Singles' pastor steps out in faith

Living by faith while keeping geared to outreach has been a philosophy to live and serve by for Andy MacFarlane, singles pastor at Lincoln Berean Church. After two decades of ministry experience, he now looks ahead to applying those concepts to a church-planting mission intended to reach the North Lincoln communities. Such an opportunity surfaced in September 2003 when Bryan Clark, LBC senior pastor, discussed the idea with MacFarlane over lunch. "There he said God put my name on his heart," MacFarlane said. "He felt like I had the background and the training." That meeting led to a series of conversations and ultimately a decision to plant a church. Clark said that after careful prayer and four other interviews, MacFarlane was most likely to assume the role as senior pastor of the new church. "It had to do with Andy's knowledge and ability to communicate the Word." He also described MacFarlane as a "strategic thinker" in regard to ministry. "When we talk about the mission, core values, strategy and philosophy, there are some who embrace it and some who don't get it." Not only does MacFarlane embrace it, he has a diverse ministry experience to back it up, according to Clark. MacFarlane said this future ministry will tie into the experience he had in his former ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ in two ways. "I had to live by faith and it was very outreach oriented." That experience amounts to about 15 years in three locations, including Colorado, Russia and Chile. "When pioneering a new work, it is helpful to have a ton of things in the mission field, out on the edge, dependent on God," Clark said. Also, he has a "good theological education and experience as a senior pastor" that will be useful while initiating work from the ground up, he said Following his career with Crusade, MacFarlane returned to his home church in Greeley, Colo., to serve as the adult ministries pastor for one year. Then he served in Sierra Vista, Ariz., as senior pastor, prior to moving to Lincoln in October 2002 to become the singles pastor for LBC. Yet before he decided to commit full time to vocational ministry, his spiritual journey began his freshman year of college when he "came to faith" at a dormitory Bible study, he said. A year later, he began to participate with Campus Crusade and "grew steadily." During his first year of graduate school, his Christian roommate died of cancer. "God used that to lead me to reevaluate and head into vocational Christian work," he said. Now that MacFarlane will continue his spiritual journey as a church-planting pastor, Clark believes he will see "growth in [MacFarlane's] skills as a leader and shepherd." He also said perseverance would be needed as "church plants are notoriously difficult." But he looks forward to MacFarlane's ministry as it would be "effective outreach and discipleship in the community," he said. "It's great to see people go and be the body to reach North Lincoln."