Meet Your Church Planters: Roger Goforth
Reach Point Ministries in Swansea, SC
Roger Goforth is one of those people that show you how much God can do in a short amount of time. He became a Christian in February of 2004, committed to missions work at home and abroad the next year, then began seminary studies and accepted a call to youth ministry in 2007. In 2009, his pastor Wayne Golden at Congaree Baptist in St. Matthews had a vision of starting a small, contemporary church in the Sandy Run area. After praying about his ministry direction, Roger felt compelled to lead this new fellowship and stepped out in faith. Reach Point started as a home group and eventually moved into a small building in Swansea and held their first Sunday service in August 2010.
The Lord has been gracious and worked quickly in Roger’s family. His wife Adina became a Christian in 2006, and she too has been heavily involved in ministry and missions since becoming a believer. Together they raise their three sons: Jericho (10), Stephen (9), and Bobby (5). They serve the Lord at Reach Point as a family, and God has been gracious to provide for them in many ways, from the perfect people to serve in leadership all the way to simple things like an anonymous person donating a projector for their worship center. God always gives them just what they need, when they need it.
Before planting Reach Point, Roger thought that church planting would be simple and business-like—that if he came up with the right creative slogan and logo, printed flyers and got a big sign, that people would be as excited about the new church as he was. In short, he thought that the success of the church depended on how much promotion and production he put into it. He admits that his ideas were far from the truth in reality, and he learned that you can’t sell Jesus—you have to follow Him. You have to trust His leadership and His plan, not your ideas and inventions.
God has done a lot in the short time Reach Point has existed, but one of the most memorable things for Roger was at their youth revival back in April, when a lady (the mother of one of their charter members) and her granddaughter both came forward to receive Christ. This was an answer to prayer because the family had been severely strained by the woman’s issues, including alcohol abuse. After she met Christ tears in the family started mending. It hasn’t been an easy ride, but God is putting their family back together again, and it is a joy to watch.
Another story Roger loves to tell is about their Thanksgiving service event last year, where they rented out a building and served around 100 people from the community. Their goal was just to serve without any strings, so after the event when the people were wondering what the catch was, they found out that there wasn’t one—the people at Reach Point didn’t want anything from them. This service without strings cause many of the walls the people had built up to crumble, and opened the door to a lot of good conversations about Jesus and His gospel. It was an awesome experience to take the gospel and make it practical for people by serving them, and then watch Jesus work through it.
Through church planting, Roger is learning to trust God with everything—especially with the unpredictable things that are out of his control. He’s learning to deal graciously with difficult people, to be flexible and to delegate things and not try to handle everything on his own. He says that the growth process is certainly not painless, but it is definitely worthwhile. It’s clear to see that God has certainly grown Roger in a short time, and He is working through him to bring His kingdom to Swansea.
