Greetings from Berwick and Danville!
It has been one year since officially beginning our church planting residency with Iron Mill Church! I wanted to give you an update on our progress so far and inform you of some of our near-future plans. The Glenn family has been busy “multiplying” our chicken and rabbit populations and playing a lot of Little League Baseball!
Why are we doing this?
As we continue to build relationships and integrate into the community of Berwick, we are continually reminded of the reason we feel called by God to plant a church. People need Jesus. There are roughly 10,000 people living in the Berwick borough and 20,000 people in the Berwick zip code. It is our desire to introduce these people to Jesus and restore the community. We have a goal to start a small group meeting in our home by the end of this summer or early fall. Our hope is that our small group becomes our launch team, and we would launch worship services a year after beginning our small group. So, this means we are looking at late summer or early fall of 2023 for our official launch date.
Personal growth
This year brought many growth opportunities for me. I was officially licensed as a Pastor of the Christian & Missionary Alliance denomination in October, and I have now started the process of full ordination. The ordination track will take 30 months, and I am currently being developed by one mentor alongside of another person in the ordination track. I’m looking forward to this development process!
I have also had the opportunity to preach at Iron Mill and other Alliance churches over the past year. You can view any of my Iron Mill sermons at www.ironmillchurch.com. By reading some books on preaching and being coached by our lead Pastor, Jason Sullivan, I have become more efficient in my sermon preparation, my delivery has started to feel more natural, and I have been relying less on my notes.
Another huge opportunity for growth was my time at Exponential conference. You can read about my Exponential experience in full at www.plantgrowsend.com, but it was a great time learning a lot about church planting, multiplication and building relationships with other like-minded folks from our district.
Lastly, the Greenhouse residency program has played the most impact in my growth. I have now wrapped up Phase 2 of the Greenhouse plan. There are 4 phases total. I feel the specific areas of growth have all been beneficial to me, especially in the areas of preaching, leadership, and prayer.
Growth at Iron Mill
Over the past year, we have had many opportunities to observe and learn about healthy church culture. First, we were a part of a small multiplication within Iron Mill. We had joined a community group in Bloomsburg, which quickly grew out of the living room space. Last Fall, we multiplied into a second Bloomsburg community group. While it was hard initially to leave the relationships we had been building, leading this group has been a great blessing!
On Easter Sunday, we saw four people publicly proclaim their commitment to follow Jesus by being baptized! One of these individuals was our oldest son, Declan! A few weeks prior, we saw a couple being baptized, just a few hours before they renewed their vows! We have also seen two salvations (in 2022 so far!) and multiple people re-dedicate their lives to Jesus. Praise God for lives being changed!
We have also seen an emphasis on evangelism. On December 26 and January 2, I and Pastor Jason preached two messages on the “BLESS” Lists, which focuses on sharing the gospel through ordinary rhythms of life. We have also committed to increasing the budget for local evangelism to 10%, increasing the percentage incrementally over the course of the next few years.
We have also seen a commitment to consistent and predictable patterns of prayer within Iron Mill. Each Sunday, members of the Prayer Team are available after the service. The Elders pray over their shepherding groups and church matters during one of their monthly meetings. Community groups are praying for one another. We also see a full service dedicated to prayer once a quarter and other times of prayer being added to worship services.
A personal story
I had the opportunity to see someone begin their relationship with Jesus! We’ll call this person Bill. Bill had met my Dad at the hospital, where my Dad works. They began talking about Jesus, but Bill didn’t have a Bible. My Dad told Bill he should check out Iron Mill because we would give him a free Bible. Bill came one Sunday while I was away, and one of our Elders, Sam, met Bill and gave him a Bible. When I met Bill the following Sunday, he told me he had lots of questions about the Bible and wanted to chat. His questions boiled down to, “how do I know if I will go to heaven when I die?” After walking through the Romans Road with Bill, he prayed and accepted Jesus into his life! Praise God for life change!
Thank you!
If you have prayed or given financially, you have played a part in our church planting process! THANK YOU! We would ask that you continue to pray for God’s guidance as we build relationships in Berwick and look forward to starting a community group in our home in Berwick. We are still looking for more financial partners. If you are interested in supporting our church plant financially, you can send checks made out to Iron Mill Church with “Iron Mill Greenhouse” marked on the memo line. The address is 2 Church Hill Rd, Danville PA 17821. You can also give online at https://ironmillchurch.com/give/ by choosing “Iron Mill Greenhouse” in the drop-down menu instead of “General.”
Thank you for your generosity! We are celebrating God’s faithfulness as we hit the one-year mark of our Greenhouse residency program!
Brandon Glenn
