by Dr. Dick Fellars, director of Church Ministries
In the fall semester of 2007, the Church Planting class at Northland began the year by asking the question, “Is there a community near the campus where the Gospel is needed and a church could be started?” Several people who knew the area suggested Crivitz, Wisconsin. Crivitz is a village with a population of 1,000 people, but the surrounding areas have a combined population of about 5,000 people. After a survey of the community itself—the demographics, religious history of the area, and the location and message of the churches in the area, it was determined that Crivitz was a prime location for a church plant.
As the project began to be talked about on campus and at Faith Baptist Church in Pembine, several individuals surfaced who had been praying for a church in Crivitz for a number of years. The first was a former Northland graduate, Jeff Poh, who lived in Crivitz and had been praying for a new church in Crivitz for thirteen years. His son, Andrew, was a senior at Northland at the time and had a great burden to work with the new ministry. Another family from Crivitz who were also members of Faith Baptist Church, Chris and Jackie Phillips, expressed an interest and mentioned that they had been praying about this for more than five years. In the middle of October, the decision was made to begin prayer meetings to discover the Lord’s will in the matter and begin to assess if there was a core group to begin with.
Dr. Fellars approached his pastor at Faith Baptist Church, Pastor Bill Phillips, and asked if he could present the possibility of a church plant in Crivitz to the deacon board of Faith Baptist. The leadership at Faith was very enthusiastic and supportive. The prayer meetings continued each Wednesday night from October until December, meeting in various homes in the Crivitz area. By mid December more than ten families had been drawn to the new ministry, and together they decided to look for a building and begin Sunday services after the first of the year.
The Lord provided the use of the American Legion Hall on Sundays at no charge. Services began on Sunday, February 10. There were about twenty-five people there on the first Sunday: twelve from Crivitz and thirteen from Northland. Timberland Bible Chapel met in the American Legion Hall from February until April. During that time, a visitor came who had been praying for a church in Crivitz for twenty-eight years. The Lord opened the door in May for the new church to begin meeting at the Critivitz High School. Over the next several months, the congregation began to form, and the men met often to work out the details of the church constitution. On November 16, 2008, the church met together to constitute as a local assembly. That evening at a combined worship service with Faith Baptist Church in Pembine, the new congregation was recognized as a sister church.
By the summer of 2009, the congregation had grown to the point that more pastoral care was needed than could be given by the part-time workers. It was decided to look for a man who could come and serve as a full-time associate pastor and live in the town of Crivitz. In October, Tim Hill, a 2002 Northland graduate and a 2009 Central Seminary graduate, was called to that position. He and his wife, Kristin, moved to Crivitz in late October and began serving with this new church plant.
From the very beginning, this church plant was a team effort, involving local churches, Northland faculty and staff, and town’s people. The students involved received a very high level of hands-on practical experience, seeing a church plant from the ground up. The latest two classes of students taking Church Planting have watched and had the opportunity to work in this ministry during the later stages.
There are several amazing and non-typical aspects to this church plant. One is the availability of the two facilities at a very low cost. The second is the amazing reception that the church has found in the community. There has been a remarkable warmness and appreciation of a new ministry in town. And thirdly, visitors have attended after very casual invitations. It appears that the community has a spiritual vacuum—such that people hear about the church and come to see what is going on. These amazing things and the rapid growth are evidence that the work is the direct answer to the persistent prayers of God’s people.