The first public Sunday of The Oaks Church was April 17, 2017, but the story began long before.
Terry-Lee Kirkland moved his family to Louisville, KY, in 2012 so he could pursue his M.Div. from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Their church family at Highview Baptist Church affirmed that God was leading them to plant. So, during that time, Kirkland began researching “SEND” cities—32 Cities NAMB has selected as strategic cities for church planting.
When they moved to Cincinnati in 2016, only 14% of the population identified with an evangelical church. As they prepared for the difficulties ahead and the official launch in 2017, Kirkland prayed that God would provide another staff member to partner with.
He knew exactly where to look.
“Jimmy and I had known one another from seminary and serving on staff together at Highview,” Kirkland said.
Sitting in the same classrooms as Kirkland at Southern Seminary, Jimmy Funchess, now Executive Pastor at The Oaks Church and a three-time graduate of Southern Seminary, was an obvious choice.
Kirkland knew Funchess valued the same convictions for church planting. They would each take leadership, membership, and discipleship seriously from the beginning.
“My wife and I invited Jimmy and his wife, Katelyn, to Cincinnati for lunch,” Kirkland said. “Sitting at the Incline Public House overlooking the city, I asked if they would be willing to pray about making Cincinnati their home and The Oaks their place in God’s mission. They agreed. In May of 2017, the Funchess family moved to Cincinnati.”
However, Funchess and Kirkland knew there was more than just a need for additional churches. The city (and world) needs biblical churches committed to truth.
“The need for gospel-preaching churches was clear, and the missional opportunities in Cincinnati were abundant,” Funchess said. “Like most cities all around our country and the world, Cincinnati needed pastors and church planters who were serious about the gospel and serious about the mission of God.”
The Oaks has grown from community gatherings of 30 people to a healthy church with over 350 members—a bright spot in a city that is secularizing at an increasing pace. But Funchess and Kirkland never considered measuring the church’s success by its reach or influence. Instead, theological faithfulness and total submission to the authority of Scripture and the Great Commission were the ultimate standards. Pleasing God, not man.
Funchess and Kirkland both credit their time at Southern Seminary for instilling a commitment to evangelism and theological faithfulness.
“At Southern Seminary, you don’t just gain information,” Kirkland said. “”What seemed theoretical at the time became very real in the early days of The Oaks. I remember asking Greg Allison questions in his ecclesiology class that have been fleshed out in our church planting journey. I use the principles of hermeneutics and homiletics every week when I study a text. The careful teaching of Dr. Plummer, Dr. Pohlman, and Dr. York is reflected throughout my sermons. I also seek to emulate Dr. Pierre’s care for his classmates in counseling our church members. The theological training at Southern is unmatched and has proved practical every step in this journey.”
Funchess had a similar experience.
“When I arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2013, I was a tremendously different person than when I left to plant in Cincinnati in 2017,” Funchess said. “The lectures and classes shaped me and helped me to think in a biblical framework. However, I also developed relationships with professors who were very eager to invest in me. I remember walking with Dr. Schreiner to his office and meeting to discuss theological questions. I remember meeting with my shepherding group professor’s house to share in community together with other students. I remember Dr. York inviting me to chat in his office at Buck Run to discuss the potential of doctoral studies. The professors are eager to shape their students and help them to follow the Lord’s call on their lives.”
One of the most encouraging things for Kirkland as a church planter is seeing their church as a place to raise up the next generation of church leaders and planters.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of ministry has been the development of sons and daughters in the faith,” Kirkland said. “We have had seven of our church members respond to the call of full-time ministry and become students at SBTS over the past eight years.”
Kirkland also loves how the Great Commission is not viewed as a task just for church leaders at The Oaks. One of his favorite examples of the Spirit’s work in the lives of their people comes from an interaction between a church member, Aubrey, and a restaurant manager she met named Chris.
“What are you living for?”
Chris had never been asked that question. He sat in his house for over an hour, agonizing over that blank sheet of paper. He wondered how he couldn’t write down an answer to that seemingly fundamental question.
He returned the next day and asked Aubrey, “Well, what do you live for?”
Aubry knew how to answer because this question from Chris was the question she hoped her own question the day before would initiate. It was a question her church had also equipped her to answer.
“I live for the Lord,” Aubry said. “We were created for a relationship with God.”
Stemming from this interaction, Chris professed faith in Christ, underwent baptism, and now teaches elementary-age classes at The Oaks Church on Sundays.
Kirkland says these are the stories he lives for as a church planter. Cincinnati is a city where people need to be confronted with the gospel, Christians need to be equipped to share it, and churches need to exist to proclaim it.
Southern Seminary exists to equip the equippers.