In this John Onwuchekwa interview, Sean DeMars talks with the Blueprint Church pastor about entering ministry young, race in Reformed circles and planting churches in Atlanta.
He’s not headlining conferences, writing books for Crossway or getting much attention from sites like The Gospel Coalition or Challies.com. Even so, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be worth your time to learn more about him and his journey as a man, husband and pastor.
With that in mind, I sent John a few questions and am delighted to share his responses with you.
To start, you’ve been a pastor for how long now?
Since 2007, so about seven years now. I served for two and a half years as a college pastor at a church plant in Texas and have been serving as a pastor at Blueprint Church for the past five years.
Entering Ministry at a Young Age
Looking back, you can clearly see the good hand of God guiding you into ministry at such a young age. Would you say, however, that your experience is a recipe for everyone? Is there a certain age when someone should think about entering ministry, or is it more a matter of maturity and character?
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on my journey. While I wouldn’t use the word “recipe,” because I think God graciously put me in some pretty unique scenarios, I do think my experience could be a good template of sorts.
When I was a 21-year-old college senior, I met a 30-year-old pastor who had a burden to see solid churches planted in the urban context. I’ve been serving alongside him for the past nine years. He trained me in the areas in which he was particularly gifted and was adamant about making sure I connected with other leaders who had different skill sets, giftings and, at times, philosophies than he did.
From there, I went from directing high school ministry to assisting with the college ministry, becoming the college pastor, leading our small groups, shepherding our launch team, assisting in the teaching of the church and becoming the teaching pastor, and so on.
Along the way, I was constantly and incrementally entrusted with more responsibility, given room to both fail and succeed, and then evaluated so I could learn from both my successes and mistakes.
Ultimately, I’ve come to learn that, in developing pastors, there is no certain age that makes someone eligible for ministry. Giving the church both the responsibility and freedom to affirm its own pastors has been the greatest confirmation for me.
So, do you think you were ready for what you had gotten into at 23?
Was I ready to be a pastor at 23 years old? Probably not.
That doesn’t mean I prematurely forced myself, or was forced, into a role I had no business being in. Rather, I don’t think I was ready to pastor at 23 in the same way I don’t think I was ready to get married when I got married.
There are certain things, like marriage and children, that you’re just not completely ready for until you’re actually thrown into them. Once I became a pastor, I saw how inadequate I was, and still am in some ways, and it keeps me on my knees. In that sense, it has been a good thing.
Even now, I often question my own readiness and adequacy. When I do, I remind myself of 1 Corinthians 15:10 and 2 Corinthians 3:4-6. Whether you desire to pastor, are already a pastor or are simply a regular Christian, those are great passages to look up and memorize.
Race and Representation in Reformed Circles
Turning to race, you’re African American and Reformed. Do you feel like you’re part of a subculture within a subculture?
I remember feeling that way in college when I was first exposed to the truths I’ve come to hold dear to my heart. Shortly after that, however, I started meeting guys all over the U.S. who shared my culture and convictions.
Over the course of the past decade, I’ve begun to feel that guys like me aren’t as rare as I once thought.
Even though I don’t feel as isolated as I once did, I do feel that, in the larger evangelical or Reformed conversation, the perspective of minorities is largely underrepresented and misrepresented.
More specifically, it is underrepresented in the sense that Reformed minorities are often pigeonholed into talking about urban perspectives or urban issues. I long to see the day when more minorities are consulted for the contributions they make to the broader evangelical conversation.
Why Plant Churches in Atlanta?
With that background, why Atlanta?
Our desire in church planting was never simply to become a self-sustaining church that could pay its own bills. Sometimes, in church planting, I think we can view that as success. From the jump, we never wanted that to be the case for us.
Instead, we wanted the church, by God’s grace, to serve as a blueprint for what it looks like to plant churches in the urban context.
With that being said, we desired to be in a city that could serve as a hub for training future church planters to plant churches in some of the most difficult and desperate urban settings. Three primary reasons drew us to Atlanta.
1. A city of natural influence
Atlanta is one of the hip-hop capitals of the world. It is a city of influence for an entire demographic of people in the U.S. In fact, it is often referred to as the “Black Mecca” or the “promised land.”
Therefore, with our desire to raise up, recruit and train future leaders to influence a nation, a city like Atlanta seemed like a no-brainer.
2. Diversity
The United States is becoming increasingly diverse. However, we didn’t want merely to be in a diverse city, but in a city that was diverse in a unique way.
Atlanta is one of the few cities in the U.S. made up predominantly of a minority group. In other words, it is a majority-minority city.
We value diversity. While it makes a terrible North Star for a church’s mission, it is a great resource, tool and, above all else, testimony to the greatness of our God.
3. Strong college presence
There are six major colleges within a 10-mile radius: Georgia Tech, Emory, Georgia State, Clark Atlanta, Morehouse and Spelman.
Atlanta is a city of natural influence for a reason. In particular, its strong college presence has helped give the city a progressive mindset.
Historically, we also had success ministering to college students. Therefore, we desired to be in a place where we could continue to steward the unique grace we believe the Lord granted us.
If you could tell a prospective church planter one thing, and one thing only, about church planting, what would it be?
If you’re merely an entrepreneur and not an evangelist, you probably won’t make a very good church planter. However, if you commit to doing the work of an evangelist and see that as your aim, then I think you’re on the right track.
Learning After the Church Plant
You recently completed an internship. Why, as the pastor of an already successful church plant, did you think it was necessary to do one?
I did the internship because I love to learn. At the same time, I’m more of a contemplative thinker, and I’m not naturally an entrepreneur or church planter.
I would love to build an entire bridge and test it before actually walking across it. In church planting, however, you often aren’t afforded that luxury.
For almost five years, I spent my time building bridges as we crossed them. By God’s grace, the bridges never collapsed, and He was extremely faithful to us.
Eventually, we reached a point in the life of the church where we were on the cusp of making major decisions. I felt it would serve all of us well if one of us stepped outside the work we had been immersed in for so long and gained a different perspective.
The elders and congregation of Blueprint were extremely gracious and gave me a four-and-a-half-month sabbatical. As a result, I spent the entire time in Washington, D.C., reading, observing, processing and writing.
“Internship” probably isn’t the best word to describe my time there. After all, when people hear “internship,” they usually think about getting coffee and doughnuts or picking up dry cleaning. My time in D.C. wasn’t like that at all.
Instead, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, for four and a half months, I studied pastoral theology, ecclesiology, church history, polity and more.
During those months, I read about 40 books, wrote more than 300 pages of reflection and spent countless hours in conversations about those same topics.
Ultimately, it helped me think well about the church and gave me a precision in comprehension and communication that I lacked before taking the sabbatical. In a nutshell, it was an investment in the future health of the church.
Lastly, I spent that time in D.C. because I have a desire to reproduce something similar in Atlanta. That way, other pastors, or future pastors, who want the same development can access that kind of training in their own context.
So what is Rebuild?
You can find everything you need to know at rebuildnetwork.org. What good is a website if we never point people to it?
Books, Movies and The Lecrae
All right, top three theological books.
Knowing God by J.I. Packer
The Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges
Lectures to My Students by Charles Spurgeon
Next, top three books in general.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Knowing God by J.I. Packer
?
Now give me your top three movies.
No particular order, and more than you asked for:
Good Will Hunting
Mission: Impossible
The Dark Knight
The Usual Suspects, one of the greatest movie endings of all time
Braveheart
And top three TV shows.
Breaking Bad
24
Martin
Finally, is it true that you know The Lecrae? If so, can I give you my demo? Maybe, I don’t know, you could pass it to him or whatever.
:-/