Church Planting on the Florida District — our vision

To paraphrase the prophet Jeremiah, “We have been given land we did not toil and cities we did not build…we eat from vineyards we did not plant and drink from wells we did not dig.” As those in the past have done for us, we are called to do for others.

Imagine what our district would look like:

o   If we stopped running from our urban communities and returned to plant churches in each of the 10 poorest zip codes across our district. 

o   If we planted a church in every city of 15,000 people or more. This would lead us to start over 30 new churches in cities like Daytona Beach, Palm Harbor, Palm Coast, Mt. Dora, Ormond Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Ruskin, Keystone, Yulee, Fernandina Beach, Bartow, Maitland, Auburndale, Groveland, Middleburg, Orange City, and Celebration.

o   If we had a church for every 50,000 people living in Central and Northern Florida. That would bring our total to 240 churches, including 40 in the Orlando metro, 60 in Tampa metro, 19 in the Jacksonville metro, and 7 in the Tallahassee metro, the four largest cities in our district.

Now when I talk about having 240 churches, I mean 240 local expressions of church, families of faith following Jesus and living on mission together. They can meet in homes, parks, restaurants, coffee shops, gyms, dog parks, or wherever the Spirit opens the door. They can be a community of 20 or 200 or 2,000.

– from 2022 Annual Report by District Superintendent Dale Schaeffer