Church Planting Updates

• City of Joy Fellowship, East St. Louis, Illinois, is celebrating their four-year anniversary. Despite difficulties in 2020 due to COVID-19 and social unrest, Pastor Kempton Turner is thanking God for his faithfulness and for the prayers of the saints in preserving this church and people.
• Glory of Christ Fellowship, Elk River, Minnesota, is in transition. Pastor Charlie Handren, who started the church in 2007, recently resigned. Please pray for God’s comfort and Christ’s all-sufficient grace for Charlie and his family as they have experienced a number of deaths in their close community this year. Please also pray for wisdom for Pastor Kevin Fedder as he leads the church in this time of transition; pray that the church be strengthened; and pray for Charlie and his wife, Kim, as they transition to the next chapter of ministry life. Please also pray for me (Kenny Stokes) and Cleon Engel as we are in consultation with the leadership. 
• Pastor Allan Joseph reports that All Nations Fellowship, Brooklyn Center, has been struggling for some time, and that struggle has increased during the COVID-19 season. Pray for wisdom for Pastor Allan and his leadership to know what the church should do in the upcoming weeks. Our Church Planting department has sent a gift from Bethlehem’s “Helping Hand” fund to the Joseph Family to be of practical help during this time. 
• Pastor Tom Steller is nearly halfway through his three-month time in Cameroon. He is ministering alongside the Tamfus in the church-planting work of Église Baptiste Bethléem, and the launching of a seminary there. See Pastor Tom’s recent video greeting and update. Pastor Tom is asking for continued prayer to sustain his wife, Julie, and his grown children and grandchildren while he is in Cameroon. The Stellers are at about 70% of their monthly support goal. They are thankful to God for his provision of partners and are praying for others to join their support team.

Bethlehem College & Seminary Church Planting

Praise God that we have a larger than usual group of seminary students who have expressed interest in church planting! Five seminary students are currently enrolled in the Church Planting Concentration

Church Planter of the Month

Our November 2020 Church Planter of the Month is Adam Pohlman. Adam and his wife, Molly, have five children: Grace, Daisy, Titus, Olivia, Malachi. Adam is a pastor at Redemption City Church in Rochester, Minnesota. The church was planted out of Bethlehem Baptist in 2017.

Join us in prayer for the Pohlmans and Redemption City Church:

• Pray for unity as they gather amid COVID restrictions.
• Pray for Redemption City’s forthcoming church plant, Grace City Church. They have been training two planters for a few years and plan to send them out to start this new church this coming Spring. Pray that it would be a blessing to both churches as Redemption City Church sends off key members and beloved families.
• Pray for the Pohlman’s family as they process the difficult news that their pre-born child has heart defects and other potentially fatal abnormalities.
• Pray for the church’s upcoming efforts to bring theological training to Rochester to help equip medical professionals to be “on mission” in the clinic and around the world.

Feel free to email Adam with a note of encouragement!