We are excited to announce our plans to plant Grace Bible Church of Rancho Cucamonga next year.

More than a year ago, Pastor Eric wrote, As a founding vision, Grace Bible Church believes that occasional church plants from the outside won’t suffice as a long-term strategy for making disciples in Southern California. A place this vast needs a vibrant church planting movement that is indigenous. The desire has been that this one church plant would be just the first step in a larger strategy of Southern California churches planting churches here in Southern California.

Obviously the next major step is to plant another church. But how that church is planted is very important. As much as possible, it needs to be a church plant for Southern California from Southern California. The desire has been that the next church plant would come out of the church in Menifee.

A year later, we are able to share with you both the target area and a tentative launch date for the first church plant out of Grace Bible Church in Menifee. This is very exciting for us not just because it is another church plant, but because it is a big step toward that larger goal of a church planting movement from within Southern California.

The target area is the city of Rancho Cucamonga, in the heart of the Inland Empire about 45 minutes to the northwest of Menifee. Geographically, Rancho is about the same size as Menifee, but the population is nearly three times as large. Three major freeways run through Rancho: one leading to Pasadena and Burbank; one leading to downtown Los Angeles; and another which runs from San Diego to Las Vegas.

The tentative launch date is September of 2010.

There is much more information at lahope.wordpress.com (or lahope.org). There you’ll find an ongoing series of posts overviewing our church planting philosophy, as well as several new pages of information about the next church plant with prayer requests, maps, details about the area, an explanation of our financial model, and more. Pastor Eric has also begun a blog related to the church plant.

Please pray for Grace Bible Church of Menifee and the Trues during this important time of planning and preparation.