{"id":22751,"date":"2024-02-22T13:31:37","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T18:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/send-network\/?post_type=resource&#038;p=22751"},"modified":"2024-03-04T12:13:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T17:13:10","slug":"pillar-church-of-crestview-embraces-military-community","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/send-network\/resource\/pillar-church-of-crestview-embraces-military-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Pillar Church of Crestview embraces military community"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Pillar Church of Crestview embraces military community\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CmQX5G92lNA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Military servicemembers face the brokenness of the world in a way few others do, says Noah Clifton, who is planting Pillar Church of Crestview alongside Alex Chatman in Crestview, Florida.<\/p>\n<p>On top of that, the number of deployments, exercises, operations and trainings that call a member out of the home puts families in what Marine and church planter Alex Chatman calls &#8220;a pressure cooker.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And that comes home, and it really destroys marriages and families,&#8221; shares Noah, &#8220;which leads to high divorce rates and high suicide rates.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the reason Alex and Noah are planting a church near Eglin Air Force Base: to share the hope of the gospel with a community that faces unique spiritual challenges.<\/p>\n<p>According to Mahala Clifton, Noah&#8217;s wife, military service members aren&#8217;t hard to find in Crestview.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When we&#8217;re at the grocery store or different companies around the town, we&#8217;re constantly seeing either military wives or service members doing their shopping, pumping their gas \u2013 different day-to-day activities. So, we&#8217;re constantly running into different military families that we can reach out to make connections with to ultimately share the gospel.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For these families, an acknowledgment of their unique experience is vital.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve found over and over what military service members are really looking for is an authentic embrace of their experience,&#8221; says Colby Garman, Alex and Noah&#8217;s Sending Church pastor.<\/p>\n<p>For more than a decade, Colby worked alongside\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/send-network\/resource\/one-year-after-death-clint-cliftons-legacy-continues-through-sons-new-church-plant\/\">Clint Clifton<\/a>\u00a0in the work of reaching the military through church planting, making him familiar with this unique work.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Church planting in military communities is worthwhile,&#8221; he says, &#8220;because the same thing that makes it challenging also makes it a special opportunity in God&#8217;s kingdom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On average, families with a member who serves in the military will move every two to three years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That means a consistent upheaval in their overall life structures,&#8221; Colby shares, &#8220;the relationships and friendships, the things they&#8217;ve come to count on, the communities they become involved in.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For churches engaged in these communities, many of their newfound disciples can&#8217;t stay long.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When we have people come in, we know they&#8217;re going to leave,&#8221; Alex says. &#8220;And the way we look at it is that&#8217;s good.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In embracing the military community around them, Pillar Church of Crestview chooses to view the transience of their community as a gospel opportunity rather than an obstacle to growing their church because, as Alex explains, &#8220;once they leave, we know we&#8217;re sending somebody out that will carry the gospel message.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, Noah points out that many military service members are natural-born leaders.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The government&#8217;s already sending these natural-born, trained and equipped leaders, and we&#8217;re just trying to equip them with the gospel and the ability to make disciples,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Evangelism to the military has the opportunity to make a global impact,&#8221; says Colby, &#8220;because it&#8217;s just true that military service members are not likely to stay \u2014 they&#8217;re going somewhere. And as difficult as that is to grow a church locally, it tunes us into what God&#8217;s doing in His kingdom. They have the opportunity to serve as a gospel witness and ambassador for Christ in the place that God sends them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about how your church can make a global impact by engaging one of the highest-priority military communities, visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/send-network\/send-city\/military\/\">SendNetwork.com\/Military<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Military servicemembers face the brokenness of the world in a way few others do, says Noah &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/send-network\/resource\/pillar-church-of-crestview-embraces-military-community\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pillar Church of Crestview embraces military community<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22731,"template":"","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[77,100],"channels":[],"topics":[248],"languages":[],"class_list":["post-22751","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-military-communities","tag-military-communitieschurch-planter-care","resource_type-article","topics-military-communities-church-planting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.0 (Yoast SEO v24.0) - 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