Joe Boyd, Church Planter, Starting A Church Planting Movement In Kansas
By Melissa Busby
“We have big dreams because we serve a big God.” This is one of the founding principles of Aviator Church in Derby. Aviator church officially launched last September under the leadership of Pastor Joe Boyd. Already the church averages more than 350 people on a Sunday morning and more than 150 people have made decisions for Christ. Boyd hopes to translate this success into more church plants in the Wichita area. His dream is to see hundreds of new churches planted through a Church Planting Residency Program, a Church Planting School, and a summer intern program for those interested in church planting. Through partnerships with the Heart of Kansas Southern Baptist Association, KNCSB and the North American Mission Board his dreams are becoming a reality.
In June, Aviator welcomed their first Church Planting Resident. Chad Pearce gets the chance to sit in on Aviator staff meetings and other events to see first-hand how to lead a new church from the ground-up. Pearce will then take this knowledge and use it to launch his ministry to the young professionals and singles in the College Hill area of Wichita. Pearce says, “Joe and the staff at Aviator give me the chance to observe and ask any questions. They have also helped us with contacts, putting me in touch with people and churches to help us in the days ahead.” Boyd says, “God has been so good to Aviator in our start, we want to help train new leaders and pass the baton of effective mission teams to build a solid mission focus in Wichita.” Pearce says this type of partnership really helps make it a smooth transition. “Church Planting is a different mindset than pastoring. It’s good to have a network of church planters to help walk you through it and the ups and downs that come with it.” The church residency program is focusing on church planters that will start a new work in the greater Wichita area. “We believe that Wichita is a premiere location for a church planting movement to emerge,” says Boyd. “We believe that God has called us to see the Aviation Capitol won for Christ.” Aviator hopes to have several people complete the residency program in the next few years.
The second part of Boyd’s church planting dream is a school to train new church planters. This five-month long school will be open to anyone interested in starting new churches. Boyd plans to have classes one Saturday a month, with a month of homework assignments in between. Boyd says, “We believe that we will offer church planters the unfiltered truth about launching churches. We will do everything in our power to prepare them to build a solid core team, gather large crowds, and start a church that will transform a city. We want to start great churches but that begins by building great leaders.”
The North American Mission Board chose Aviator Church to take part in a pilot-program this summer to train college students on the basics of church planting.
“Parachute Program” aims to give college students first-hand knowledge on how to start and grow a church or small group and then have them take home what they’ve learned and implement that in their hometown or college campus. If all goes well, Aviator will become the Midwest’s training site for this program.
Boyd is even taking his passion for church planting overseas. Aviator plans to take a trip to the Ukraine later this year. One of the goals of the trip is to scout out the possibility of sending a couple from Aviator to Ukraine to start a new church.
Church planting is obviously a passion for Joe Boyd. So when asked what he would say to those that feel there are already enough churches in the area, Joe says, “There are more than 600 churches in the Wichita area, yet only 30% of all people attend church. 85% of American churches are either in plateau or decline and some people are still convinced that we don’t need new churches. There is not a county in America today that has more churched people than unchurched people. If you are ok with standing before Jesus with a 30% effort on the great commission, then I guess that is your choice, but as for us, we won’t rest until we have made Wichita a hard place for people to go to hell.”
“The most important thing you need in a successful church start is an undeniable call from God and the belief that Jesus is more than enough to see it through. The rest is just details.” Boyd hopes that by passing on his knowledge of how to take care of those details, hundreds of new church planters will be able to start successful churches and reach potentially millions with the gospel.