Phil's Church Planting Bio

Church Planting Roots begin first day kindergarten	1956-1969
Birth Place of Frank Sinatra, the Free Church and its rebirth	1890-1980
Beginning a Church with a Bottle of Wine	1981-1992
The First Hundred Churches	1980-2000
Twenty five (37) church plants commissioned in one night	September 10, 2000
Church Resource Ministries Staff- New York City	September 11, 2001. . .

Phil's church planting experience actually began early. It was the first day of kindergarten. Several things happened that day filled with emotional trauma. He ran away from school, was apprehended, brought back to school by a pack of safety patrollers, and then delivered back to Mrs. Miller's, by the principal, Mrs. Bucko. Within an hour of re entering the public school population, he met a little girl with a Shirley Temple hair do. Her name was Ruthann. They would later on date in high school. She would become a Christian attending a church plant they were attending. The next day she led Phil to Christ. They nurtured their new found faith at Highland Community Church, a new church plant in an old school building. . .

Answer is Hoboken, NJ. Which came first? The Free Church. It began in 1890, the first Free Church in the New York Metropolitan area. Frank came later in 1914. (Frank and Phil's father Charlie attended high school together in Hoboken. Charlie graduated, but Frank didn't). Anyhow, the Free Church moved from Hoboken to Teaneck, NJ during the depression years leaving its building behind at First and Willow. Right next to the Church building facing the Esso (Exxon) Gas Station were the words of John 3:16 painted in Old English script.

By the late 1970's the old Free Church was now an American Legion, complete with a full service bar where the preacher once stood. There was the hull of a turquoise blue 500 pound bomb that hung above the bar. A decision was made upon viewing this, "It's time for the Free Church to come back to town." The next step was a resident of Hoboken coming to Christ at a thoroughly Italian engagement party, the first of several people to find Christ.

Question. How do you plant a church back in the city again, while pastoring an inner city congregation of 75 people which itself had been declining for the last 40 years? How do intentionally plant a church in a district. where there had not been a church started in the city since the first immigration waves at the turn of the century? Vision was shared with area churches, partnerships were formed and funding was raised to begin a new church in Hoboken in 1980.

While spending 10 years in Northern NJ schooling pastoring and planting, things began to change dramatically in the Atlantic City area. Fifteen things to be exact, called Casinos each employing form 3000-5000 people. The area began to grow out of control. God called Phil, Ruthann, and their three kids to plant a church in the place where they grew up as pagans. This was a pioneer effort no group to start with, no support. People began to be contacted house to house, face to face, hospital bed to hospital bed. The first bible study began with a butcher block, a bottle of wine and 6 spiritually hungry people. . .who agreed to meet the following week--this time without the bottle of wine. . .

Phil has worked in partnership with over 100 new churches on the East Coast, Midwest and Greater Chicago area. The target communities have included rural farming and ranching areas, small towns, suburban areas, and urban centers including Atlantic City, Wichita, Quad Cities, Rockford, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Detroit, Chicago, New York

In addition to English speaking communities, the Church plants have included a variety of ethnic and cultural communities including Hispanic, African American, Haitian, Romanian, Chinese, Polish, Indian, Korean, Congolese, and Japanese.

Phil partnered with two visionary pastors--Mark Overmyer and Marty Schoenleber whose hearts desire was to see a church planting movement take place in a specific geographic region--the Greater Chicago area. The goal was to commission 25 church planters on September 10, 2000. Parent and partner churches were mobilized, as well as planters were mobilized in a variety of different settings. The result was the commissioning of 31 new churches in the Greater Chicago area and an additional 6 churches outside of Greater Chicago. Other areas have been challenged by the church planting movement in greater Chicago.

Phil and Ruthann joined the staff of Church Resource Ministries, joining with the New York City Team. Phil's focus will be to resource emerging church planting movements. Our personal calling statement:

To follow Jesus to the streets and neighborhoods of New York City facilitating movements that will multiply 1000 fresh authentic churches by 2020.