Stories of Impact

Church planting is a lot like gardening. You do a lot of work before you see the fruit. We are about to plant some new raspberry bushes in our yard and I was frustrated to learn that the fruit doesn't show up in full force for a couple of years. In church planting God is the one who causes the fruit to appear after all the hard work of starting the new church, which also sometimes takes years. I am thrilled to praise God with you through a few stories where salvations and baptisms have happened recently at our church plants. Here are a few reports from the front lines:

Pastor Ermias at Fullness of Christ Church in Eagan, MN:

Toward the end of 2025, we participated in a training focused on the theme 'Starting from our own Jerusalem', based on Acts 1:8. Our goal was to pray for the Lord to add new believers and to reach the unreached by starting with our immediate circles—families, colleagues, and neighbors.

By God's grace, four adults have come to Christ, and three of them were baptized on April 5, 2026 along with 3 other young people. Among those baptized, a sister named Adey shared a truly remarkable testimony. The Lord rescued her from a terrifying death; since then, she has not only transformed her own life but also led a friend to the church, and they were baptized together.

Adey shared that since the Lord changed her life, everything has improved. Even though she faces criticism, insults, and isolation from her former friends who do not know the Lord, she feels a peace and joy far greater than anything in her past life. She said her change is radical and supernatural. Believing she will be the reason many more of her friends come to church, she is now diligently devoted to prayer and various forms of service. Praise be to God!

Pastor Jerry at Mosaic Alliance Church in St. Paul, MN:

As a church family, we felt God prompting us to trust him for 12 baptisms in the coming year.  This was a huge stretch of our faith as we've averaged only one per year for the past 4 years.  Well in March we were able to baptize three people!!! 

One of the young ladies had come to faith in Christ this past fall, was being discipled by another woman at Mosaic, and was challenged to consider confessing her faith in Christ through baptism.  God has been working in her heart in big ways and she said YES!.  Her mom was baptized along with her, which was super special, and the entire family (most of whom are not believers) came to witness the special event. 

Pastor Kong at Rock & Refuge Church in St. Paul, MN:

On Palm Sunday, March 29, Rock & Refuge Church participated as a community in something that we have been praying over for about year. We were witness and encouragers to the baptism of three of our members in community.

Ethan, one of the members baptized that Sunday, had been on his faith journey for some time and joined our faith community the summer of 2025. In conversations with Ethan about faith in Jesus Christ and engagement with his church, it was revealed that Ethan had been growing more fervently in his understanding that Jesus is the way, truth, and the life. As Ethan continued to attend and participate in group discussions after the Sunday messages, he voiced growing desire to take the next steps in deepening his faith in Christ and to partake in the mission of bringing the good news of Christ to all the nation. With this confidence, Ethan committed to baptism on Palm Sunday and had one of his close friends and mentor alongside of him to share in this sacred act.

Our desire and hope in the practice of baptism is that the people who have been helping to cultivate faith in others would also have the opportunity to participate in the sacred moment of baptism for the new believer. There were smiles and joyful tears that afternoon as Ethan fell back under the water and rose out of the water into new life in the spirit. With tears Ethan proclaimed, “I have been waiting for this moment for such a long time.” It is a reminder for us that everyday spent with Jesus and partaking in seeing the captives freed from oppression, sickness, sin and death is a good day in the kingdom.

Kyle Magstadt

Associate Superintendent for
Church Multiplication