Why a church plant?
Tracy and I were praying if God would have us plant a church somewhere, specifically in the coastal region of South Carolina or Central Florida. I have always seen myself as someone who can come into a situation and make it better, versus being a guy who can start up a core group from scratch. We believe God connected us with a person who is extremely visionary (which I lack) and a church that has a solid core to grow from. In many ways, it is exactly what we’ve been praying for, without knowing that we could find the right fit. We were praying for:

• A Southern Baptist church – I believe there is a great benefit to being a part of a denomination, and there are many changes ahead for the Southern Baptist convention with a younger generation soon coming into leadership.
• A church that is connected culturally to its local area – The Roots Community is young enough to adapt to the culture, without having a long history of traditions which push non-believers away from the church.
• A kingdom-minded group of people – As Christians, we are part of a larger church, and therefore we connect people to the gospel not to grow our specific church, but to add believers to the body of Christ, some through our local church, but some to other churches
• A place where we could be for a long time – We don’t have God’s plan for our future, but we would like to find an area to settle in and grow old in. It could be God has us there for a short time, or a long time, but either way, we’ll be grateful.

Could we have stayed in Birmingham and worked for free and had most of the benefits of those bullet points?  Yes. But we have not heard a yes from God about staying, so we have been looking for his will outside of the area.