{"id":66402,"date":"2025-09-10T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/?p=50708"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:26:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:26:05","slug":"village-point-church-is-on-mission-to-multiply-churches-and-train-planters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/village-point-church-is-on-mission-to-multiply-churches-and-train-planters\/","title":{"rendered":"Village Point Church is on mission to multiply churches and train planters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>Editor\u2019s Note: Jay Mudd is one of the featured church planters in 2025\u00a0<\/em>Maguire State Mission Offering<\/em><\/a>\u00a0resources. The statewide 2025 offering goal of $1 million 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

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

WINTER GARDEN\u2014After seven years of successfully planting in one of the hardest areas of New England\u2014Boston\u2014Jay Mudd is now back in central\u00a0Florida with a heart to multiply.<\/p>\n

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With a passion to \u201ccreate\u00a0environments that provide an opportunity for people to hear and respond to the love, grace and truth of God\u2019s Word,\u201d Mudd believes we should \u201cnever stop praying, dreaming and risking in order to position people and the church to have a front-row seat to seeing God do far more than we can think or imagine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Strategically gathering at\u00a0Hamlin Middle School in Winter Garden,\u00a0Village Point Church<\/a>\u00a0is reaching the rapidly growing area of Horizon West, a master-planned community within Winter Garden in southwest Orange County.<\/p>\n

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Mentoring and training others<\/strong><\/p>\n

While in the trenches of church planting himself, Mudd is simultaneously mentoring and training the next generation of church planters and seeking to multiply gospel-preaching churches in the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n

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Understanding that Florida does not have enough local churches to serve its growing population, Mudd is continuously doing his part to train and multiply. It is understood that\u00a0Florida Baptist<\/a>\u00a0churches need to be multiplying at a rate of 4% annually in order to effectively reach and serve growing communities. However, according to\u00a0Send Network Florida<\/a>, the current multiplying rate is 2.3%\u2014highlighting a desperate need for more Florida Baptist churches.<\/p>\n

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“Christians should \u201cnever stop praying, dreaming and risking in order to position people and the church to have a front-row seat to seeing God do far more than we can think or imagine.\u201d”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jay Mudd<\/strong>
church planter, Village Point Church, Winter Garden<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201cWhenever I am asked why we need more churches I always ask this question, \u2018How many people do you know who do not go to church?\u201d he said. \u201cWhy do we plant churches? For those people who you know personally who are not currently connected to a local church.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mudd is grateful for his Florida Baptist family who, through funds given to the Maguire State Mission Offering, become partners in church planting efforts throughout the state.<\/p>\n

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The need for local churches compels Mudd to actively coach and train a handful of church planters in the Florida Baptists\u2019\u00a0Central region<\/a>\u2014Kenneth Ortiz in one of them.<\/p>\n

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More churches draw more people in<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cI coach many of the planters in the area and know Kenneth Ortiz very well,\u201d said Mudd. \u201cHe is a planter who is working very hard, has seen his share of adversity, and is doing a great job in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Previously serving as a professor and recruiter at Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis and a pastor at Cities Church in St. Paul, Ortiz relocated from Minnesota to central Florida to plant\u00a0Horizon City Church<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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After gathering in homes for several months, the new church plant officially launched last October in south Winter Garden in a local elementary school.\u00a0Now gathering at Cin\u00e9polis Cinemas, the almost one-year-old church plant continues to fix its eyes on Christ, Ortiz said.<\/p>\n

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Seeking to \u201cmake disciples who treasure Christ,\u201d\u00a0Horizon City Church seeks to be a \u201ccommunity of believers that treasures Jesus Christ together, finding satisfaction and happiness in him,\u201d said Ortiz.<\/p>\n

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Horizon City Church champions expository preaching, building relationships among community residents, and growing a deeper relationship with Christ.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat makes Horizon City different is the church\u2019s high emphasis on being an \u2018easy-entry community\u2019 and giving people a simple way to get involved in the church, building new friendships and a deeper relationship with God,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Similar to Mudd, Ortiz chose central Florida\u2014specifically Orange County\u2014due to its rapidly growing population and the desperate need to multiply Bible-believing churches.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am thoroughly convinced, based on numerous studies and surveys, the probability of anyone attending church in a local community goes up significantly as there are more options for a church,\u201d said Ortiz. \u201cThe more churches there are, the more likely it is that people will attend church. Someone asked me, \u2018Does Winter Garden really need another church?\u2019 Winter Garden needs another 25 churches!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After seven years of successfully planting in one of the hardest areas of New England\u2014Boston\u2014Jay Mudd is now back in central\u00a0Florida with a heart to multiply.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":66456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,353,45,25],"tags":[255,2844,2845,832,370],"class_list":["post-66402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-region-central","category-state-mission-offering","category-statewide","category-stories","tag-church-planting","tag-horizon-city-church","tag-jay-mudd","tag-msmo","tag-send-network-florida"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66402","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\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66682,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66402\/revisions\/66682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}