‘Why would our Lord and Savior ever die for a guy like me?’

Marshall Faulks had completed several miles along his 18-mile postal route when he saw tears in Mr. Jones’ eyes.  

Jones told Faulks that his daughter had just been sentenced to prison, breaking her father’s heart. The Green Bay, Wisconsin, man’s spiritual veneer shattered when Faulks offered to pray. 

“Why would you want to pray for me?” the man asked Faulks. “I don’t think (God) would even hear me.” 

But Faulks shared that God acts for good amid a broken world. God’s love is so deep that Christ died and rose again for sinners, stragglers and rebels. 

“He looked at me and said, ‘Why would our Lord and Savior ever die for a guy like me?’” 

Faulks answered with the gospel, ready to give a reason for his hope. During their conversation, the desperate father embraced Christ in the midst of his devastation. 

“Our Lord and Savior meets people right where they are,” Faulks said.  

A family town that works hard and accepts themselves

Faulks leads a launch team that will plant the new Hope Community Church campus in Clintonville, Wisconsin. The campus’ first Sunday is scheduled for October 13. 

He and the launch team are motivated to connect people to the life-changing hope of Jesus. The team already has live worship and life groups in place.  

Faulks has started building ministry relationships with individuals the rest of the week in Clintonville, about 45 minutes from Green Bay. 

Their values are caring for their family and maintaining tight-knit relationships while working, mostly in manufacturing jobs. Seagrave, a fire truck manufacturer, and Walker Forge are two of the town’s largest employers. 

Most people in Clintonville and nearby towns like Marion or Tigerton take ownership of who they are and don’t bother trying to prove themselves or be somebody they’re not. 

They know who they are — and they know their hurts

Part of who they’ve become is a people group with a lot of church hurt. Faulks said that church hurt had disconnected most of the people there from attending worship in the town. 

There are 24 churches within 15 minutes of Clintonville. There are Lutherans, Methodists, Pentecostals and Roman Catholics. But many in the town, Faulks explained, would rather worship somewhere else than Clintonville. 

God, though, has been using the 15 families on the launch team. Together, they welcome more and more people, like a crushed father, to say yes to a deeper friendship with God. 

That’s what Mr. Jones, the weeping father, did in Green Bay, grieving when Faulks walked up with the hope of nations in his heart. The pastor’s witness and love from Christ succeeded in helping that Green Bay man start to walk with Jesus. 

“We invite, invest and impact so they can turn around and impact their community,” he said of God’s people in Clintonville. “I believe there’s a heartbeat that’s starting to beat for the gospel.” 

Converge's 10 districts have committed to deploying 312 church planters before 2026. Read more inspiring church planting stories and learn about the goal to send out 312 church planters in five years.