One of the Bible Fellowship church planters that we support is Jason Filbert, pastor of Covenant Bible Fellowship in Naples, Florida. Recently he shared their family’s personal story and how God called them to this challenging but exciting ministry.
I came to understand salvation at the age of seven, which seems a common thing in the American South, where I grew up. Seven is a very young age, and while I do think that the Lord saved me then, I also think I did not fully understand what that meant. I prayed the prayer and was baptized. My faith really was not deeply understood until my teenage years. It was then that I started to experience a call to ministry.
My wife Anna was raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She also came to faith as a young child of seven and was baptized on the same day as her older brother. While she struggled with her faith for a time in college, by her early 20s Anna recognized that the Lord had likewise saved her and that her faith was real.
I think I've always somehow known I would plant a church. I used to say (and still think often) I'm supposed to be in the trenches with the Gospel. Church planting appeared, in my mind, to be the front lines. That was where my heart longed to be, and it is where the Lord graciously allowed me to serve and continues to allow. As to planting in Naples, God opened the opportunity with the BFC, and Naples seemed to be the right place, since my wife and I both have family ties to the area. As we talked and prayed about where we would plant, Naples just seemed to be the right place. We couldn't imagine being anywhere else.
Please pray that the Lord would grow the attendance here at CBF Naples. We need to see internal growth in the hopes of reaching a critical mass for graduation as a particular church. Additionally, pray that the Lord would provide financially for us. Naples is a difficult town to plant a church in because it has a high wealth population, and many churches in our community outspend us in every way. That is not to say that, if we could, we would want to "compete" in that sort of race. It is to say, however, where we long to be grounded biblically in the Word, there are many in Naples who do not and use their money and position to lead many astray.
Please continue to pray for the Filberts as they reach out to the people of Naples, Florida. Please also pray particularly that the Lord will lead them to find a new home closer to the church that can house all seven of them (Jason, his wife and three children, and Jason’s parents). Church planting is hard work, but God is faithful!