SonRise Baptist Church
Below is an article written by Pastor Kevin Subra on behalf of SonRise Baptist Church, Adel. Please pray for their church family as they have experienced, and will continue to experience, numerous significant transitions!
We wanted to send a brief update about our progress and allow you to praise the Lord with us. God has continued to sustain and encourage us as we have sought to remain stable, to be re-established, and to pursue a new lead pastor.
Kevin Subra has served as our interim pastor since February, 2023. Under his shepherding, we have renamed the church to SonRise Baptist Church to better reflect our mission and message, and to reflect our commitment to impact Adel and surrounding areas until Jesus returns. Kevin has preached and taught doctrinally foundational sermons and lessons to help remind us and re-ground us in key truths (especially in the doctrines of the church and salvation). He has helped to guide the church forward since the loss of our previous lead pastor with a view to finding our next lead pastor. He has been aided by his wife, several of his teenage and adult children, and his in-laws – all of which have been a great blessing to SonRise. Every person makes a difference in a small work!
God began answering our prayers by bringing those who desired to be a critical part of a smaller work in our needy community. We have experienced some growth, including the adding of two young couples to our membership. We continue to have interested visitors as well. As always, we encourage everyone to consider the possibility that God may use YOU to encourage and serve in Adel and other smaller works.
God answered our specific prayer in burdening and bringing a young man to SonRise that would have the desire and ability to assume the primary leadership. We appealed to the IARBC and FBBC in the summer of 2023, and God brought to us David and Pam Chambers. David recently graduated from FBBC, and had a passion for helping smaller works (something his father – a pastor – had done for years). David and Pam began attending and serving SonRise in September, 2023, joining the membership that fall, with the idea that David would eventually become the lead pastor of our SonRise assembly. In December of 2023, David and Pam moved to the church parsonage in Adel. David found employment in the Adel area quickly. SonRise is holding an ordination council for David in July, and plan on formally calling him as lead pastor around that time. Please pray for this transition. SonRise is pleased at God’s working through our transition.
Kevin is planning to wrap up his 17-month interim pastorate at the end of June. David will preach through the month of July, and formally assume his lead pastor role when called at the end of July or early August. David has preached some and has taught our Sunday school class since January, leading the church in reviewing and refreshing our doctrinal statement. He has also planned and led the singing since his arrival. We are deeply thankful to God for equipping David and Pam to serve with us.
Will you help us? If you are in or near Adel, and desire to reach a growing community (Adel continues to grow at a rate of 5-7% a year) that needs a sound, Bible-teaching church, please consider helping SonRise Baptist Church. Or, if you are within reasonable driving distance, and have a heart to help smaller churches rebuild and re-establish their impact and are willing to commit to a given amount of time (1 month? 3 months? 6 months? 1 year? 2 years?), please consider serving God this way! (We encourage you to get your pastor’s blessing when doing so.)
Please prayerfully consider such a commitment in a smaller church and needy community, as each individual and each family can make a profound impact, even if only through faithful participation. Will you help SonRise, or another similar church, with your committed, sacrificial participation, service, and support? Some may even be qualified to help a smaller church by sacrificially serving as a pastor or interim pastor.
For information about being a part of SonRise (or if you would like to chat with Kevin to get ideas about helping a smaller church you are burdened for), please contact Kevin at kevin.subra@gmail.com. Thank you for your prayers and your consideration.
