The Anderson Family
Dan Anderson
DAN ANDERSON IS THE THE HEAD PASTOR FOR Central Presbyterian Church of Little Rock in Little Rock, Arkansas. WE ARE HONORED TO PARTNER WITH HIM AND THE CHURCH COMMUNITY BEGINNING IN 2018.
How have you seen God working in your life?
Words do not do justice to the fire I feel for God right now. His gospel is as alive in my heart as it ever has been. Through several teaching ministries across the country I've come to a much greater understanding and appreciation of the union that I have with Christ through faith. As a result I am experiencing a renewed passion for the gospel, a desire to share it with many, and a clearer picture of the gospel culture that I want to establish in the church. I've never worked harder, longer, and with this amount of zeal in my life but I've also never had this type of energy as well. All praise be to God!
How have you seen God working in your family?
This past November my wife gave birth to our third child (William) on the floor of our bathroom. The unexpected timing of the birth as well as its speed showed us God's care and protection over Kimberly and William despite the absence of modern medicine. On top of that, when William was born he was our 3rd child at 3 years of age and younger so over the past ten weeks we have seen rapid development and growth in all three of our kids.
But God is at work spiritually in all of their lives. One of the greatest joys as a father is to hear my two oldest sing the doxology. Every now and then my son (age 4) will lead our church in the doxology.
How have you seen God working in your church?
Well for one, he is bringing people to us. Over the past month we have seen a dramatic increase in our numbers (50%). This is something we've been praying for. Our people are beginning to understand who we are and what we believe and as a result are bringing their friends with them. The church as an organization is also beginning to understand how to make our church easier to attend and easier to remain at.
Besides that, one of the objective realities of 2017 was that our church had done a poor job of giving. So we have been praying for an increase in our internal giving. Thankfully, the Lord is doing this as well. In just the first 4 weeks of January we are already at 33% of our total giving of 2017 and we haven't had to guilt people into giving!
On top of these things, I have entrusted some of the leadership to people who have been a part of our church from the beginning. After being mentored and trained over the last year (and you want to talk about God at work!) these people are now teaching, welcoming and leading other in our church. When they began doing this earlier this month it was the first time there was an official church event and I wasn't at leading! So encouraging!
Church Mission
Loving Little Rock with the gospel for the glory of God.
Church Vision
Transformed lives, Transformed City
The love of God is trans-formative. It is the love of God in Christ Jesus that transformed us from sinner to saint. It is the love of God in Christ Jesus that transformed us from selfish to selfless. Because of this great love, we as a church seek to bring it into to the hearts, minds, and institutions of our city. We believe that in doing this we will see lives transformed as well as our city.
Who we target: Our church is strategically placed five minutes west of downtown Little Rock. The vast majority of people that live in this area are politically and theologically liberal. They tend to be young but are not always so. There is also a decent mix of young families. Over 90% of this area is Caucasian and wealthy.
Success and the change we want to see come about five years from now go hand and hand. We will be successful if we continue to see people come to Jesus (or come back to him). We will be successful if we launch another church in Little Rock (we know we can't be the only ones pursuing the gospel mission). All of this will require equipping the saints to do the work of ministry, raising money from within, and establishing leaders to help bring it about.
If you would like to reach out to Dan, you can visit the church's website at www.centralpreslr.com