One of the things we like to do at Resurgence is equip, encourage, and pray for pastors and leaders in various churches around the world. This week I am glad to introduce you to Pastor Josh McPherson and his family at Grace City Church, in Wenatchee, Washington.

Have you ever met a family that you just loved? Grace and I feel that way about the McPhersons. They are a beautiful family with four young kids and great parents.

The McPherson family

Two of their children have spina bifida, so life is very full. Their oldest, a daughter, is delightful. The first time I met her, I was in her hometown with my oldest son Zac, who had a baseball tournament. She fought her way up the stairs in her walker to our dinner at the Mexican restaurant. She is bright and charming, and it was very fun to get to know her. At some point in our meal together with her and her family, she told me she wanted to be a ballerina when she grew up. So a ballerina at Mars Hill Church brought her and her little walker in to dance The Nutcracker with her troupe later that year around Christmas. They made her an honorary ballerina and have repeated the special outing over the years.

A few years ago their youngest child, a son, was also born with spina bifida. We had the honor of visiting them in the hospital to pray for the family, and we have been overjoyed to see the amazing progress he has made and how he is able to get around well.

Have you ever met a family that you just loved? Grace and I feel that way about the McPhersons.

The last time I saw their oldest daughter, she told me her next plan was to become a princess so that she could ride on a float in a pageant. Honestly, I think she and I may have to come up with a plan to make that happen, and when the time comes I may be asking you to vote for her online.

Until then, I am very glad to introduce you to a great family leading a great church, and I encourage you to be in prayer for them.

Jesus is at work in Wenatchee

Grace City Church began as a small Bible study meeting in Wenatchee, Washington. The region is in Eastern Washington, about a three-hour drive over the mountains from Seattle. It is home to a massive river that provides irrigation to the many apple orchards and vineyards scattered around the region. The area gets a lot of snow and sun, but far less rain than the west side of the state.

Led by Pastor Josh McPherson and his wife Sharon, the Bible study met together for six months before the idea of planting a church started coming up. They invited 15 families to read over a proposal for a new church plant, and from there Pastor Josh began a year-long process of getting them prepared with praying, teaching, and setting up their core values. In 2008, they planted their new church.

Today, Grace City is thriving, growing, and focused on the gospel. Having celebrated their fifth anniversary last year and changed their name from Grace Covenant Church to Grace City Church, they were blessed with their 100th baptism on Christmas Sunday. They are praying that in the next five years, they baptize 500 more.

They meet in two morning services at the Wenatchee Performing Arts Center, and are rapidly running out of space. Grace City also serves as the hub for the northwest region of the Acts 29 church planting network. God is doing good things in Wenatchee.

Testimonies shared by Grace City’s members, on their website and before baptisms, show how God is working through his people. One man shares how through the boldness of the elders and the church’s willingness to step in, he was finally convicted of the sinfulness of his pornography habit, and his wife was helped and comforted in the way she needed. Today their marriage is healthy in a way that it never has been before.

Today, Grace City is thriving, growing, and focused on the gospel.

Another woman shares how Christ saved her as her second marriage was falling apart. He cared for her and her son, and recently she participated in a safe, healing church program where she processed the abortion she had in her first marriage. For the first time she could share it openly and accept God’s forgiveness. She’s now sharing that freedom, safety and forgiveness with other hurting women.

Join us in prayer for Grace City Church

Here’s how Grace City understands their mission in Wenatchee: “We live for Jesus as a community on mission with the gospel in our valley—engaging culture, loving people, and seeing lives transformed by Jesus.” We asked how we could be in prayer for them, and here are some things they asked us to pray for:

• Pray for 500 more salvations and baptisms in the next 5 years.
• Pray for property or a building they can call a permanent home for meeting, working, and hosting events as the body of Christ.
• Pray for wisdom for their leadership team, that they would serve and lead well, and effectively build up the Acts 29 Northwest network into a movement of church-planting churches.
• Pray for more church planters. This year they began their first residency class with six potential planters, with the goal of planting ten churches in the next ten years. “We have helped plant several other churches, but we want to raise up, equip, and send out more planters ourselves,” says Pastor Josh.
• Pray for more leaders. Pastor Josh says, “We currently have 25 gospel communities living on mission, and we’re praying for leaders of 175 more.” Grace City Church has the goal of eventually sending out one gospel community for every 500 people in their city “in order to saturate our city with people speaking the good news of the gospel and displaying its work in their life to those lost around them.”