Church Planting in Dearborn, MI — Pastor Jerry Riendeau | Great Commission Today Season 2, Ep. 1
Planting a Church in America’s Most Arab City
What does it look like to plant a church in America’s most Arab city — with no building, no elders, and no guarantees? Pastor Jerry Riendeau of Grace Presbyterian Church in Dearborn, Michigan has been finding out for the last four years. His story is honest, surprising, and full of grace.
About This Episode
Church planting is hard anywhere. In Dearborn, Michigan — a city of 110,000 where roughly half the population traces its roots to the Arab world — it might seem harder still. But Pastor Jerry Riendeau of Grace Presbyterian Church would tell you that Dearborn is exactly where God sent him, and that the last four years have been a lesson in what faithful, patient, seed-planting ministry actually looks like.
In this episode of The Great Commission Today, Jerry sits down with host Daniel Vos to trace the journey from a small Bible study in his living room to a growing congregation now worshiping in a historic 100-year-old church building in the heart of the city. Along the way, he tells the story of Ken — a neighbor who had never joined a church simply because no one had ever offered to take him — and Nathan, a college student whose laptop died at just the right moment, leading him to a Bible study and eventually to faith.
Pastor Jerry speaks candidly about the challenges unique to church planting in a predominantly Muslim community, and how those challenges have often turned out to be unexpected gifts. The church’s Muslim landlords have attended worship services. Local business leaders, politicians, and nonprofit directors have gathered in the church building for Chamber of Commerce meetings. Six of them said they’d come to a baptism the following Sunday. This is what faithful presence in a community looks like over time.
The episode is also a deeply practical resource for any pastor or church leader thinking about outreach, evangelism strategy, and the role of mass media versus personal invitation. Jerry’s framework of ‘multiple exposures’ — the idea that a mailer, a Facebook ad, a door hanger, and a neighbor’s invitation all work together over months and years — is one of the most grounded and useful takes on outreach you’ll hear. And his concept of thinking of himself as a ‘professional citizen’ offers a compelling and transferable model for any believer wondering how to engage their community with the gospel.
The closing word of encouragement is one every tired pastor and discouraged church member needs to hear: stop measuring evangelism in days. Start measuring it in decades.
What You’ll Learn
- How Grace Presbyterian Church Dearborn grew from a home Bible study to a congregation of 80–90 worshipers in four years, and what made survival itself feel like a miracle.
- Why the Lord’s Supper became the unexpected centerpiece of Grace Church’s worship, and what that means for how they think about liturgy and community.
- What it actually looks like to do ministry in a predominantly Muslim city — and why the reality is far less adversarial than most people assume.
- How a funeral home chapel shaped the DNA of the congregation during 18 months of early worship, and what happened when they finally moved into a traditional church building.
- Why Pastor Jerry thinks of himself as a ‘professional citizen’ and how that posture drives both his personal evangelism and his family’s daily rhythms.
- How to think about outreach tools like mailers, door hangers, and Facebook ads not as standalone tactics, but as part of a long-term strategy of multiple exposures.