It is our goal to plant a church where we connect people into an authentic relationship with God and to the church, the Bride of Jesus Christ. We plan to establish a network of churches and develop leaders and a system to support church planters locally to do the work of advancing God’s Kingdom. We will do this by helping to plant or support 7 local churches in the communities that surround our hometown or Reedley, Ca. That is the mid-range goal and we will trust the Holy Spirit to guide us on what He wants us to do after we plant those 7 churches. The first objective is to plant a church in the community of Sanger, Ca.
Sanger has a population of approximately 27,000 people. Sanger has undergone some significant growth and housing developments in the past several years. There are currently 17 churches in Sanger. According to the 2020 US Religion Census 58% of people living in Fresno County do not attend a church or adhere to any religion or belief. Applying these estimates to Sanger would mean 15,600 people in this community alone are unchurched. That is heart breaking.
God has positioned us to reach people in this community for the following reasons; 83.9 of the community is Hispanic and 83.8% of the community live in family households. The average family household size is 3.6 people. In short, we are a good cultural fit for the community of Sanger and our family would fit in well. The median resident age is 34 years of age. Michael and Stephanie are 43 – so still in the window +10 and – 10 years to effectively reach people for Christ in that age range. Most importantly, we want to reach young families for Jesus Christ.
With the exception of Kingsburg, the demographic for the other 6 target communities in Orange Cove, Reedley, Dinuba, Selma, Kingsburg, and Parlier are very similar to that of Sanger. After completing our Sanger church plant, we will look to plant the second church in the community where the Holy Spirit and God leads us. We know that the work will not be easy but we believe that God has called us to this task and where He guides, He will provide.