Greetings from the United Kingdom—actually Wales to be more precise—where our family has lived since June 2004. My name is Bill Lollar, originally from the great state of Mississippi, but I have also lived in Nebraska, Michigan, Louisiana and enjoyed ten wonderful years in Florida before moving to Wales. My wife and I have been married thirty-one years: we have four grown children and three grandchildren! Our youngest daughter (still living at home) works as a hairdresser and is engaged to a young Welshman from Cardiff; our only son recently married a wonderful young lady from Sheffield, England, where he serves the Lord in a house church network; our oldest daughter lives in Pensacola, Florida; and our second oldest daughter lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, with her Air Force husband and our three precious children.
In 1996, I began to think about ways to invest the remaining years of my life as a coach, mentor, trainer, and encourager of others committed to Gospel ministry. I was three years into planting my fourth church in Pensacola when the Florida Baptist Convention approached me about working as a part-time strategist in the Panhandle; and a year later we found ourselves going through the appointment process to become church planting missionaries with the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, serving the Panhandle region of Florida until 2003. During those seven years, I helped facilitate the planting process for approximately forty churches between Pensacola and Tallahassee.
Grace Church Planting Ministries was established in 2003 and, as a result, I began to receive requests for help literally around the world. Within a year, I was preparing for a major transition to another culture where three or four generations are unfamiliar with even the basics of the Gospel message. A good example of this: during a recent field trip to an ancient Anglo-Catholic cathedral, one British teenager asked the tour guide, "Who's the guy on the wall?" referring to a large crucifix.
The past three years have been challenging and stimulating to say the least. Presently, I am working in close partnership with a local Baptist church that is passionately and actively engaged in reaching their community with the Gospel. They are wonderfully supportive of my involvement with a national church planting initiative and they eagerly share my vision to encourage any evangelical church planter who needs someone to come alongside them as a coach, mentor, and friend.
This blog represents some of my thoughts and reflections on various aspects of a Gospel lifestyle and the truths of Scripture. At the age of fifty-two, I'm still growing in my understanding of the Christian journey. Biblical truth is more important to me than preserving tradition, even if I find it painful to change my thinking and methodology. I've always asked the tough questions, even when others would prefer that I simply go along with the status quo.
Reading this blog may infuriate some, irritate others, stir your curiosity, or make you question my sanity or orthodoxy. Please pray for a spiritual harvest in the United Kingdom and Western Europe, especially if you appreciate the rich theological heritage that was once alive in this land.
