Replant Pastor Information

With the Lord’s guidance and provision, the Flint River Baptist Associational Network is embarking on a significant journey to replant McIntosh Baptist Church in Griffin, Georgia. This page not only outlines the replanting plan but also initiates crucial conversations with candidates who aspire to serve as the replant pastor, emphasizing the pivotal role they will play in this process.   

  • Story

  • Goal

  • Beliefs

  • Key Values

  • Replant Directors

  • Schedule

  • Area Information

Contents of Page

  • Replant Pastor Responsibilities & Qualifications

  • Support Structure, Compensation, & Benefits

  • Photos of McIntosh Campus

  • Instructions for Submitting Resumes

The Story

Over the last decade, McIntosh Baptist Church, founded in 1894, had been declining in membership, and its remaining twenty-four members were mostly senior adults. Average Sunday participation dwindled to fifteen people. Deteriorating attendance, disciple-making energy, and finances pressed Pastor Kevin Murdock to lead the church to consider its future viability. Kevin opened conversations with two ministry friends, Frank Nuckolls, mission strategist of the Flint River Baptist Associational Network (the network), and Thomas Hill, lead pastor of Crestview Baptist Church in Griffin. They agreed that replanting seemed to be the best avenue forward. A team of five network leaders assembled to work with Kevin and McIntosh to develop a replanting plan. On May 5, 2024, the members of McIntosh Baptist Church made the kingdom-minded decision to continue the vision and purpose of the church by proceeding with replanting. They transferred authority to a team of five interim directors from the network to oversee the process.

Join us in praying for the Lord to bless and guide this church replant. We pray that the cooperative efforts of network churches will result in a strong, healthy, new McIntosh Baptist Church that will glorify the Lord by making disciples of Jesus Christ in this community and across the world.

The Goal

The ultimate aim of this replant process is not just to re-establish McIntosh Baptist Church, but to breathe new life into it. The church will believe, preach, and practice sound gospel doctrine and make disciples of Jesus locally and globally. It will be an assembly of baptized believers who covenant together to glorify the Lord and live as a faithful church. It will be a new work that grows through evangelism and loving engagement of our city.

Beliefs

The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 will serve as the doctrinal confession of the replanting process and the new church that will result. This commitment to sound doctrine ensures that the replant pastor, core team, and the new church will operate within a strong theological framework.

Key Values

These key values are the essential DNA that will direct the replanting process and characterize the new church:

Fundamentally Evangelistic

After the core team is formed, the new church will endeavor to grow primarily by engaging the community through evangelism rather than drawing off members from other churches.

A Core Team

The backbone of the replanted church will be recruited from network churches. These individuals, who understand the vision for replanting and desire to participate in helping launch this new work, will become the initial members of the replanted church.

A Clear Purpose

The replant will be promoted by highlighting biblical principles, the state of lostness of the surrounding community, and the need for a strong, faithful, healthy church.

The Baptist Faith and Message 2000

The replant and its leaders will be robustly committed to sound doctrine. At a minimum, they will have beliefs and practices that align with the BF&M 2000.

Cooperation

The church will cooperate with the Flint River Baptist Associational Network, the Georgia Baptist Convention, and Southern Baptist Convention.

Commitment to Ongoing Planting/Replanting

The new church will endeavor to plant or replant other churches in the region (rather than adding multiple services or constructing larger buildings).

Elder-Led Congregationalism

The new church will be led by a plurality of biblically qualified men who will lead, oversee, teach, and shepherd it as its elders/pastors. The church will be congregational, with final decision-making authority on significant matters residing with the members. Deacons will be servants who minister to the flock and support the work of the elders.

Live Expositional Preaching

Preaching will be text-driven (or expositional) and presented by an in-person pastor (No video-based preaching).

Scripture-Centered Public Worship

The church will follow the regulative principle in its worship gatherings (sing, pray, read, preach, see the word).

Church-Centered Missions at Home and Abroad.

The church will be outward-focused and place a high value on God's global purpose. The church will also highly value the role of the local church in all mission efforts as both the means and the end of missions.

Prioritizing Disciple-making and Leadership Development

The church will fundamentally be committed to making disciples who make disciples. The church will develop future leaders through disciple-making.

Historic Baptist Ecclesiology (Including Meaningful Membership and Church Discipline)

The church will practice Baptist ecclesiology by recognizing the local church as an assembly of those who profess their faith and identify with Christ by water baptism and enter into covenant together to be a church. The church will practice regenerate church membership and corrective church discipline.

One Unified Assembly

The church will recognize that a single assembly is the typical biblical model.

Multi-racial/Cultural Leadership and Membership

To reflect a biblical vision of God’s people and reach the surrounding community, the church will endeavor to develop multi-racial/cultural leadership in the elders, core team, and members of the church.

Replant Directors

Five interim directors from network churches are overseeing the replant process:

Schedule

We recognize the Lord guides our efforts, so this schedule is a tentative idea of how the process could unfold. Many factors will influence these milestones, especially input by the replant pastor and core team. Still, this schedule is guiding the replant directors:

  •  May 5, 2024    McIntosh Baptist Church voted to authorize the network to replant the church.

     

  • Jun 3, 2024      Informational meeting with network churches to initiate support and participation.

     

  • Aug 1, 2024    Due date for resumes from replant pastor candidates.

     

  • Oct 1, 2024     Replant pastor selected.

     

  • Jan 1, 2025      Replant pastor on the ground developing core team and moving toward launch.

     

  • Apr 13, 2025   Covenanting gathering to form the new church.

     

  • Apr 20, 2025   Begin public gathered worship on Easter Sunday.

Griffin, GA

The McIntosh Baptist Church campus is located in Griffin and Spalding County, Georgia. Griffin is a suburb of Atlanta, 35 miles south of downtown, and is considered part of the Atlanta Metro area. The population of Griffin is 24,000, and Spalding County is 67,000. The campus is highly visible and sits on Highway 92, a busy four-lane highway carrying traffic between Griffin and Fayetteville. The campus is two miles west of the busiest business and retail hub in the county.

The region is home to the University of Georgia's Griffin Campus, a satellite of the main campus in Athens. The Griffin campus operates primarily as a research and experiment station for the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.

While the region has the reputation of being a “Bible-belt community,” where "everyone goes to church," the reality is quite different. Lostness in our region is increasing daily. We estimate that only 10-20% of the area's population attends church regularly.

The population is 45,000 within a 5-mile radius of the McIntosh campus. Studies show that most people will not drive more than 8 minutes to attend church (about 5 miles). We are thankful for the handful of existing churches within this radius. Many of them serve faithfully and diligently. Yet, even if these churches were all filled this Sunday, we estimate they would hold 5,000 people. The reality is that there is a great need and plenty of room in the harvest field for McIntosh to be a new, healthy, vibrant, growing, disciple-making Baptist church that is reaching the lost with the gospel.

Demographic reports for a 5-mile radius of the McIntosh campus:

Replant Pastor Qualifications

Role

The replant pastor will be the key leader for replanting and shepherding the new church.

During the replanting process, the replant pastor will join the group of five interim directors. The directors will progressively transition the responsibility for overseeing and leading the process to him as they move into a role of support and encouragement. The replant pastor will develop the details of the planting plan, carry out a clear strategy for replanting, recruit and develop a core team, work with the directors to identify the first elders of the new church and move the core team toward covenanting as a church.

Once the new church covenants together and approves a new constitution and bylaws, the new church's team of elders will replace the interim directors. The replanting pastor will oversee the newly established church alongside this team of elders and serve as the lead pastor and primary preacher.

Qualifications

• Meet the biblical elder qualifications in 1 Timothy 2-3, Titus 1-2, as well as other biblical texts.

• Five years of experience shepherding a local church as a pastor, associate pastor, or elder.

• Gifted Bible expositor committed to text-driven preaching.

• Experience in church planting or revitalization is preferred but not necessary.

• Track record of faithful, fruitful evangelism and community engagement.

• Track record of faithful disciple-making and leadership development.

• Self-starter, high-capacity leader, and strategic thinker. Experience setting a vision, designing a strategy, and identifying tasks and schedules to accomplish a large project like replanting a church.

• Experience working with teams to achieve a goal, such as a church plant core team.

• Ability and commitment to serve with a team of elders to lead the church.

• A student of replanting and revitalization who is acquainted with current replanting strategies and philosophy.

• Humility to do whatever is needed—readiness to clean toilets and mow the grass, when necessary.


Education Requirements

• A bachelor's degree is required.

• We prefer someone who has completed a Master’s level seminary degree (MDiv, etc).

• Please describe any coursework or personal study you have done in church planting or revitalization.

Compensation, Benefits, & Support Structure

The interim directors are currently in the process of raising support for both the replant pastor and the new church through the network. Our hope and plan are for the replant pastor to receive full-time support. Depending on the replant pastor and his family situation, other sources of support may need to be considered, such as temporary part-time work or personal support. Part of this support structure will include health and dental insurance for the replant pastor and his family.

Financial support will come from several sources. 1) The network is encouraging direct giving for the replant from churches as well as contributions from the network's annual budget. 2) Existing resources remain from McIntosh Baptist Church. 3) Giving by the core team as they form the new church. 4) Support raised by the replant pastor and part-time work.

The exact details of support and compensation are in progress. Compensation and benefits will be a topic of conversation with the short-list of candidates. Our goal is to work out a situation of full-time support for several years until the church is established and financially stable.

The McIntosh Campus

The replant will use the McIntosh Baptist Church campus, which is in good condition but needs aesthetic updates. The main building houses a 160-seat worship center, fellowship hall, and offices, which are currently shared with the Flint River Associational Network. An adjacent building houses newly updated nurseries on the first floor and several classrooms on the second floor. The church also has a 15-passenger van.

Interested in this opportunity?

Interested candidates, please email a cover letter and resume to the email address below. In the cover letter, please briefly explain how you learned about this opportunity, describe any relationships you have with leaders or churches in the Flint River Baptist Associational Network, and briefly describe how you meet the qualifications listed above. Please include a personal photo with your cover letter and resume.

Email documents in pdf format to jason@pinecrestchurch.net

Questions may be addressed to Jason as the same address.

Submissions are due by August 1, 2024.

After that date, the directors will develop a short list of the best candidates and start conversations with them.

Thank you for your interest. Our network of churches is praying for you as interested candidates. Please join us in praying that the Lord will use this effort for his glory and the advancement of his word through the Griffin/Spalding community.