Adventures in Church Planting
Salt and Light: A Multigenerational Church Planting Story
At thirteen, I encountered God, and His love transformed me. Since then, I have seen His hand throughout my life, and church planting has played a central role in my story. In 2001, my parents were given the opportunity to plant an Open Bible Hispanic Church in Burbank, California. It would require a move from our current home in Bell Gardens, which is about 22 miles away from Burbank. At fifteen, I wasn’t very happy about the thought of changing churches, let alone high schools. However, my parents felt the need to explore the opportunity. Despite my initial hesitancy, the day we went to see the church was the day my heart changed. I remember entering through the front doors and sensing something special as I looked around. God was opening my eyes to all the church could become. My parents prayed and ultimately made the decision to plant the church and move our family to Burbank.
Soon after the move, they began having Sunday services. The church consisted of my parents, my little brother, and me. My mom would play the piano and lead worship while I attempted to play the drums on the “vintage” drum set that was there. My dad would preach to the three of us week after week. It wasn’t until the sixth month that we would welcome our first church member. Over time others came, and others also left, but there were always those that stayed. Looking back, I can recall so many different stories that showed me the good, the bad, and the ugly of planting and pastoring. I didn’t know it yet, but God was preparing me for what was ahead, not only through my parents’ experience but through what He was doing in my heart. He was maturing me through every team I led, every gap I filled, and every tear I shed. Maybe my parents didn’t realize it at the time, but in their instruction, correction, and creation of space for me to grow, they were investing in the future: the future of our church and the future of God’s Kingdom.
…my parents didn’t realize it at the time, but in their instruction, correction, and creation of space for me to grow, they were investing in the future…
As the years passed, visitors would walk into the church during worship and leave because they didn’t understand Spanish. It was in 2016 that God began to stir in my heart a desire to start a ministry in English, and in February of 2017 God opened the door for me to start an English Bible study at my parents’ church. By this time, I was married to my husband Victor, and we had our daughter Olivia. On the week of our first Bible study, I found out I was pregnant. After a year of trying to conceive, my son Lucas was on the way. However, after giving birth to our healthy baby boy, I became very ill due to complications from the delivery. We had no choice but to put a hold on the Bible study. Little did I know the next five years would bring some of the most difficult seasons in my life. But as Psalm 30:5 says, “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (NIV). I came out of those years stronger and with more fire than ever.
By the spring of 2023, due to my mom’s declining health, I began helping my Dad with preaching at our Friday night services. As time passed, God began to fiercely tug at my heart about what I had left unfinished in 2017. Our church still had a desperate need for an English ministry. I shared this burden with my husband, and we realized this time the stakes were higher and the need had become personal. Our own kids were missing out on certain aspects of church because of the language barrier. This ministry would not only bless our city, but the generations behind us as well. I began to pray for God’s will and knew it wouldn’t be an English Bible study but a new English church. I was filled with urgency and passion for this call. That is when I returned to my INSTE Level Two courses to prepare further, and as my mom’s health stabilized, I shared the vision with my parents. Soon after this, I applied for my pastoral credentials and received my license in August 2024. By October, my parents were on board as our “mother” or “sending” church, and we began to prepare for Salt and Light Church.
… I tell you, never lose heart because God never changes His mind on who He made you to be.
We are now working with the Church Multiplication Collective and our mother church to prepare for a launch in March of 2026. I’m happy to share that we have had a successful Vision Night as well as three Revival Nights this past summer. God has been showing up, and we continue moving forward with weekly Bible studies and team meetings. The road of church planting isn’t easy. It takes patience, faith, and a lot of courage. I’ve learned that things don’t always fall the way you envision they will, and the people you expect to join aren’t always the ones God has for the journey. There will be times your calling will be tested and tried. But I tell you, never lose heart because God never changes His mind on who He made you to be. Whether you are called to church planting, missions, or something else, ministry always starts with a yes to the call. God will give you what you need and who you need to build His Kingdom. Our God is the God who provides, and He will never fail. He is and forever will be.
Melissa Alvarez has her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from California State University Northridge and has gone through the INSTE program. She is a second-generation Mexican American who grew up in the Open Bible Hispanic Ministries. She is bilingual and has used her gifts to minister in Spanish and in English. Her parents planted a Hispanic church in Burbank, California, in 2001, and she is now in the process of planting an English church in the same building. She is passionate about her family and about revival. She is married to her husband, Victor, and they have two children.
When God called me and my wife, Tammie, to start Green Branch Church in 2020, we knew He was leading us to do things differently than we had done before. He didn’t ask us to be edgy or creative. He didn’t ask us to research the latest church planting trends or analyze innovative social media algorithms. God simply asked us to be obedient and follow Him every step of the way. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus told His disciples, “…I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (NLT). We chose to believe Him and follow His lead.
In the early season of planting Green Branch, we would meet weekly at a leader’s house, eat amazing food, and live in community with people we loved. We would have awesome biblical discussions and invest in each other’s lives. (Oh, and did I mention the food? We were loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and stomachs.) But there was a problem. We were spending so much time with other Christians we had no room in our lives to reach our neighbors.
We were putting so much time and energy into keeping the first greatest commandment that we were overlooking the second. In fact, we were not loving our neighbors at all. We were liking them; we were not loving them. We waved at our neighbors, were polite, spoke kindly to them, and invited them to church, but none of that was love. We would literally drive past the forty-six houses in our neighborhood to be part of a community of Christ followers in a different part of the city. The Holy Spirit was telling us to stop doing so much church stuff and step back into our neighborhood.
The Holy Spirit was telling us to stop doing so much church stuff and step back into our neighborhood.
Tammie and I have been going to church all our lives. We’ve taken classes on evangelism, read books, listened to podcasts, and sat through hundreds of sermons on how to reach the lost. But this knowledge did nothing to foster God’s love for our neighbors in us. We were feeling the tension that exists between designing programs to help Christians reach people and actually reaching them. Sometimes it’s easy to see people as projects.
The first thing God did to help us reach our neighbors was show us the hard truth about ourselves. We had taken the “love your neighbor as yourself” commandment passively and not actively. We were waiting for them to come to us: to show up at our door with a spiritual question, initiate some deep spiritual conversation at the grocery store, or show up at a church gathering. That just wasn’t going to happen. The Holy Spirit reminded us we were God’s plan “A” on how He would reach our neighbors.
When I was growing up, my youth pastor used to say, “The best way to spell love is T-I-M-E.” We remembered that advice and started looking for excuses to spend time with our neighbors. We asked ourselves how we could love our neighbors “as we love ourselves.” The idea of “same way, same time, same place” kept coming to mind. What were things we could do with our neighbors at the same time, in the same place, and in the same way we would do them for ourselves? The answer was FOOD! We all must eat, so why not eat the food we love, together, at the same time. We started inviting our neighbors to our house for dinner on Thursday nights. God gave us two goals for these neighbor nights: love your neighbors and eat delicious food.
The next thing God did to help us reach our neighbors was give us His love for them. Each dinner brought more connection and commonality as our combined history was being made. The spiritual conversations did not start happening right away. What happened was WE began to change. That elusive love for our neighbors began to bloom with every bite. The more time we spent, the more God’s love grew in us. At the same time, our neighbors’ love for us was growing. Simply obeying God had turned our neighbors into friends, and now we love our friends!
Before each dinner, we would pray and ask God to turn up the spiritual temperature. We would walk around our neighborhood praying for our friends as we passed their houses. It was a slow process. We kept reminding ourselves that we were responsible to be faithful while God was responsible for the fruit. Over time, we have begun to see evidence of that fruit.
We were asked to perform a memorial service for the father of one of our neighbor friends. They held the service at their house one Saturday afternoon. It was an amazing time of love, grief, and healing for the family. We listened to stories about their Pop and joined them in their sorrow. They gave us the opportunity to show the love of Jesus and explain the gospel to twenty people in their living room.
God changed our lives through the second greatest commandment. Our mission field did not change; God changed us within our mission field.
Other friends have asked us to teach their kids about Jesus. People that formerly would not set foot in our “Bible House” now ask if we will pray at the neighborhood block parties. On Thursday nights we’ve begun praying over specific neighbors who come. I cannot wait to see what God is going to do throughout this next year!
God changed our lives through the second greatest commandment. Our mission field did not change; God changed us within our mission field. His call to us is simple: love your neighbor the same way you love yourself, at the same time, in the same place.
About the Author
Davy Saunders
Davy and Tammie Saunders planted Green Branch Church, a micro church community, in 2022. They concentrate on making disciples, building community, and joining Jesus on mission. They live and minister in Williamsburg, Virginia, where Tammie is a kidney resource nurse case manager and Davy is a co-vocational roofing pastor. They have been married for thirty-five years and have two adult children and two amazing grandchildren.
