03/30/06 :: Hometown church planting, part 2
Smithsburg, MD >> In their four years at Covenant Life Church (Gaithersburg, MD), Trav and Cindy Neumann have been commuting from near Frederick for almost every meeting—a round-trip drive of more than 100 miles. Last fall their prayers were answered when Covenant Life announced a church plant in Frederick. Here is their story…
We have been at Covenant Life Church since January 2002 and live in Smithsburg, Maryland, about 20 miles west of Frederick. Our Sunday commute to Covenant Life is 53 miles one-way. As we prayed about the challenges of having a church home so far away, we sensed God called our family to Covenant Life for some reason, and for a specific season. We did not know for how long, but we proceeded in faith that we were to be there.
Well, we just fell in love with Covenant Life and grew in so many ways over the past four years. We have been blessed by the consistent preaching of God’s word, the humility of the leadership, the passionate worship, love for our care group, instruction in marriage, raising our children, and the joy and privilege of serving the church in whatever way we can given our distance. Yet what was also growing during this period was a longing for a Sovereign Grace church closer to home so that our family, friends, and sphere of 30+ years of relationships could be blessed as well. To that end, we have been praying for a Sovereign Grace church closer to the Smithsburg area since mid-2002.
When the Sunday drive sometimes seemed long, or a midweek one-hour meeting meant three hours and more than 100 miles, we have rested in the sense that God brought us to Covenant Life for a reason. We can’t really describe it except to say our sense of call was to trust him, be faithful to learn, grow, and prepare, and be in faith for a church plant. Maybe one day…. Acts 16:9 was on our lips: “Come over to [our] Macedonia and help us.” Meanwhile, we continued to pray for a church closer to our area and served at Covenant Life with all our hearts. It has been such a joy and privilege, and we are so thankful for the transforming effect this church has had on our family and our personal growth in the pursuit of the grace of the gospel.
We believe God has been faithful in preparing and even calling others to this church plant as well. We were burdened for a church closer to home like the one that was transforming so many lives through the gospel in Montgomery County. It’s just hard to get people to travel 100 miles back and forth to church, let alone be in a small group and serve the church. The distance often raised eyebrows when we were asked what church we attended; yet we believe God created a curiosity and thirst in others as to why we were doing what we were doing. We sensed that what they saw was more than just a “church” experience. God was faithful to turn many short interactions into opportunities to share our passion for the gospel and a gospel-centered, Christ-exalting, God-glorifying church closer to home. As we shared about our experience at Covenant Life with friends and family, many have asked us to let them know if there was ever such a church coming to our area. This list continues to grow and we pray over it as we believe that God is bringing these folks across our path perhaps for such a time as this.
Over the last four years, there had been some chitchat about a possible Frederick church plant by the Covenant Life leadership, but nothing definitive. Cindy and I were sitting together at a small-group leadership conference luncheon in October 2005, where Joshua Harris was to officially announce the Frederick church plant and who the senior pastor of the plant would be. Our hearts were pounding—it was going to be official! When we heard it for the first time and learned that Chris and Marie Silard were called, we just praised God over and over and thanked him for his goodness, kindness, and faithfulness. We look back on this day like “where were you when…they announced the Frederick church plant?!” It is right up there with Kennedy and landing on the moon in our book (!). Admittedly, this draws some strange looks but, hey, when you’re into foolish, lowly, despised, and weakness for the glory of God (1Cor 1:27–28), we WILL boast in the Lord of his planting a church in Frederick!! GLORY TO GOD! The Lord impressed in our spirit at that lunch, in that moment, that our season at Covenant Life was soon to draw to a close, and another season was to begin in Frederick. We look forward to serving Chris and Marie and the rest of the church-planting team. We can’t wait to see what God will do to glorify his name in Frederick County.
Trav and Cindy Neumann
Want to to know more about the Frederick church plant? Read part 1 of the "Hometown church planting" series.