Meet Your Church Planters: Charlie Swain

The Church at Cane Bay in Berkeley County, SC

Charlie Swain is a church planter in Berkeley County who is in the very beginning stages of launching. The name of his church is The Church at Cane Bay, and they are very excited to get things rolling.

Charlie met his wife of seven years, Adrian, in college, and now they have two children: their daughter Reagan (2) and their son Haddon (8 mos). Charlie and Adrian spent several years praying for direction from God until He put the call on their hearts to plant a new church in the Charleston area. Charlie felt confirmed in this call with encouragement from others, peace in their own hearts, and also when Boeing announced a new facility to be built in the area, bringing about 120,000 new residents into the city.

Although they are still in the developmental stages of launching, God has already shown His faithfulness. They currently have 47% of their financial needs pledged. A co-pastor has stepped out in faith to leave his ministry position and join Charlie in the effort of planting The Church at Cane Bay, and that has been a great encouragement for Charlie.

One day Charlie had a wealthy man hand him a check for $2500 to fund the church plant, the biggest gift they had received by far. On the same exact day, Charlie received an email from a Clemson student named Megan. She had heard Charlie talking about church planting, and although she was putting herself through college on loans and a part-time job, she wanted to commit to giving $5 per month to their new church plant. This modern-day widow’s mite story encouraged him that God was moving and that He was going to provide for them.

Charlie knew church planting was going to be hard, so he prepared for that. However, one thing that has surprised him is the pressure and weight of responsibility he feels. He knows that God will build His church, but he still struggles with feeling that weight on his shoulders to make things happen. Charlie wants things to happen quickly, and is learning that everything from reaching people, to organizing, to finding funding takes longer than he wants them to take. So God is growing him in the midst of this stress and pressure to trust Him and channel the weight he feels into a healthy sense of responsibility of a pastor caring for his flock.

God is also challenging Charlie to be a more refined vision caster for his church, and also to be more bold in evangelistic witness. He is learning that the direction of the church will depend primarily on him as a pastor, so he has to lead and model effectively if they are going to be a gospel-focused, evangelistic community that restores the city. The hard reality settling on him is that if he is not out in front modeling that, it will never happen.

Charlie wants to encourage other Christians to get involved in church planting, whether through giving or serving or partnering, because he sees it as the greatest move of God in our country and our world. He is praying for more church plants to come to the Charleston area because he knows it will take much more than the few church plants there now to restore the city to right relationship with God and others. “Come one, come all!” he says.

Charlie would love prayer for more people to join their core group in the coming months, in order to give them a healthy foundation for their church. Also, they definitely need more funding so that they can effectively reach their community with the gospel and sustain their church. And last but not least, Charlie and his wife are building a relationship with their neighbors, Mark and Sandra, who are not believers. They are very lost but desperately want relationship, and Charlie would covet prayers for their salvation in the midst of building a relationship with them.

Sometimes, he is learning, church planting is as simple as making yourself available to people.