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No Excuse By Tobin Perry W


hen church planter Scott Blanchard preaches at Lake-


pointe Community Church, people listen. Either they’ll listen or they may miss the entire message. Eighty percent deaf, Blanchard’s speech patterns take some time to get accustomed to. Yet it seems most that do come back for more. “I’ve had people tell me that they like


when I preach because I force them to pay attention,” says Blanchard, a North American Mission Board church planter in the Detroit suburb of Macomb. Two and a half years after its spring 2010 launch, Lakepointe averages close to 175 people in attendance—the vast majority of whom have few hearing prob- lems. Last Easter, 300 people attended the worship service. They’ve baptized 45


C Winter 2013 • onmission.com


If this guy can plant a church in one of America’s toughest cities, you can, too


people since their launch. The Troy, Mich., native had been


serving as an associate pastor in Pen- sacola, Fla., for five years when he and his wife, Karen, sensed the Lord calling them to start a church near Detroit in 2004. For the next three years, the couple thought, dreamed—and most important prayed—about taking this huge step of faith. In 2007 the Blanchards made plans to sell their new home, put their finances in order and recruit two couples to take the journey with them. In the summer of 2009, the Blanchards finally moved to the northern suburbs of Detroit. Mark Nipper, who was one of those friends who joined the Blanchards in


Michigan, had already been praying about getting more involved in missions after a mission trip to the United Kingdom. But he had never thought of church planting. “Honestly, I didn’t know anything


about church planting,” Nipper says. “I knew what it was, but it wasn’t even on the radar for us.” But in August of 2009 the Nippers sold their home, left their jobs and joined the Blanchards and one other family in Michigan—with no income and no job prospects. Once in Michigan, the families began to connect with people in the community, tell them about their new church and invite them to monthly preview services

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