In 2014, I bought a fixer upper home on Garcon Point just south of Milton, Florida in anticipation of “retirement” in 2019. I did not know it at the time but soon found out that there was no church at all in the entire area of several thousand people. I had prayed and pondered what ministry would be like after retirement, now I knew. We would plant a church.
Retirement completed, we moved into our fixed up home on Garcon Point in November of 2018. In January of 2019, we started our first bible study in our home. We had our first salvation about three or four months later. In February of 2019 we started a second bible study group in a neighborhood a couple of miles further south. It attracted more people because the host was a long time resident and well known. The groups met on weekday evenings.
In the fall of 2019, we were given about 4.5 acres of land with a modular building on it by a church that had closed down about ten years earlier. The building had never been completely set up and was uninhabitable. We spent the next year completely renovating the property and building with help from Santa Rosa Baptist Association, Florida Baptist Convention, and NAMB/Send Network. In the summer of 2020 we were nearing completion of the renovation.
Most churches were not meeting at that time because of Covid, but I was concerned, especially for my grandchildren, that they were not able to go to church for so long. I called my son and a brother who had been involved in renovation. “Let’s have worship on Sunday.” That warm Sunday in June six or seven of us met for worship. We had no electrical power yet so we ran a generator to give us a couple of lights and a fan. We met this way all summer of 2020. By the end of summer there were about a dozen of us meeting. In September we got our Certificate of Occupancy and power.
Today, we have about 40 faithful, committed, generous people engaged in the ministry of The Point. We have had around a dozen professions of faith and five baptisms so far. Our location is somewhat remote and the population is scattered. Because our operating costs have been kept very low and the people are very generous, we have been able to engage in numerous local and distant ministry projects- Helping needy families, backpacks and supplies for our local school, Operation Christmas child, Thanksgiving boxes, Community fish fry and fun days, and in 2023 our first mission trip to Guatemala. We support the Cooperative program, Santa Rosa Baptist Association, a local pregnancy counseling ministry, and Tree Ministries in Antigua Guatemala.
Also in 2023, we had a man surrender to the ministry. Our plan is for him to get formal and practical training so he can gradually phase into the pastoral role at The Point. We believe God is in this whole process. He is now serving as associate pastor.
We give God all the credit and glory for what He has done at The Point. The work is slow because of the location, but God has brought together a team of Christ followers who are ready to take on this church plant for the long haul.
Mike Faircloth, pastor,
The Point Church, SBC