were given a half-hour to talk aboutministry and their specialty. That would mean about ve hours or so of

information and then a break for lunch. I was told as the meeting began

that I would speak last. I thought to myself, “Great, just when everyonegets hungry and wants to nish up and go to lunch.” Besides, I didn’t

even know I was supposed to speak and had nothing prepared. So, as themeeting commenced, I grabbed a piece of scrap paper and began to writedown some important points that we eventually entitled, “Aletheia’s TenPoints for Collegiate Church Planting.” Though not a very sophisticated

way for recording the model, it has proven useful. Now I have to tellyou, lunch is pretty important to me. However, as I was sharing the Ten

Points to the group—and as the clock was moving well past noon (ourpre-selected time to stop)—I was more than willing to nish and head for

the door. However, the leaders in the room enthusiastically urged me tokeep going. I continued, and no one was angry or irritated with me. They seemed to demonstrate the same level of excitement about these biblicalprocesses as I did.

So that’s roughly how this book began.

One more thought before we move on: I have attempted to write thisin a way which should benet any church planter, no matter what the

particular church plant demographic happens to be. Our demographic(collegiate) is valued greatly by those I currently serve God with. I realizeeveryone is at a different place in church planting and ministry. Therefore,a lot of the following content will prove to be either biographical orautobiographical: information based upon real life experience and strategy forged out of the foundry of lives that have been living by faith. Our

goal is to assist the “under-challenged” church (a phrase coined by Craig O’Brian). Hopefully this will be helpful to everyone—whatever they aredoing for God and wherever that may be.

So let’s begin.



Explosions, ambushes, in-coming, automatic weapons and cries andshouts of death and pain I thought I had left behind me when I departed

the Republic of South Vietnam as a 19 year old combat infantry Marinein 1969. But then again, I never expected to be called by God into theamazing, challenging and often spiritually and emotionally crushing worldof church planting.

“Church planting,” it sounds so intriguing and adventurous for the uninitiated.But as thrilling and fullling as it absolutely is, it’s best described as an

ambush waiting to happen. It is a re-ght of major proportions that—like

my combat experiences in Vietnam—possesses times of absolute solaceintermingled with the craziest living-on-the-edge moments conceivable; someof which are near panic while others, pure amazement.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of church planting. Thereprobably exists no greater advocate than me. At the time of this writing Ihave invested nearly thirty-ve years into this God-ordained and designed

effort and calling. In fact, the primary reason for this book is to both

theologically and practically educate, inform, motivate and encouragekingdom-minded people into this great effort of God. All of that being said, within church planting lies the capacity for taking the most idealisticand optimistic soul, pulverizing them and then grinding them into someform of thrown-to-the-side ecclesiastical powder. Sometime before

writing “This Present Darkness” Frank Peretti said, “I tried pastoring forve years, but quite frankly, it ended up making me a little crazy.” Ratchet

the degree of difculty up a few notches from pastoring to church

planting and you can understand what I am talking about.

The direction of this book will be basic and simple. I know how busy everyone is. But if you will stay with me until the end you may just walk away with something that will both enhance your ministry experienceand motivate you to keep going. Hopefully you will receive a signicant

amount of biblical informational stimulation as well.

Oh, one other thing: I will be morphing things slightly but basically the

chapters of this book will be “Aletheia’s Ten Points for College ChurchPlanting”, formatted to assist church planters and church planting for

whatever demographic applicable.

So here we go:



EvEryThiNG MuST bE

iNiTiATED frOM ThE CONTExT

Of TEAM DEvELOpMENT

Most of us are familiar with Ecclesiastes 4:12, “Though one may beoverpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord isnot quickly broken.” The NIV uses the word “strands.” We have somefriends in California who started a clothing company called STRAND,

based off of this verse. As far as I know, the clothing company didn’tmake it but the application of the verse rings true: God designed churchplanting to be accomplished within a team dynamic.

Let’s look for a moment at Acts Chapter 13, verses 1 and 2. Here we havethe beginning of the Apostle Paul’s church planting efforts:

“Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and

teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene,

Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.”

To say the church in Antioch was sufciently represented by competentspiritual leadership would be an understatement. These ancient leadersand brothers came from different demographics, social statuses andgeographical locations. They were a highly balanced group of leaders.

“As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said,

‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which Ihave called them.’”

God had a specic design in mind for church planting. Sitting at the top

of the qualiers was the concept of developing a team. The strategicpoint being laid down reads something like this: “Don’t start a church



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without being surrounded by a competent group of people.” Pleasebelieve me, we need to be extremely careful not to challenge God on thisone! Yet it happens all of the time.

Many areas of vital importance are communicated here. Permit me todraw out two.

1. “As they ministered” There are plenty of words in the Greek N.T. forthe concept of “to serve” or “minister.” There is διακονεω, δουλευω,

ιερουργεω, εργαζοµαι, λατρευω and one of my favorites, υπηρετεω, which Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 to describe himself as he is being personally attacked by the Corinthian church: “Hey, back off Corinthian

friends, I am just an under-rower, a galley slave for God!”

The word used in Acts 13:2 is different than all of these. It is λειτουργεω which means to serve at one’s own expense without expecting

anything in return.

2. “And fasted” Fasting is designed to represent focus and dedication,dependency and sincerity and self-denial and sacrice. When attached

to prayer, Jesus uses this as a brief tutorial for tapping into an intensiedapplication of the supernatural intervention of God (more on this laterin the book).

Let’s identify some of the essential characteristics necessary for thosethat we would want to be a part of our future church planting team.Characteristics we can isolate include:

People who are willing to serve God at their own expense1. without expecting anything in return.People who demonstrate a high level of dependence on God,2.being both seless and self-sacricial.

Ask yourself this question: Wouldn’t you want to launch something new for God with people like that?

Now think about some of those well-intentioned people that you and I

have attempted to serve God with in the past. Without question, the degreeof projected church planting competency undeniably rests not only uponsurrounding ourselves with a qualied team but also upon having those very team members—regardless of their gifts, talents or experience—reecting

servant qualities which are both seless and self-sacricial.



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We started our rst church in north San Diego County, California in1976. I was 25 years old and to characterize myself as “ill-prepared”

would be an understatement. I used to say a 25 year-old lead pastoris one of the most dangerous things on the planet (based on my ownpersonal experience). But I don’t say that anymore due largely to someof the incredible young men (and young women) that I see accomplishing ministry tasks and fullling leadership roles in the church today.

After two years of college in Florida and Washington D.C.—and afternearly killing myself through “death by barbiturates”—I made it toCalifornia. Here I entered a small bible college, met my wonderful wifeShirley, got married, nished school and headed down the California coast

line to the county of San Diego.

Awaiting us there was a small group of people including a friend fromschool named Mel Holland. Mel is a southern Californian from thecity of Downey in L.A. County. He began a career-path after high-school at Northrop Engineering. Later, Mel was called from a life of potentially making big dollars into a life of vocational ministry. Along

with a second guy who left before my arrival, Mel had worked for six

months cultivating a group of about 18 people. Sacricing for this new and developing church, he chose to live in a storage container and atemostly popcorn (I’m not kidding, the guy had lost 50 lbs. since the lasttime I saw him). Mel was brilliant theologically and cared nothing abouthimself, only others and the church of God. I had no clue that it wouldbe nearly impossible for Shirley and I to survive without existing withina team context with members like Mel. But then again there was God— supervising and connecting us with this indescribably valuable teammember. Needless to say, Shirley—with her superior ability to managefood issues—took care of Mel’s weight loss and we worked together forthe next sixteen and a half years planting churches!

In the spring of 1986, nine believers from our original church plant inNorth San Diego County decided to go to Spain and plant a church in aprovincial capital by the name of Cuenca, about a 3 hour train ride fromMadrid. We hardly spoke any Spanish and were thoroughly naïve aboutcontextualization. We just tried to observe and understand the basic

biblical church planting processes (team, prayer, biblical orthodoxy, pick a strategic location, make disciples, be friendly, etc). So as a faction of dedicated and adventurous followers of God, we decided to see how theGreat Commission could be more personally and organically expressedthrough our efforts cross-culturally. This group included Mel, my family of four, a sign painter, a car mechanic, a college student and a former



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missionary to Nepal, India and Africa who was in her sixties. Imaginehow weird we must have looked as we walked around the streets andparks of that provincial Spanish capital! How we must have “stood out”as we went shopping, performing simple, daily activities. But within a few

weeks following the team’s arrival we were having groups of Spanish guysin their teens and early twenties participating in things which could only be described as strategically pre-evangelistic activities.

The adventure didn’t end there. When Shirley and I moved from North SanDiego Co. to Riverside Co. California in the spring of 1993 to revitalize achurch, it didn’t surprise me at all to discover the church that I was to serve at

was on the corner of Melvin and Holland Roads. No kidding, that was the

address of the church! I had gone to school and worked with Mel Hollandfor nearly two decades and God was not about to allow me to forget theenormous contribution this incredible servant of God made in our lives andof course, the importance of doing ministry within a team context.

As people involved and interested in church planting, we must be awareof the very clear intent from the Word of God: we are to nd andconnect with competent and available future team members, “cords’

and “strands” that God will be preparing to accomplish future effectiveministry with. If we commit to the design of God, pray, cultivaterelationships, share the vision, equip and recruit, God will bring thepeople…and he may just bring lots of people.

During the late summer and early fall of 2001 we began to plant our rst

college church (called Aletheia) in the state of Virginia. The vision-leaderand future pastor of this church was Aaron Proftt, my son. Aarondesired to transition to the East Coast, enroll in a major university and gethis masters degree in Sports Administration while starting a bible study in his apartment. James Madison University became the place. Aaronproceeded to surround himself with a team. This team included my wifeand me, a friend Chris and later Aaron’s sister, Amy. It was a small butstrategic team. Aaron cast the vision, led worship, evangelized and ledsmall groups. Shirley was the hospitality pro which became indispensableas a ministry extension and tool. Chris connected well with just aboutanyone and I possessed experience. Over the course of nine years that

“home bible study” grew to roughly 900 people and has since become thehub and beginning of an entire church planting network!

The subsequent reality is that the people God provides will representincredible ministry potential. These are people who will serve God out of their own resources without even thinking about compensation—people



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who are seless, people who understand hard work as well as smart work (diligence and wisdom), people who understand loyalty and people who have a passion for God and will do absolutely anything to see Hiskingdom furthered. They will all have the same spiritual DNA, no matter

where you go to plant a church. A sacricial Stu and Karen or Dave andRalean on the West Coast will be very, very similar to a Brandon and Ann,

Jay and Erin, George and Jenny or Jon Halterman from the East. Thesepeople (and so many more I couldn’t possibly begin to name) all have thesame spiritual foundation. They possess a church planting/reproducing ministry mentality. The work will absolutely get done and they don’t careif they invest either their last dollar or their last ounce of energy to see ithappen. They will lay down their lives for Jesus and what is important to

Him. Nothing on earth or from Hell will stop them, and I mean nothing!

That’s exactly what the Apostle Paul experienced. He began with himself,Barnabas and John Mark (Acts 13:2, 3, 5). By the end of his churchplanting endeavors the bible records:

“And Sopater of Berea accompanied him to Asia also Aristarchus

and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and

Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia” (Acts 20:4).

That’s quite a group! The text doesn’t even mention some of his otheramazing team members like Silas, Titus or even Luke—the writer of the book of Acts!

These believers represented skills and gifts suited for the rst century.God is right now preparing people for your future team: graphic artistsand musicians, social experts and administration people, evangelists,shepherds, hospitality pros, disciple makers, even tech and soundengineers. He’s also preparing those with the muscles and creativity to set up and tear down a portable church. One of our future churchplanters told me a story about a young couple who will be helping him

with his rst church plant. Upon learning that the location might change they replied, “Well, we are committed to the church plant, not necessarily to the location!” Trust me, there are more people out there than wecan possibly imagine just waiting to be involved in the next church

planting experience. Someone once said, “Happiness is belonging, notbelongings.” Many followers of God are being prepared to “belong” andbecome part of a future church planting team. They have been called andare being prepared by God. Their dissatisfaction with ordinary living isthe motivational catalyst for getting them to where they need to be.

In the Trenches Chapter 1

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