Game on
Boston church plant puts teamwork on point
By Carol Pipes
Basketball takes teamwork. Tanner Turley works in the trade. As the freshman boy’s basketball coach at Medford High School, he strives to teach his players the importance of working together rather than relying on one or two stand-out players to win games.
He has the same goal as lead pastor of Redemption Hill Church in Medford, Mass., five miles from downtown Boston. Turley, a Nehemiah church planter missionary with the North American Mission Board (NAMB), moved to Medford in 2010 with his wife, Marsha. They are part of a church-planting team that includes two other families—Jon and Leigh Chasteen and Josh and Jessica Miller—and US/C2 missionary Abbey Cook.
“It’s been a tremendous blessing to share the load of ministry with others who are like-minded, who have the same biblical vision for the church, and who are committed to living out the gospel together in the context of a team environment and community of faith,” Turley says of the team planting model.
In the beginning the Medford team spent much of their time investing themselves in the community.
“We spent a lot of time just practicing hospitality, trying to get to know our neighbors with the intention of both displaying the gospel to them and also sharing the gospel,” says Turley. “About a month after we arrived, we initiated our first community group.”
The small group met for prayer, Bible study and to encourage one another in the faith. The team watched as God brought people to them who were looking for a new church, as well as non-believers who visited their community group and heard the gospel for the first time.
“Community groups provide a context where we can build up our core group and seek to make disciples with intentionality,” says Turley. That first group quickly grew to two community groups and then three. In April they started gathering for Sunday worship services.
So what brings a Kentucky native to Boston to plant a church? Turley credits his time at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and joining a church-planting church—Open Door Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C.
ON MISSION • Winter 2012 31
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