Our Church History

Excerpt from The 1:8 Story, by Josh Gardner

In January of 2018, we planted a church.

For two years we (Che’ and I) were charged with discipling a group of young college age students in Anderson, SC in a program called CDH. On my way to visit the duplex the students lived in, I would pass by a rough section of town. I got the distinct impression one day that if Jesus Christ was walking around my city that he would be on this side of town. I had a growing unrest deep in my spirit about the way I was discipling my own family, let alone others. I remember having a deep impression driving by that section of town the Lord wanted me to go pray there. Praying there became a regular habit for awhile, and I began to take others with me. Three of us were going weekly, and we had gospel conversations all the time, and everyone seemed open for prayer. I felt like I just didn’t have any time to give the persons of peace we met. I felt like I didn’t have time for my disciples. I felt like I had no time for my friends. I felt like I had no time for my family.

The light bulb came on one day when my wife asked me (ever so sweetly :) ) “Are you going to disciple our family or what?”

Her admonishment to me was extremely timely, and though I was defensive I knew she was absolutely right. However, I just felt so stuck in a mode of loving and serving Jesus with my half-hearted ways I couldn’t really comprehend my next steps. My daughter was so excited to go to church with me that Sunday. I asked her why she loved going so much, and she looked at me and said, “I love the slide in my class. I love the snacks. I love coloring daddy!” The Lord spoke to me in this moment, and I realized that I was reinforcing a type of consumer Christianity in my daughter (even just subconsciously) at a most impressionable age, and not just her, but the whole family. The problem wasn’t the slide…the problem was me. In hindsight, I know now that this was the Spirit of Jesus speaking to me and creating a holy discontentment. We wanted to experience Acts 2 and less of the Americanized Church Dream.

I came home resolved that day to be a family on a mission to make disciples among the lost (not the saved alone). In truth, most of my life was lived out among believers (instead of the people who need to see and hear the gospel the most). After 4 years of training people how to share the gospel, I realized most Christians are not even friends with people far from God and rarely make opportunity to share the Gospel. 95% of the church freely admits this, and I know its true because I was just like that for much of my life. I went on two mission trips that same fall to Atlanta and Los Angeles with CKM and heard story after story of people transformed by the power of the simple gospel message lived out among people nobody else wanted to go too. My call became clear to me in the days spent processing the trip.

I would forego church as we knew it for an Acts 2 expression…no matter what.

The first Sunday morning after declaring to my wife that we would choose to do family church she rolled her eyes (ever so slightly). In truth, I deserve it, because I often have grandiose ideas (like working out every day for example) that don’t come to fruition. The plan was that we would all go to the apartments and pray for people, share the gospel, and read the Bible with anyone who wanted to. People in the apartments were only moderately interested at this point, but it was a place to start. Che’ was sick that morning, and said, “Go ahead and take the kids without me.” I looked outside and saw that it was raining and said, “Let’s just go to the local church instead today….its raining”. Che’ looked at me incredulously and said, “They have rain-jackets. Listen, do you care about this or not?” Cut to the heart again, and I heard the Lord in my wife’s voice this time. It was really that simple, am I the kind of man that does what Jesus asks me to do?

We did go and we prayed and we walked around. We sang a song. I spoke to my children about what we were doing. They were protesting like crazy to start off and couldn’t believe I would take them from the kids their age, seeing friends, the slide, the snack, and church as they knew it. Over the next 3 weeks it rained every Sunday, and Che’ was sick most Sunday mornings in that season. The complaining lessened from the children, and you know what else happened? People began to open the door for us! They said, “What are you doing out here?! Come inside quick!” We started having so many gospel conversations, and saw a whole community reached with the message of Christ and for many it was the first time they had ever heard it!

In the book of Acts, people started getting baptized immediately after professing Christ as Lord. We decided to do that. Before long, three other youth pastors from churches near us came out to learn to do what we were doing. I was watching disciples making disciples and it’s just so good. I saw my disciple lead someone to Christ and baptize him, and then saw his disciple lead someone and baptize them. My good friend Carter and mentor asked me how it was going, and he told me to listen to an interview of the church planter/retired missionary George Patterson, and then he said to me, “Josh, I love that you guys started a church.” Inwardly I thought, I didn’t want to do that, because once you do that people might get the wrong impression about what it is were doing here. Maybe the church has burned them. Maybe this and maybe that. “You have to listen to George Patterson” he said. So I watched a video entitled, “The Seven Basic Commands of Jesus” and in the last 30 secs of it he said this:

Before long, everyone had multiple opportunities to hear the gospel and be prayed for. The churches who we had trained were entering new fields of their own and training others. I began to ask the Lord to show me where else he wanted us to go, and he showed us 4 more apartment complexes. We launched a new work, and then another. The Lord began sending people hungry to share the gospel and make disciples. We continue to see openness, we continue to love loud, we continue to press on, and with great urgency we are pursuing No Place Left in our city. We continue to see the enemy resist us and fight back. There were 4 shootings in 5 weeks this past summer. One of our brand new believers was shot and killed in a community we had just really started focusing on.

Our church community now is effortlessly diverse. Our church community now is owning the core missionary task in the city. For myself, I will never do it another way- it’s so much fun it’s crazy. Being the church with my family > going to church with them. Just the other day (during worship in our living room) my boys (2 & 3) went and got their toy instruments to join in the praise. The new normal is my daughter loves the gospel, loves the Lord’s supper, got baptized, gives out water in Jesus’ name, prays over people, shares the gospel, teaches people to pray, and says things like, “I’m so glad I live in a place I can share the gospel without being arrested.” In truth, I wish every family did this. You don’t need anyone’s permission. Christ has commanded us to go and make disciples, and disciples always gather into church community. The Lord has added to our number those hungry to make disciples. We continue to see fruit that remains, and you also are invited to join Jesus on his mission to the least reached of your city!

It is my hope that every person we lead to Christ and disciple owns the core missionary task for the rest of their life, and it was in this moment he gave us the name. 1:8 Community Church. We would go out filled with the Holy Spirit of God and be a witness of what Christ has done for us starting here and reaching the ends of the earth.