Church Planter Conversation: Eric Huber
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey everyone and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast - where our aim is to connect our global family of sovereign grace churches with our executive director. Mark, we are in the same room…
Mark Prater:
We are.
Benjamin Kreps:
...for this podcast.
Mark Prater:
It is good to be together, man!
Benjamin Kreps:
It is good to be together. It's a joy to be together. We are together because we're at the Northeast Regional Assembly of Elders. It's April as we record this, and we are right in the middle of an edifying and encouraging 24 hours or so together at Covenant Fellowship Church. We are not alone, clearly we are joined by a guest this morning, Eric Huber. Eric, why don't you introduce yourself, tell all of our tens and tens of podcast listeners what you do. Tell us a little about your family, that sort of thing, and then what you're going to be doing, why we even have the podcast because you're planting a church.
Eric Huber:
Sure. I'm one of the pastors at Greentree Church in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. It's the church I've spent my whole life in - other than a few years in college and grad school. That's been my life. I was raised in the church. Actually, my dad was the pastor and so that's where I've always been. I'm married, no children, but my wife has been in the church as well since she was just a young girl. That's where we met and that's where we fell in love and that's where we serve. Right now, we're planning on planting a church out of Greentree. Actually, it's the very first time - we've had men who are pastors who went out, but it was their personal ministry and the church was behind them. This is the very first time that Greentree is saying we want to be a church planting church. We want to have a culture. We think this is part of what we're supposed to do. So it's very exciting.
Benjamin Kreps:
That is exciting. It's an interesting, actually wonderful story that you've spent most of your life in the same church. Your dad was the senior pastor for many years now your brother Kyle is. And so you have extensive experience in pastoral ministry. You have training decades serving in your church. And so you preparing now to plant a church is a little bit maybe unconventional than sometimes what we're used to seeing, which would be a young guy out of seminary ready to go. You're a seasoned pastor now leaving behind what's familiar to launch on a church plant. How has your experience over all those years of ministry helped you as you begin to move forward into planting this church?
Eric Huber:
In a certain sense, probably the least likely person to plant. I love my church, I love my people. Somewhere in my mind I thought of planting as kind of going off into Jabip someplace where you don't know anybody. Its just you and your wife claiming this ground for Jesus. That had no appeal to me. I want pastor these people. I'm just a local church pastor. As we began to talk more and more about planting, I was still thinking it’s going to be somebody else. I could see myself going and helping but not being the lead guy. And I just realized church planting with the people we have and I'm just going to be pastoring the people I already know and love.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah, that's sweet
Eric Huber:
It’s been interesting seeing how God has providentially prepared me for this in the sense of how I understand the church, how I love those people, how I know them, how we've already been doing life together and actually providentially the people that I'm going with are those that I have the strongest relationships with already. It's just been amazing to see how God has just kind of been in the midst of what we've been doing.
Mark Prater:
That's wonderful. That's sweet. You're just about to finish, I think the church plan cohort that you've been in. Tell us how that has helped equip you for church planting and if in any way it might've helped Jennifer as well, your wife.
Eric Huber:
Sure. Andy Farmer does a great job planning out very specific discussions and topics to cover, but I think two things that have helped me more than even that is just the comradery with the other guys who are planting. It's building relationships. You go from not knowing these guys to actually talking and sharing plans and praying for each other. And it's interesting, even in the discussions, what I have found most helpful are some of the, not so much what Andy has prepared, but what happens just as we start to engage with one another and just things like side comments that come up and you think, oh, I hadn't thought about that. I've always been in a multi pastoral church. And so, some issues with being a solo pastor or raising up your first other elder with you. Some of the difficulties that could come with that had been really helpful. And for Jen, we just had our retreat with our wives last month and for her to meet the wives and for the guys to bond and the fact that that happened this late in the cohort that the guys already had relationships. So I think it made it easy for our wives to kind of connect with one another. They've already been hearing about all these other guys, so it's really been wonderful.
Benjamin Kreps:
That's wonderful. I love hearing about how just across the board in the various ways that we're seeking to plant churches, strengthen churches, but there's always this relational emphasis that I think benefits us greatly. So you're planting in Galloway, New Jersey not too far from where you're at, near Ocean City is where the church is now. So why Galloway? What is your vision and hope for planting a church in Galloway, NJ?
Eric Huber:
Greentree is just outside Ocean City on the southern part of Atlantic County. Galloway is on the other side of the county, on the north end, right outside of Atlantic City and Brigantine. As we began to think about where to plant it was instead of thinking of what I said before, some place two hours away, we wanted to plant, where do we have people and where do we have people who are coming that the distance actually hinders their involvement? The people in Galloway are very committed, very involved, but over the years you recognize that their participation ends up being a little bit less, their sense of community. And even how we do outreach as we try to emphasize local outreach, the church reaching Egg Harbor Township, people are driving 25 - 30 minutes to come to the church to do outreach in Egg Harbor Township and their neighbors are in Galloway. And that became just a natural place for us to consider because we had about 60 people who drive that distance from Galloway, Port Public, Absecon to come to the church. And I want them and their families to experience the church, the people they love, that they want to reach for Christ to experience the church in their own community.
Mark Prater:
Now, many of our listeners, this podcast may have never been to Galloway, New Jersey. So tell us just a little bit about Galloway and then tell us about your church planting team. You said they're current members mostly. And let me just add one question to that. Anyone listening to this podcast that would maybe live in that area or just friends of family in that area, where are you going to meet? That'd be the best way to find you.
Eric Huber:
We're going to be meeting at Peace Lutheran Church on E Great Creek Road and Pitney Road. 8:00 AM on Sundays, beginning on September 14th is our launch date
Mark Prater:
Coming on quick.
Eric Huber:
It is. I'm very excited now. I'm sorry, what were the other questions?
Mark Prater:
What's Galloway like and then your church planting team.
Eric Huber:
Galloway is middle class, mostly unchurched, Galloway and the area around it there's about 52,000 people, only 46 identify as religious and of that 52 actually only a third identify as any form of Christian.
There's a huge harvest that I believe God wants to bring in. There's a number of very solid churches and we've been meeting with them. I've had great relationships with the pastors and so we're trying to find ways to work together, how to complement each other rather than compete with each other. The team I have, about 40 people from Galloway who are willing to leave Greentree and one person has been in the church – before we were a part of Sovereign Grace, we were non-denominational, and then we were mainline, a woman has been in that church in Greentree in whatever form since the sixties. She's not just going on the plant, she's excited for something new. In a certain sense, it's taking her back to when the church began to grow in the early seventies and so she wants to be part of that.
I’ll tell another story; this is a great one. There's another couple in the church who have been at Greentree for 40 years and very supportive of church planting. Love the idea and then when we announced, we've been praying it was going to be Galloway or Ventnor, which is on the island, Atlantic City. As we narrowed it down to Galloway and announced to the church that that's what we believe God wanted, she told me inside her, she says, I'm not going, I'm not doing it. And in a very short time, she came back, she says, God changed my mind. The interesting thing is that even after that, she still struggles some of the idea of leaving, but we began to meet as a group on Wednesday nights at Peace Lutheran. This semester they're allowing us to use the facility on Wednesday nights and she looks around, she sees it. It's just all the people I already know, it's all my neighbors. In a certain sense, the fear of leaving what you know, that has made it easier for her. We have already leaders, we have small groups in Galloway, so because we've already been drawing from there in a certain sense it is just an already established church that's just beginning. And so I think it starts off in a very healthy way.
Benjamin Kreps:
That's great. Wonderful. Well, what is the plan for officially, I think you mentioned earlier in September. What's the date?
Eric Huber:
September 14th and the name is Trinity Church of Galloway Trinity.
Benjamin Kreps:
Well, before we conclude, I think it's only fitting that we ask you how can we pray for you, so we know people that will check out the podcasts. There are a lot of Sovereign Grace pastors and members of churches that do pray. Thank you to everyone who prays and responds to these podcast episodes. How can we pray for you as you prepare?
Eric Huber:
1. I would want prayer for unity. That as we go forward, that we really love each other, that we'd be willing to step out of our comfort zone and seek ways to impact the community. I want to challenge all of our small groups to find ways to mobilize their group, to how do we serve the community, how do we begin to build those relationships? There are opportunities all around us.
2. Most of our people that are in their late forties or older, and so we do have a couple of young families that are coming to the church, but that God would raise up young people and call them to be part of the church, help us to find ways to connect with younger people and so that we are a well-balanced church and that we identify leaders in the sense of, I don't want to do this alone. I want other elders with me. There's one guy coming with me who's in the process of being evaluated, but we want to identify and raise up elders.
Benjamin Kreps:
That's wonderful. I think I just caught a stray because I'm in my late forties and I just learned it'd be fine if I went in your plan, but maybe some young man, someone younger men. No, I am getting old. I get it. I understand. Mark, actually, let me ask you before we're done. As you think about maybe something that might appear a little unconventional, and a guy that's been a pastor for decades in a church that's been around for decades and now in their first church plant, what are your thoughts about when it comes to encouraging just more broadly on Sovereign Grace? There's lots of churches that have been around for a long time and there's lots of pastors who maybe they've been serving a long time and maybe there's something that God has for them in this regard when it comes to church planting.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, I want to encourage that. I think Eric is a great example of that. His years of ministry then came theological education at seminary, and both those things complimented one another as you were talking about earlier, and then this growing stirring to plant a church. I hope more men in Eric's season of life consider that because our experience has been, of course, we want to plant with young men. That's always going to be a part of our church planning approach. But we also have found that experienced elders bring a maturity to the church planting process that I think strengthens the church plant. And it's a great way to make a good run in your final chapters of your life, so to speak, and a great way to just build something for the next generation. In this case, it'll be serving Galloway for generations to come, we pray. So I just want to encourage guys like Eric that may be listening to this and pray about planting a church. As Eric said, he never thought it would be him. You might be thinking that as well, but maybe it is.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah. Thank you, mark. And thank you, Eric for joining us on the podcast. Even more for your example, compelling example of even as you age and spend many years in ministry at this point, being willing to leave behind what's familiar in order to see the gospel spread in Galloway, New Jersey. So thank you. Thank you, and thank you everyone for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here soon, Lord willing. Bye for now.