Mission | Vision | Values

OUR MISSION

NCCE seeks to plant healthy, reproducing churches throughout the Great Lakes region and beyond. Planting churches is one of our greatest strengths and callings. Whether you’re a church planter or a church looking to plant a daughter church or go multi-site, we want to partner with you in the multiplying spirit of Acts 1:8 as we move forward.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

- Acts 1:8

OUR VISION

We are committed to being proactive, urgently seeking to plant new Restoration churches throughout the Great Lakes region. Even so, we remain focused, not on the number of churches planted, but on the souls won for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Quality does matter and it is our goal to plant enduring churches faithful to the word of God fulfilling both the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

Dozens of churches have been planted during the past 50 years under the leadership of Virgil Felton, Ron Scott, Randy Penwell, Steve Larson, and now Matt Schanz our current Executive Director. Together with the board of Directors, we are eager to launch new churches. In fact, in 2015 we set a goal of launching eight churches in eight years. We were able to meet this goal in 2023!

NCCE works as an extension of the ministry of many churches of Christ/Christian Churches in the Great Lakes area, bringing together our resources to catalyze a church planting movement. Our desire is to give leadership to NCCE well into the 21st Century and see church planting make great strides in our region.

OUR VALUES

It is our desire to see a genuine spirit-led movement of new church planting activity take place in the growing Great Lakes region. To accomplish this goal we have three enduring values:

  • We are committed to dependence on God as demonstrated through faithful prayer: Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field.

  • We are committed to absolute integrity in our affairs, carefully stewarding every dollar given to plant new churches.

  • We are resolute in our focus on church planting, believing that more people are won to the Lord through new church planting than through any other means. 

OUR AFFILIATIONS

This is a cooperative partnership between a growing number of Evangelistic Church Planting Associations across the country. The intention in forming this network is to create a national cooperative to provide shared resources for assessment, training, recruitment, and support to plant more churches in more places more often. You can find more information at NewChurch Network.

  • Great Lakes Christian College seeks to train men and women for influence in the kingdom of God. Great Lakes is located in Lansing MI. Pray that God would raise up church planters through the training they receive at GLCC who would then go out and plant new churches.

  • His House Christian Fellowship exists on twelve campuses in Michigan seeking to win students for Christ, build them up in their faith, and send them out to be influencers around the globe. We need to establish more churches for these students to plug in and serve. Pray that we could help launch churches that would connect with the next generation as they leave college and live out their calling.

  • There are four Christian camps in Michigan connected with the Restoration movement: Rock Lake Christian Assembly, Michiana Christian Service Camp, Wolverine Christian Service Camp, and Wilderness Christian Assembly. These camps seek to disciple and develop youth into Christ-likeness through a variety of youth programs and events. They also serve as connecting places and retreat facilities for those associated with the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ.

OUR STAFF

Matt Schanz - Executive Director
Trent Shivley - Operations/Development
Marianne Smith - Administrator