Friday, April 24, 2009

Assessment Results

We found out that we meet the qualifications to be church planters. The assessment process is over and now we will move on to church planter 'boot camp' within the next couple of months. Boot camp is usually a three day affair which teaches you about how to plant a church. They take you through the process of planning, building a team, developing leaders, advertising, etc. for a church plant. After boot camp we are supposed to get linked up with an active planter to be mentored by them.

This makes it pretty certain that we will be planting north of Albany. There are other steps that need to be taken by the Eastern NY District Board and other committees, but from our side of the deal we are ready to be planters. We look forward to gathering a team of co-workers, developing a strategy, establishing relationship and Bible studies, and praying for God's timing in beginning this work.

Please pray that God's will is understood as these boards and committees meet to figure out if this is the right step for the ENYNE district now. Our prayer is that a church plant could be like a breath of fresh air and a picture of new life and hope. We would want to be 'sent' by district churches that would be willing to pray, plan and partner with us. Hopefully we would be given the opportunity to share our vision and mission with several different district groups and churches. Churches need to plant churches. Hopefully we can be the first of dozens of churches the ENYNE plants in this new millenium.
"Believers have gotten out of the believer multiplication business, so churches have stepped in to multiply believers. This has resulted in churches getting out of the church multiplication business, so districts have attempted to multiply churches. Believers need to multiply believers and churches need to multiply churches."
Tom Clegg in Five Things Anyone Can Do to Help Start a Church
by Phil Stevenson (Wesleyan Publishing House).

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Becoming Clearer

Joan and I just returned from Lansing MI at about 1:30 this morning. We traveled out there with Pastors Paul James, Dean Brown and Sam Stovall. It was great to rub shoulders with them on this trip. One thing I am finding about Pastor Paul is that he really enjoys a good road trip. This was my third with him in six months.

The reason we were in MI was to be assessed by a church planting assessment team. They asked Joan and I about three hours of questions about our relationship, how we see the church and God, and how we have ministered in specific situations. We actually enjoyed the process and we can't wait to hear the results.

On our trip we were able to talk with a pastor who is currently ending his second year of church planting near Lansing and we found out that Dean and Paul had been church planters as well. As we talked to them about church planting it became obvious that this was or is a life-altering decision for each of them. It left each of these families more dependent upon God and the body of Christ than ever before. It was a time of growth and maturing for each of them. They described church planting as some of the most challenging and yet worthwhile years of their lives.

If we get the green light to be church planters we would then go to a three-day church planter "boot camp" and be trained in how to make something out of nothing - sounds interesting! Joan and I are both excited about this possibility. Then we would begin to gather our team of pray-ers, give-ers and go-ers. I will post an update once we know for certain whether we will be planting or not.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Riding in the Car with Kids (funny)

The other day I was driving with Jake and Julia and both of them said something that made me laugh.

Julia is 5 and she is sounding out words and trying to unravel the mysteries of letters, spelling, etc. She often says things like "'Dog', 'what letter does that word start with?' 'D-d-d-d-d' - 'D!'" She was sounding out the word 'street' and she said "'Street', 'what letter does that word start with?' 'R-r-r-r-r' - 'F!'" Obviously she has more to learn.

A little later on Jake and I were talking about the fact that we were going to be moving to the Albany area and he asked me if they have lacrosse there. I told him that they do and explained the various options there. Then I said that they have football too.

He said to me 'I hope it isn't vegetarian football". I was taken back a bit and I asked him to repeat what he said, and he repeated, "I hope they don't play vegetarian football!"

I asked him with a little chuckle in my voice, "What is vegetarian football?"

He said, "The kind of football where they don't hit each other." My chuckle turned into a belly laugh.