Central Baptist Church in North Little Rock Pastor Wyman Richardson, right, prays during a missions trip to Swerve Church in Brooklyn, New York. (Submitted).
The daily grind of planting a church can be challenging.
About eight years ago, Danny Torres planted Swerve Church in Brooklyn, New York. While looking for ways to learn, hear other voices, and see how church planting was happening in other contexts and locations, Torres came across a podcast called, The Grind.
The Grind, a podcast of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention (ABSC), brought church planting strategies together with personal stories, insight, and encouragement from other church planters as they walked their own journeys into following the Great Commission.
It was created in 2016 by Dave McClung and Chad Grigsby and produced new episodes through 2020. Additional hosts throughout the years included other ABSC staff members Neal Scoggins, Greg Addison, and Chanson Newborn.
“I found the podcast and loved the podcast. I consumed every single episode,” Torres said.
Feeling encouraged by the podcast, Torres sent an email to McClung and Grigsby.
Recalling the email, McClung said it came about a year into producing the podcast. Torres introduced himself as a church planter in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. He said he had been listening to the podcast and loved it and was interested in catching up with McClung and Grigsby.
“I wasn’t expecting a response or anything like that. It was just an email to say thank you for the content,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting a response. I was just super grateful. It helped me a lot and encouraged me.”
McClung reached out to Steve Canter, who was the Send City missionary for New York City, and asked him about Torres.
“He said Danny is great,” McClung said, and that anytime he wanted somebody to have a true New York experience, he sent them to Torres. Canter told McClung Torres was doing a great job and was certainly worth his time.
They set up a zoom call and Torres described McClung and Grigsby as a couple of “kindred spirits for the Gospel and the mission.”
“They were excited to hear what I’m doing over here and asked about some of the needs as a church planter from Brooklyn,” he said.
Torres expressed some of their needs and McClung and Grigsby invited him to do an episode. He shared his story, told about New York, and shared ways folks could partner with him.
“That was the first step in connecting with Danny and the first step to get Arkansas guys connected with him,” McClung said.
They then flew Torres to Arkansas to meet with some Arkansas Baptist leaders and church planters. He participated in a Missions Connection event and attended the ABSC annual meeting.
McClung said it was the first trip Torres had made outside of New York.
“He had biscuits and gravy for the first time. He saw an opossum for the first time. We took him deer hunting for the first time. He had a lot of firsts in Arkansas,” McClung said with a laugh.
The trip led to multiple partnerships over the years, with several Arkansas Baptist churches sending groups to serve at Swerve Church in Brooklyn. That includes Church in the Dirt in Russellville, pastored by Jay Ham, who said they plan to send a group of students to New York this summer.
“He’s just done great. Every team that goes up there has a great time. He gets a great benefit from it. It’s been pretty cool,” McClung said. “Danny is just one of these guys when you meet him you just fall in love with him. He and his wife are incredible people and have done an amazing job in Bushwick. … They planted their lives there and the Lord is blessing their mission efforts there. They are having a huge impact on that neighborhood.”
Torres said a big part of what they do is “love and serve thy neighbor, showing God.”
“Missions teams help provide boots on the ground to do that,” Torres said. “Having churches invest into the Kingdom of God has been huge blessing for us.”
In addition to Arkansas Baptist churches traveling to New York to serve, Torres still makes trips to Arkansas. Most recently, Torres attended the ABSC 2024 Annual Meeting in October to foster existing connections and create new ones.
To learn more about partnership opportunities with Swerve Church visit swervechurch.com/partner or email Torres at [email protected]. To become a prayer partner, visit swervechurch.com/pray.