The Preparation for the Plantation

Let us be enlightened by the conversation between Pastor Priji and Pastor Sam Ellis on Church Talk. This conversation will help prepare young planters before planting a new church.

Pastor Sam Ellis is the Lead Pastor of King City Church, Trichy. He is married to Pastor Jemi and blessed with a beautiful daughter, Zion.

You can get in touch with Pastor Sam Ellis through their website here.

Transcript:

Pastor Priji: Pastor Sam, could you tell us about the history of the planting of your church and how long is it been? 

Pastor Sam: It has been 3 years. As I grew up as a pastor’s kid, I always placed myself away from church. I knew there was a calling for me to serve God but I never wanted to serve Him in a church. I prayed that I did not want to serve God in a church, in the first year of my bible college. Towards the end of the year during the summer break, God spoke to me not about church but my calling is for the nation. That moment placed the desire to reach out to people in our nation. Eventually, God had opened doors and opportunities for me. He enabled me to reach out to the millennials of our nation. In our nation, there are 50 – 60 % of youth but we don’t see that in our church congregation. It was my desire to bring them. This process was for about 7-8 years and I did not plan to build a church but He moulded me to fulfil His will. Later, God placed a desire to plant a church. During the entire process, the Lord prepared me for anything. He prepares the person attaching the vision and them the provision follows. 

Pastor Priji: That’s so powerful! We tend to look at the vison and mission of our calling but God is more into the person who is fulfilling it. It all started when you received the vision for our nation, but why did you choose the city Trichy and not any other metropolitan city?

Pastor Sam: Four years ago, when I was about to get married. I told Jemi, that the Lord had placed the desire to plant a church because it is important to know who you’re marrying when you have a calling. I was always wanted it to happen in Pune. Bangalore & Chennai were a part of the list too. I remember travelling to these cities and walking around praying to understand God’s purpose in the city. As I had my prayer walks, I never really felt the shift in my spirit but something asked me to go back home. After my wedding on the third night, my wife asked about how we move to Trichy and plant a church there. We both stared praying about Trichy and began to looking for places in it but no place opened doors. On my way to Kerela as I was driving, I told the Lord that when I come back I need confirmation if not I’m leaving to Pune. I was really frustrated with God. When I came back, we received a call who was businessman and his business went really off. He asked us if we wanted his place and within 4 days, everything fell in place. 

Pastor Priji: That’s amazing, Pastor. It’s wonderful how God gave you the vision and then provision. This will inspire many young church planters. As you spoke about how you initially told your spouse about you calling and prayed together, how important do you think is the significance of the people your partner with especially during the initial times as we lay the foundation for the church? How important is to find people with the similar vision and the same pace to serve God?

Pastor Sam: At the early stages, I realised that God will bring people to you. I had list of people who would help us but they were the ones that turned down the vision as they were worried about the city and resources. I was discouraged and worried about running out of resources. As I prayed, God asked me to take care & serve His people and He will bring them to you. Our entire team, where people who never knew and walked in church knowing us via people, website. When we want to partner with someone, we sit down for a meal & I pour out my heart. I would tell them the entire history of our vision but in the end the conviction is from The Holy Spirit.

Pastor Priji: That’s so powerful. When we begin to persuade and convince people to partner with us, we continue to do it for a long time. But when God brings in, He begins to sustain them throughout. As you said, after your inaugural service there were only 4 members the following Sunday but the seats were provided for 85 people. How was your walk of faith, the physical manifestation of your faith? Did you have any discouragement and doubt, if yes, how did you cope with it?

Pastor Sam: I always had my expectations low because of the city where my church was located. But in my spirit & faith, I aimed doe excellence. Personally, I limited the move of God to a city. As I repented from it knew God is going to make a way. Our system has been the same since our first service of how we reach out to people. We kept the same system for 4 people to the number of people we have today, we served God with excellence. My energy while preaching was the same despite the number of people. Later, God brought in musicians from different states and we saw His move 

Pastor Priji: That’s very reassuring at the verge of giving up. When we are the centre of God’s will, His provision will follow. I would like to ask you 3 questions before conclude,

1. What your thoughts on social media as a platform and how you have been reaching out?
2. As you have social outreach in helping people, what was the heart behind it?
3. What is the heart behind the leadership college?

Pastor Sam: All of that, came from the vision of our church which is reaching people far from God into a new life in Christ so that they will make a lasting difference in the world. This is our heartbeat. The first part of our vision is to reach out to the people far from God. Social is a major platform to do so, it is almost like our church lotion. It is a tool that we could use it well for God as we could reach millions through it. If we can feed the Word of God through one of our posts then we are imparting into their lives. For the social outreach, we always wanted to love God, love people and love life. Our heart was to love the city, love the people in the city and help the helpless. We wanted to provide belongingness. We had young people who were already into social activities and we enquired to support them and that’s how we started. The Leadership college came out from the second part of the vision which is to make difference to the world. We wanted to provide mentorship to young people who wanted to understand their calling and grow in ministry. It is to bring about young people to teach the leadership in a holistic approach. We are very intentional to create very effective leaders. 

Pastor Priji: That’s very inspiring. It is very important to understand the vision 

Pastor Sam: An advice to the youth who are stepping into ministry is don’t compare yourselves and try to copy. Catch the spirit behind it not the strategy because everything must come out of discipleship. 

Pastor Priji: Thank you Pastor Sam for this inspiring conversation.