Dave Farris - A Rural Missional Leader
Northstar Church in Pulaski, VA
Dave Farris is a rural pastor who has been led on a unique path in ministry. He leads a missional, micro church network in rural Virginia called Northstar Church. Like many of us, becoming a pastor was not the initial trajectory of his life. “ I went to a Bible college in Knoxville, Tennessee, and if I’m being really honest, I was there primarily to play sports. Through a series of events I ended up failing out of school and coming home.“ This is what Dave called the first of the “spiritual conundrums” in his life.
After what he calls a “rebellious period”, the Lord captured Dave’s heart and led him back to the church. He began teaching a high school Sunday School class after being “roped in”. The group thrived. So, he went all in on youth ministry. He enrolled in a local Bible college and “My wife and I commuted two hours each way every weekend for a year. I was going to school, working at UPS and doing this thing on Sundays.”
Still Not There
Something wasn’t quite right in Dave’s spirit, however, about the traditional structure of the church and the ministry in particular. “I realized at that point, I belonged in church planting, but I didn't fit any of the profiles to be a pastor or a lead guy. I'd been going to conferences and I just didn't fit that profile. So, I thought, I must need seminary. So we moved to Cincinnati, and I went to seminary.” It was through this process Dave had another “spiritual conundrum”
“I'm taking spiritual disciplines in seminary and the Lord is just wrecking me.” Dave describes it. “Through that season, my wife and I felt led to come back home. We had started reading a lot of Hugh Halter and Frank Viola, the missional micro guys, before missional and micro was kind of a thing.” The Farris’s ended up in rural Virginia. Hardly a place for a cutting edge group.
Initially, he connected with a church that he says was a really healthy environment. “I felt like I was a dry sponge under a waterfall, just really being poured into and healing. I ended up going on staff with that church. The Lord was moving in incredible ways.” It was though this environment that Dave decided to take the big leap into the church plating call.
Northstar Church
The plant began in Pulaski, VA. The rural town sits about an hour southwest of Roanoke, VA and about 300 miles away from the Nation’s Capitol, Washington D.C. The town is the seat of Pulaski county which boasts only about 105 people per square mile, making one of the lowest population densities in the nation. Initially the goal was to plant a church in the traditional way. They started in 2013 and grew fairly quickly for a rural church plant. “For about the first four or five years it was around 50-60 people“ Dave says. That is pretty typical for churches in the region.
“In 2017, we really started shifting a focus to making disciples and really investing in the spiritual vibrancy of people and things really started growing.” Northstar began meeting in a local elementary school and later moved to the YMCA. During the summer break they shifted outside to a local state park by a lake. As things grew they shifted to a Christian camp by the same lake. “There were some some practical things we wanted to try to be, and do differently than then what the typical reputation is around here. But it was very, very traditional. We did welcome, announcements, a few songs and a sermon.”
The Big Shake Up
Then the Pandemic came and, like it did for most churches, changed the direction of the church. “Coming into the COVID. I would have said we're really healthy church. Disciples were being made. People coming to know Jesus. Our community was very open and receptive to new people.” Dave tells us. But maybe that was just what it looked like on the surface.
As “stay at home” orders were put in place, Northstar had to go on line. Fairly quickly Dave noticed a problem, “We did all these things, and nobody's showing up. Within two weeks, everybody has zoomed out. And they've heard enough messages for the rest of their life, because every church service is now online. And it really took me to a place of like, ‘goodness, where is everybody?’” He called this yet another “spiritual conundrum.”
Over the course of a few months Dave and the leadership developed a vision that was in line with missional, micro site church that he had been drawn to in those seminary days. The initial step was to have the staff pray about the changes. As the vision was cast for the changes, members were asked to join the leadership in praying. Dave urged everyone to give it three months. This was summer of 2020 and, amazingly, they lost only one family in the process.
Dave referred to new launch as the “Big Bang Theory” of the church that came in November of 2020. “We took 125 people, including kids and adults. We started with six micro churches the first year.“ They also kept a 7th group that was online for people who weren’t ready to gather. Some groups met in the same home, others rotated homes. Most stayed together but a few of these micro churches never got off the ground.
Re-evaluate and Reassess
The summer of 2021 seemed like a perfect time to restart the lake side church gathering and take time to reassess the changes. They still needed to answer some of the big questions: What do we do with kids? What does multiplication and leadership development look like?
Dave tells us, “There was a lot of equipping and training that is still there to this day, and will be for a long time.” The micro sites relaunched in the fall of 2021 with a renewed enthusiasm. Dave says the goal for the group leaders was, “We needed to build relational capital. These guys need to enjoy gathering together. They need to love one another. They need to really practice the ‘one another's’ that we see in Scripture. So, that was our primary goal for that fall season.” The groups took off once again.
Each group operates differently but there are certain key elements that remain the same. “What we typically like to see is a meal together. Whether that's breakfast beforehand or the lunch after there's always that communion space.” Worship music might be from someone with a guitar or through YouTube. Some groups may have no music at all. Of course, there are times of prayer and scripture reading. The groups use the Discovery Bible Study as their core teaching. There is always a lot of sharing and discussion.
And how does this new way of doing church play out in a rural setting? Dave says that some have viewed what they are doing as “cultish”, but many people think it’s new and exciting. “We’ve seen the Lord starting to draw in de-churched and unchurched, primarily people who were in a place where their own experiences in church weren't healthy. They're reading scripture, and they're seeing this picture of the church that did not correlate with anything they had ever experienced.” They are expanding sites beyond The town of Pulaski. Recently, they’ve had a new group form meeting in a doctor’s office.
How Does It Work?
Dave would be the first to admit that the missional, micro church model is not for everyone, but he does have some advice for groups considering a re-organization like theirs. “You can't under emphasize the prayer and fasting aspect of it.” That’s where it all began for Northstar’s transition.
Next, he would recommend that you ask some hard questions like, “Have you ever read through Acts and wondered why it doesn't relate to anything you've ever experienced? Do you wonder what it could look like if it did?” He also recommends reading some of the authors who advocate a missional approach to church like, Hugh Halter, Frank Viola and Alan Hirsch. Again, some of Dave’s influences from his early years.
Finally, Dave says that when you go against the grain, you will face opposition and criticism. You have to be prepared for it, but you can’t allow it to make you play the “us” versus “them” game. “The Lord's called us here for a reason and we're not better than anyone. We're not trying to perceive ourselves as better than. We just want to see Jesus transform lives and turn this culture upside down for His glory.” He adds, “My intention is not to be critical of the prevailing model. I mean, I'm here largely in part because of the formation that the Lord put in me through the prevailing model.” Dave also has worked to build bridges between Northstar and other congregations in the county.
Northstar currently run 7 groups scattered throughout the county and they are seeing God move in great ways. They are not looking to go back to their old way of doing church. To connect with Dave or to find out more about Northstar Church, go to the church’s website - https://northstarpulaski.org
Article by Jeff Chaves, Pastor of CHRCH Online.