Meet Your Church Planters: Doug Dixon 

The Lighthouse Church in Dalzell, SC

Doug Dixon and his wife Leslie have been blessed with two beautiful young children, Anna and Caleb. Their family was serving at an inner-city church in Virginia when God called Doug to come back home to SC and restart a struggling church. In August 2009 they arrived in Dalzell and began The Lighthouse Church.

Shortly after arriving back in SC, God put a specific vision in Doug’s heart to see a church of multiple ethnicities form within a rural context. Anyone who knows the fabric of small town South Carolina knows that this idea is no easy task, but Doug was certain that this was exactly what God was calling him to. He hoped and prayed that diversity would grow and promote unity among believers, not to mention continue to heal wounds and help achieve racial reconciliation in his town. He wanted to show how the gospel of Jesus knocks down barriers of hostility or hard feelings or even just cultural differences—because we are all on level ground at the foot of the Cross.

By God’s grace, The Lighthouse Church is steadily accomplishing this multi-ethnic vision. Several months into the plant, Doug met another church planter in the area named Bill Bennett, who happened to be African American. God started building their friendship and pressed on their hearts to share their own visions and hopes with one another. In light of this relationship, God eventually led them to join efforts and weave the two churches into one. It has been a smooth, natural process and Doug is overjoyed that they are united in their desire to reach their community for Christ and literally be a lighthouse for the gospel. It is a consistent joy for Doug to walk in each Sunday and see a warm, welcoming multi-ethnic environment.

God has continued to provide for the church family at Lighthouse, and has even given them a free van to use to pick neighborhood kids up for church. They have also been blessed with financial support from other churches, as well as an older gentleman doing lots of free work on their parking lot that would have cost them thousands of dollars. However, things are still difficult in starting a new church, and both Doug and Bill are bi-vocational, working full-time jobs outside of the church to support their families. This is, of course, extremely difficult and tiring.

In the midst of this difficult but joyous season, God has been growing Doug to be a more passionate and relational witness for the gospel. He looks back on a more lethargic attitude toward evangelism before he was a planter, but now is growing more and more and realizing that people want authentic relationships and that religious programs or events are not sufficient. Doug is learning that those relationships take time and that they are worth every minute. God is also growing him to serve in his giftedness and work well with a co-pastor and his giftedness, which is a foreign idea to a lot of pastors and ministers. The relationship and unity that God is working from their co-leadership will no doubt be a beacon of light to their church family and community. Doug hopes for more relationships with other churches in their community, and wants other churches to know that church plants are not a threat to existing churches, but that they are tools to help fill the gaps and reach all of the lost in our state and country.

The vision God put into Doug’s heart is coming to fruition, and that is an exciting thing. Doug tells the story of one couple who was not involved in church before coming to The Lighthouse Church, and how since then they have matured tremendous amounts, their marriage has been strengthened, the husband is taking spiritual leadership in the family, and they are even hosting a small group! They are now sharing the impact God has had on their lives with their children and with others.

Doug appreciates prayers for the growth and maturity of his church family, as well as wisdom and strength for himself and his co-pastor Bill Bennett as they lead. He wants their church to continue to build bridges between cultures and colors in their community, and for the small groups they are launching to be healthy and led by well-equipped leaders.

God is doing a beautiful thing in Dalzell. He is using The Lighthouse Church to proclaim the truth from Galatians 3 that we “are all one in Christ Jesus.” May more God-glorifying, gospel-proclaiming, multi-ethnic churches be raised up all over the South.