My good friend and one of my fathers in the faith, David Nicholas passed away last night in Florida. I don’t know if you had a chance to meet David. He wasn’t just an active participant at The Orchard Church, where he attended Chuck and Gail Vautrot’s lifegroup…
David Nicholas planted churches. He started with Spanish River Church way down in Boca Raton, Florida over 40 years ago. While he remained the pastor of that great local body, he was bitten by the church planting bug. Hard. He went on to plant churches all around the United States. He started a church planting network in Haiti, where literally thousands have come to know Christ. David was a man gifted in evangelism, always clearly communicating the “Bad News/Good News” as he called it.
Since retiring from Spanish River Church in May of 2009, David started “The Church Planting Network,” assisting church planters in spreading the Gospel. David happened upon The Orchard Church while we were meeting in the movie theater. He and his wonderful wife Nori owned a retirement home here in Ellijay. David told me once that he would NEVER have planted a church here in North Georgia… “Hearts are just too hard here,” he said… But David became instrumental in helping us clarify our mission and purpose as a church. As an experienced pastor, David invested into me personally. God used David in a powerful way in my life and in the lives of many other church planters.