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Moments with missionaries: Ross Chartrand

My wife and I were standing in an empty living room of a new house filled with dust and echoes and not much else until our moving truck arrived. Neither of us actually said it, nor did we need to. One shared look made it clear we were both thinking the same thing: Where do we even start? Where do we start building a life in a new place? Where do we start making connections in a new social circle? More than that, where do we start when it comes to establishing a new church?

We had just moved to Bentonville to join four families in the work of starting a mission church in northwest Arkansas. We were excited but nervous. We were motivated but in many ways clueless! It felt like how I imagine a novice painter feels staring at a blank canvas: a notion of what the finished product could look like but only a vague idea of what brush to pick up for the first stroke.

Charissa and Ross Chartrand (left) with Joanna and Evan Chartrand at the August Church Planter Intensive
Charissa and Ross Chartrand (left) with Joanna and Evan Chartrand at the August Church Planter Intensive. Evan (Ross’ brother) is starting a new mission in Panama City Beach, Florida.
Cornerstone Lutheran Church mission church ross Chartrand
Ross Chartrand (back row, far left, holding child) and the core group in Bentonville, Arkansas. This 18-member group just chose a name for its new mission church: Cornerstone Lutheran Church.

Thankfully, our synod’s leaders have recognized the challenges that come with planting churches, and they’ve worked to support and enable missionaries to overcome those challenges. One of the most valuable methods for equipping new missionaries is the Church Planter Intensive workshop sponsored by WELS Home Missions, one of which I attended last August.

After a long weekend of learning from experienced mission pastors and applying that knowledge to initial ministry efforts, my head was certainly fuller, but it was still spinning with all that needed to happen before public worship officially started. So when the plane wheels touched down in Arkansas, that question still lingered: Where do I start applying all this new knowledge?

Thankfully, God didn’t leave me to figure out the answer on my own. Our launch team is full of people with a variety of backgrounds and life experiences. And they all agreed on the answer to that question. You see, up to this point we’d been discussing different books to develop a group culture focused on outreach and evangelism. But when I asked what they’d like to look at next as a group, Jennifer was quick to pipe up, “Pastor, can we just study God’s Word?” Steve was right on her heels: “How about Acts? They were a small church and so are we. Makes sense, right?” Heads nodded all around the circle.

Just like that it became clear. Where do we even start? We start in the Word! We start with the one thing this whole mission church is all about—getting people connected to God’s Word so his Spirit can work in their hearts.

It’s one of many moments I’ve had (and many more to come, I’m sure) where all I could do was smile while mentally slapping my palm to my forehead. In the end, this whole church planting thing doesn’t have to be that complicated. Just let God work through the means he’s promised to work through.

Where do we start? Easy. We start with the Word and go from there. After all, as the psalmist says in Psalm 119: 105, God’s Word “is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Where else would you want to start?

Ross Chartrand

Learn more about the Church Planter Network in this month’s edition of WELS Connection.

Author: Ross Chartrand
Volume 112, Number 02
Issue: February 2025

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