{"id":47617,"date":"2024-08-14T11:41:44","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T15:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/?p=47617"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:21:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:21:16","slug":"lake-rousseau-baptist-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/lake-rousseau-baptist-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Rousseau Baptist Church:"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pictured above: Pastor Jim Kinnebrew, center, is shown at Lake Rousseau Baptist Church, with those in attendance\u00a0on the day the new church plant was launched\u00a0in July.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

DUNNELLON\u2013Pastor Jim Kinnebrew sometimes feels like God parachuted him right down in the middle of a new church plant.<\/p>\n

He and his wife Sandy just launched Lake Rousseau Baptist Church<\/a> in Dunnellon in July, and they feel \u00a0blessed that they already have a beautiful church building on a 10-acre site, and that they\u2019ve been welcomed by people in the area who say they have been hoping and praying for a church to come to that site.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The church’s Wednesday Night Dinner and Bible Study is a popular event in the community.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/a>Many church plants are not as fortunate, often meeting in homes or temporary locations for a period until they find a more suitable building. And they\u2019re not always met with prospective members praying for their arrival.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to think that this was not all planned by God,\u201d Kinnebrew said.<\/p>\n

The new church launched on July 14 with a little more than 100 people in attendance. A photo posted to the church\u2019s Facebook page that day shows a big crowd practically spilling out of the pews. With many of those being well-wishers there to support the opening, attendance has since settled down to about 50 each week, the pastor said. But their numbers continue to grow, attracting new visitors each week.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

“People have been so generous with us. We have been blessed by God with all that we need.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n Jim Kinnebrew<\/strong>
\n church planter, Lake Rousseau Church in Dunnellon\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The church has attracted many senior citizens, which reflects not only the surrounding area but also the pastor, who is 71, and his wife. Young families with children also have been coming to check the church out.<\/p>\n

In addition to Sunday morning services and Sunday School, the church is continuing with its Wednesday night dinner and Bible study, which it started doing back in May with its core group. Each week, one person makes the main dish, and everyone else brings a side dish or dessert. All are welcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cFolks are loving the community dinners on Wednesdays,\u201d he said. \u201cThey love getting out and getting to know their neighbors, and they like the solid Bible studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kinnebrew has a doctorate degree in theology, and he taught for 33 years at Luther Rice Seminary in Atlanta.\u00a0 When he and his wife retired three years ago back to the area where they both grew up, he did not expect that he would be pastoring a church as he is today. Teaching a Bible study and doing some supply preaching, sure, but not leading a church, he said. The couple had dreamed of doing some traveling in their RV.<\/p>\n

\u2018Beautiful thing\u2019 to \u2018work together\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

They began attending First Baptist Church of Dunnellon<\/a>, and one day late last year Pastor Russ Randall invited him to lunch and asked him to consider being the pastor of this new church plant. The previous church membership had disbanded, and the church building sat empty for almost three years due to some legal issues.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Area churches donated a piano and two organs to the new church plant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kinnebrew eventually said yes, and he and his wife traveled to Atlanta in February for church planter training and screening with the North American Mission Board<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the sponsoring church, First Baptist Church of Dunnellon challenged its membership to take part in this church plant in three ways:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Commit to pray for this new church plant<\/li>\n
  2. Pray about being a financial supporter and giving a monthly donation<\/li>\n
  3. Pray about moving to this church for one year.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Faith Fellowship of Citrus Springs<\/a>, another church plant sponsored by First Baptist Church of Dunnellon, issued the same challenge to its membership. About a dozen members from both churches helped form the core group for Lake Rousseau. Kinnebrew preached at both churches to increase his exposure.<\/p>\n

    \n
    \n

    “I am always amazed at how God works in the little things! It\u2019s been so exciting to see how Lake Rousseau Baptist Church has come up out of the ashes and how God is going to use this church in this community to bring about great things for His kingdom!”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    \n Russ Randall<\/strong>
    \n pastor, First Baptist Church Dunnellon, sponsoring church of Lake Rousseau Baptist Church of Dunnellon\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

    \u201cI am always amazed at how God works in the little things!\u201d said Pastor Randall. \u201cIt\u2019s been so exciting to see how Lake Rousseau Baptist Church has come up out of the ashes and how God is going to use this church in this community to bring about great things for His kingdom! We are so thankful for the Cooperative Program and the Florida Baptist Convention and their willingness to be a partner in all of this. What a beautiful thing it is to see what happens when we all work together.\u00a0\u201c<\/p>\n

    As word got out about this church plant, area churches began to donate items to help the church, since it was only left with the pews, pulpit and communion table in the sanctuary. Donations included a piano and two organs, along with tables for the fellowship hall from Marion Baptist Association<\/a> and chairs for those tables from a local Haitian church.<\/p>\n

    \u201cPeople have been so generous with us. We have been blessed by God with all that we need. I am even trying to give away an organ because we now have two,\u201d Kinnebrew said.<\/p>\n

    During the spring the church plant also began collecting items for a large yard sale it held in June. It was called the Priceless Yard Sale because everything was free. Kinnebrew\u2019s wife came up with the idea of demonstrating to the surrounding community that this church is a giver, not a taker.<\/p>\n

    With a beautiful church building and surrounding property, Kinnebrew said he sometimes doesn\u2019t feel like a church planter. But that feeling changes when he has to deal with things like insurance, issues with the well, and other growing pains.<\/p>\n

    As he looks ahead, Kinnebrew said his main goal is to make disciples. This area in North Central Florida has an abundance of outdoor activities available, and he\u2019d love to be able to use such activities to develop relationships and create discipling moments.<\/p>\n

    He teaches the one adult Sunday School class, which has a unique format and continues to grow each week. \u201cIf you could ask God anything, what would you ask Him?\u201d he asks those in attendance. \u201cAnd then let\u2019s see if we can find the answer from the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n

    This format is popular, he said, because people have lots of questions that they don\u2019t have answers for. \u201cI think I\u2019m going to keep doing this. Based on the questions I am hearing, people are starving for sound theological answers,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople have been in church for many years and do not know answers to these questions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Pastor Jim Kinnebrew sometimes feels like God parachuted him right down in the middle of a new church plant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":47694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,49,23,25],"tags":[172,810,811,812,813],"class_list":["post-47617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-expanding","category-region-north","category-sharing","category-stories","tag-church-plant","tag-first-baptist-church-of-dunnellon","tag-jim-kinnebrew","tag-lake-rousseau-baptist-church","tag-marion-baptist-association"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67762,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47617\/revisions\/67762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}