Church Planter Says Suburbia Hides Suffering

The name “Weston Ranch” has a nice ring to it. Drive down the streets of this subdivision in Stockton, Calif., and the homes, especially, during the day, look comfortable, huge and well-to-do.

Buzzing nearby are vehicles on a freeway, headed to and from the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area.

But take a closer look at Weston Ranch. Many of the homes are in foreclosure or vacant; others are  state or federally subsidized; families that are living there are hard-hit financially.

Emotional trauma sits behind the doors of these sunny California homes.

Services such as restaurants and other businesses that would normally service an area like this simply aren’t there.

“This is a new development,  but none of the city plan has come through,” says Rev. Martin Sisneroz, pastor of Open Door Community Church, a CRC church plant that meets in the multi-purpose room of a high school.

His is only one of two churches serving some 30,000 people in that portion — an essentially forgotten, high-crime part, he says — of Stockton.

“We don’t have a gang problem in our area, just a lot of kids who are shooting one another,” he says.

Sisneroz was one of several CRC and Reformed Church in America church planters who recently underwent a week-long orientation at the RCA and the CRC offices in Grand Rapids, Mich.

During the orientation, they had the chance to learn more about the ministries of the different denominations, as well as to learn about and discuss approaches and strategies to church planting.

They learned about the importance of discipleship, working with volunteers, developing meaningful worship and the best ways of deploying leaders.

“We are thinking about ways we can partner with people of all kinds as we plant churches. We realize we are about meeting needs,” said Rev.  Dirk VanEyk, pastor of Encounter CRC in Kentwood, Mich., who helped to lead a session at the CRC office.

“We know that planting churches takes a lot of time, talent and treasure,” said VanEyk.

As part of the meeting that day, a few church planters had a chance to discuss the vision they have for their congregations.

Rev. George Saylor spoke about a church he is looking to plant in Littleton, Colo.

“I’m not sure all of what we will do, but I know our church will be for people who don’t have a church or who have given up on church,” said Saylor.

Rev. Joe Ortega, pastor of Celebration CRC in Holland, Mich., said his church is working “to reach the community … and to help people to give their lives with courage and commitment to Christ.

“It is a fallen community, an unchurched community where we are located and we exist to pick up the pieces of people’s lives with compassion.”

After the session, Sisneroz said he grew up in the Bay Area and fell into a life of drugs and crime. He was facing time in jail when he had an awakening and sought help and ultimately started studying for the ministry.

The ordained CRC minister began Open Door Community Church several months ago. He is doing ministry in the type of community with which he is familiar.

He knows the feel, he says, of a suburbia that masks deep problems, of drug abuse that threatens to take lives, and of the despair that the glaze of affluence can hide.

Many of the people in the community are up all night and in no shape to attended church in the morning. With that in mind, he said, “We keep our home open to people in our community. They can come talk to us 24 hours a day. This helps us stay in the loop of what is going on.”

He says he holds a worship service one week and then a cook-out for community members the next. “We want to make mission real,” he says. “We want to show people a blueprint of how they can come to know and love God.”

One of his most loyal supporters is a local drug dealer. “He wants us to stay. He knows God cares because he brought us here.”

Another strong supporter is Monika Grasley, who has served as a coach as he has begun the church.

And then there is Hefti Brunold III. Brunold and Sisneroz met when they were working in ministry in the Ripon, Calif. area. They became friends.

When Sisneroz decided to try to plant a church in Stockton, Brunold left his work in youth ministry to help out.

“I’m very much Barnabas to his Paul,” said Brunold. “Coming to work in Stockton has been a life-giving experience. I’ve gotten a renewed vision, purpose and direction.”

Ripon was calm, full of churches, seemingly without too many serious problems.

 “I sincerely appreciate being able to work with Martin. He has a heart for broken people and that is inspiring,” he said.

“I appreciate the chance, with this church plant, to be able to dream about what could be in the broken community we are in.”