REDLANDS, Calif. — As Nancy prepared to be baptized at Portrait Church in Redlands, she couldn’t get rid of a nagging fear. A young single mom in her 30s battling cancer, one side of her body had recently lost all feeling.
Nancy didn’t want to fall. “She literally told me that falling would be her worst nightmare,” said the church’s pastor, Jay Stovall.
Following the baptism of the first two of the six women to be baptized that day, Stovall watched Nancy unexpectedly collapse as she awaited her turn.
“I look over there and see a nurse and some other people I trust helping her,” Stovall said. “It looks like she’s stable, so we baptize the next three people. I look over at my wife, and she’s sobbing. I figured Nancy wouldn’t be getting baptized.”
What happened next would take away the collective breath of the 200 people gathered for worship.
“Suddenly, four guys pick Nancy up and carry her,” Stovall said. “It was like the story of the lowering of the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12). We had about 200 people — silent — as this woman is being carried — weeping — to the baptismal. There wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd. What she was modeling right then was better than any sermon I’ve preached. She gets there, and they lower her into the baptismal. It was powerful.”
In less than two years of ministry in Redlands, Portrait Church — a Send Network church plant — has already baptized nearly 50 people.
Nancy’s baptism was just one of many powerful moments that has defined Portrait Church. But for Stovall, the idea of starting a church had once seemed far from his mind.
“I never really had, honestly, any concept of church planting,” Stovall said. “I never thought that church planting would be something I’d do, to be honest with you. I didn’t know about it.”
Then Jay and Tiffany started a young adult small group at their church, VantagePoint Church in Eastvale, Calif., and it blossomed quickly. Through this experience, the Stovalls sensed a strong call to ministry. Though reluctant to step out at first, God used the events of 2020 to point Stovall toward church planting.
“So many of the young adults and college students I had been discipling were just asking me questions like, ‘How do we navigate this?” Stovall said. “I saw a lot of them walk away from the Church during that time because they felt like there was a lack of holistic discipleship they just hadn’t experienced in their lives. What God made clear to me during that time was, ‘I want you to commit to being part of the future of the church.’”
Stovall didn’t hesitate for a second. His response was simple: “Here I am, Lord, send me.”
The power of a good partner
A few years back, helping plant a church wasn’t even on the mind of Mark Lee, who planted VantagePoint Church in 2008. Launching a new church in the challenging, high-cost mission field of Southern California was tough enough on its own. When Lee planted VantagePoint, his sending church had pitched in a significant amount of money to help with the purchase of a future property.
But the church never had consistent financial partners. It relied solely on the generosity of the congregation. The budget was always tight. Lee wanted to support another church plant the way his sending church had backed him, but he just didn’t see how he could afford it.
Lee’s mindset shifted as other ministry leaders opened his eyes to the impact his church could make — regardless of its budget — in church plants through small, consistent contributions.
Then God turned up the heat further, challenging Lee to transition VantagePoint from a church focused on addition — to one driven by multiplication. That meant finding and investing in leaders within the church who would start new churches. Lee believed God was leading VantagePoint to be “open-handed” with its leaders.
That’s when Lee made a startling statement to those leaders: “I hope you don’t stay here. It’s not that I don’t want a relationship with you. It’s not that I don’t want to do ministry with you long-term. It’s that I hope this church wouldn’t be the finish line — but the starting line.”
At that point, Stovall shared with Lee what he felt the Lord was putting on his heart: starting a new church in Redlands, Calif. Lee saw the fit immediately.
“One of our staff values is contagious enthusiasm,” said Lee, who today serves as both the lead pastor of VantagePoint Church and the West Region Director for Send Network, the church planting arm of the North American Mission Board (NAMB). “The byline of that is, ‘more moths want to fly around a 100-watt light bulb than a 25-watt light bulb.’ I just knew that because of Jay’s wattage, there were always people who wanted to be around him. That’s probably the purest definition of leadership – that people actually want to follow you.”
VantagePoint has been a critical partner for Stovall and Portrait Church. Lee not only aims to help fund the church planters it sends out, but to be a source of wisdom and encouragement when needed.
“If it weren’t for Mark Lee and his generosity with his connections and network, Portrait Church, in many ways, would not exist. We wouldn’t have the financial or relational connections we’ve needed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a challenge,” Stovall said. “But his support has made a huge difference.”
A vision to plant churches
From the start, Stovall’s vision has been to plant a church that multiplies by raising up new church leaders and sending them out to start Gospel-centered communities. His goal is to see Portrait Church become a launching pad for future leaders who will carry the Gospel into other neighborhoods and cities.
“We don’t just want to grow Portrait Church; we want to grow the Kingdom,” Stovall said. “Our prayer is to raise up leaders who will go out and plant churches that are deeply rooted in their communities, just like we are here in Redlands.”
Portrait Church is preparing to send out its first church planter by 2026, with plans to continue fostering a culture of multiplication in the years to come.
Published March 11, 2025