{"id":47842,"date":"2024-09-04T12:11:23","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T16:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/?p=47842"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:21:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:21:35","slug":"pillar-church-serves-military-impacts-local-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/pillar-church-serves-military-impacts-local-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Pillar Church serves military, impacts local community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pictured above: Alex Chatman, pastor of Pillar Church Crestview, leads a Sunday morning service where the church convenes at a local elementary school near Eglin Air Force Base.<\/em><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: Noah Clifton and Alex Chatman are two of the featured church planters in 2024\u00a0<\/em>Maguire State Mission Offering<\/em><\/a>\u00a0resources. The statewide 2024 offering goal of $900,000 is earmarked to help reach the 16.7 million Florida residents who do not have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, with 100% of all receipts designated to help launch church plants in the state.<\/em><\/p>\n

CRESTVIEW\u2013\u201cIn the Book of Acts, Jesus sends out the disciples in twos, so the biblical pattern of church planting is sending guys out in twos,\u201d said Noah Clifton, church planter and pastor at Pillar Church<\/a> of Crestview.<\/p>\n

Alex Chatman, church planter and pastor of Pillar Church of Crestview, spent 26 years in active duty with the United States Marine Corps and has a heart to unite the family of God with his military family. Seeking a church that engaged in church planting, he and his wife found themselves among a dozen members of a church in Virginia that focused on planting churches and reaching military servicemen and women.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Church planters of Pillar Church Crestview have a heart for the United States Military and the local community.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two pastors, along with six families, moved from Virginia to Florida to start Pillar Church of Crestview, which exists to reach U.S. military service members and their families with the gospel of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

The pastors agree that the Lord has blessed the church at every corner. \u201cEvery time we turn around, it\u2019s like the Lord has been preparing years in advance, long before we were ever in Florida,\u201d said Clifton, who noted that Chatman was his youth pastor when he was growing up.<\/p>\n

Pillar Church meets at a local elementary school just 26 miles north of Eglin Air Force Base.<\/p>\n

The location opened the door to the community where they have seen strongholds of sin overcome and lives changed.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

“\u201cThe Lord has blessed us far beyond what we could ever imagine.\u201d”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n Noah Clifton<\/strong>
\n who is planting Pillar Church of Crestview with fellow church planter Alex Chatman\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

One young student began attending services and fervently inviting others to church. A young couple struggling with addiction to drugs and alcohol couldn\u2019t refuse his persistence. Through discipleship at Pillar Church, they recognized their need for Jesus and found saving faith that broke their addiction. They will be among one dozen new believers baptized this year.<\/p>\n

Amid the blessings have been challenges in connecting with the special forces community they\u2019ve hoped to engage with the gospel message. Receiving Maguire State Mission Offering funds will provide freedom for the church to focus on outreach through special events on and off base, provide Bibles for military men and women, and host Bible studies on base.<\/p>\n

The two church planters are grateful for ongoing support from the\u00a0Florida Baptist Convention<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Send Network Florida<\/a> who are \u201cencouraging us and pushing us forward in the work that we have before us,\u201d said Clifton.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Alex Chatman and Noah Clifton, pastors of Pillar Church Crestview, gather to pray for the church and community.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe have a whole organization, a network that is nationwide. We\u2018re not alone in this church planting effort. We\u2019re part of a larger church family who\u2019s all focused on obeying the Great Commission,\u201d added Clifton.<\/p>\n

The church plans to host a children\u2019s STEM camp as an opportunity to share the gospel with the community and display God\u2019s goodness through His creation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we give to the Maguire State Mission Offering, this is what it\u2019s given for, we\u2019re giving it to the expansion of God\u2019s kingdom and the obedience of the Great Commission,\u201d emphasized Clifton, encouraging Florida Baptist churches to continue to give generously to the mission offering.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord has blessed us far beyond what we could ever imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn the Book of Acts, Jesus sends out the disciples in twos, so the biblical pattern of church planting is sending guys out in twos,\u201d said Noah Clifton, church planter and pastor at Pillar Church of Crestview.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":47843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,23,353,25,51],"tags":[655,255,831,832,833,657,658,370],"class_list":["post-47842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-expanding","category-sharing","category-state-mission-offering","category-stories","category-region-west","tag-alex-chatman","tag-church-planting","tag-maguire-state-mission-offering","tag-msmo","tag-msmo24","tag-noah-clifton","tag-pillar-church-of-crestview","tag-send-network-florida"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47842","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\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47842"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67768,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47842\/revisions\/67768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}