Alumnus Wes Pastor

November 04, 2008

Westminster Alumnus Wes Pastor, M.A.R. '90, is founder and president of NETS and a successful church planter. Wes encouraged us in chapel yesterday.

After graduating, he launched Christ Memorial Church. While continuing as senior minister, he is pursuing his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies at Wales Evangelical School of Theology. He is married to Sue and has five children.

What attracts newcomers to Christ Memorial Church?

The two answers we hear repeatedly are "Your preaching and teaching come right from God's Word" and "There is a genuine love that was evident the moment I walked in the door."  This love for the Gospel and for one another is at the heart of Christ Memorial Church.

What is the vision of NETS?

The vision of NETS is to recover the biblical gospel and promote God's kingdom through equipping servant leaders and their wives to plant healthy, reproducing, gospel-driven churches in New England and abroad.

What does this mean?

Recovering the biblical gospel. According to Dr. David Wells, evangelical Christianity is currently in a free-fall. We agree. Evangelical Christians have largely confused, given up on, or flat out denied the historic gospel. The result is a massive confusion over sin, the person of Jesus Christ, the cross, and the nature of saving faith. At NETS, we desire to recover the biblical gospel through training godly men and sending them out to plant churches to proclaim the gospel to the lost and confused.

Promoting God's kingdom. We desire to work towards the fulfillment of the Great Commission by training and supporting men and their families to plant churches that will make disciples of all nations. NETS is not wed to any one denomination. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we desire to partner with existing conservative evangelical denominations to proclaim the gospel together.

Training men & their wives. One of the most common reasons churches fail is because the senior pastor's marriage cannot handle the stress of ministry. We are dedicated to not only equipping couples to proclaim the gospel in all areas of life, but to personally adorn it in their marriages, fulfilling the scriptural commandments to show forth Christ and the church through a healthy, strong marriage that will undergird their ministry.

Healthy, reproducing churches. Our desire is not to simply plant churches, but to plant churches that are committed to the gospel in all aspects of ministry. Each of these churches have implanted in their DNA the desire to birth daughter churches to reach the lost.

Gospel-driven church. Many evangelical churches today have lost focus on the gospel and have instead become methods-driven, experimenting with services, music, events, and even the message in order to attract and retain attendees. Since only the gospel provides the power for salvation and sanctification, we believe that everything the church does should be gospel-driven, that is, centered around gospel proclamation to believers and unbelievers alike.

New England and abroad. Although New England is our strategic focus, we desire to plant missions-minded churches. To facilitate this mindset, we are a missions-minded organization, planting reproducing churches and establishing church planter training centers in needy places around the world.