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).

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.

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.

'The Motions' by Matthew West

I have been hearing a song named 'The Motions' by an artist named Matthew West. For some reason I have only been able to catch parts of the song. Today I was able to hear the song in it's entirety. Wow! What challenging lyrics. The chorus of the song says

I don't want to go through the motions

I don't want to go one more day

Without your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't want to spend my whole life asking

What if I had given everything

Instead of going through the motions?

I guess those words are particularly challenging to me right now because I feel like God is breaking me out of a spiritual lethargy that had overtaken me. I admit that I had become comfortable and I sense that God is doing what is necessary to bring me back to a place of brokenness, willingness and usefulness.

The process of praying, dreaming, questioning and wondering we are experiencing is causing me to see the struggle between my human instincts (fear) and my spiritual understanding (faith). It is as if God is challenging me in the area of faith so that I can gradually learn to live in that realm on a daily basis as a variety of opportunities and decisions come along.

A great man of God said to D. L. Moody many years ago, “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him. By God’s help, I aim to be that man.”

http://www.ctlibrary.com/ch/1990/issue25/2510.html

Church planting preparations

Pastor Paul has asked us to go through a church planter assessment process so Joan and I have been filling out spiritual gift tests, talent assessments, personality tests, and applications over the past couple of weeks. It has been quite a grueling process because most of the questions require a lot of soul-searching and transparency. Honestly, I believe that the process has been good for us because it has caused us to take a closer look at what God has given each of us and what God might want to do through us.

In a few weeks we will be traveling with Pastor Paul to Grand Rapids MI where the West Michigan District of the Wesleyan Church has established a church planter assessment center. They will have collated and analyzed all of our answers to the various questions we were asked and they will put us through an interview process that lasts about three hours. After we are done they will compile all of the data and let Pastor Paul know if they believe that we are an appropriate fit for church planting.

Please keep us in prayer throughout this process. Ask the Lord to guide the assessors, Pastor Paul and us. We want to end up in the place and the position where we can best serve the Kingdom of God and the Eastern New York district.

With the understanding that we might be planting a church in the Clifton Park NY area I have begun looking for a solid job since I will probably have to be a bi-vocational pastor in the beginning. We are also looking into housing in the region. Both renting and buying are quite expensive so please pray with us about the right housing situation for our family.

We are so excited to be part of God's work in eastern New York.

Saratoga County NY

Just a quick update. We are going to be planting a church somewhere in Saratoga County NY. This region is just north of Albany and is a high growth area. There are families moving in constantly and new businesses are coming in over the next couple of years.

The church will probably be located somewhere between Clifton Park and Malta on the Northway (I-87) corridor. Over the next couple of months we will need to find somewhere to live and begin the process of scouting out a place to begin holding services. Then over the summer we will continue to develop our ministry team and pursue connections to the community around us.

Please continue to pray for us as we take this step of faith as a family and as a district (Eastern New York and New England).

James

Albany NY

It appears that we will be either planting a church north of Albany, Clifton Park area, or that we will be restarting the Albany Wesleyan Church. I have been having ongoing discussions with Pastor Paul James about ministry opportunities and it seems that we are centering in on Albany as the place that best suits our skill set and our ministry gifts.

This is welcomed news because Joan and I have been feeling led toward Albany from the outset. We just wanted to be sure that we were not telling God or telling the district what to do. When Pastor Paul called to say that his heart was leaning toward Albany my spirit just leapt because I sincerely believe that God has a work for us to do in Albany. I see the many, many houses and many more lives and I can just imagine God reaching to family after family. I can just see kids who hear about their heavenly Father for the first time, teens who recognize their value in the Kingdom of God, and parents who come to understand Biblical principles for marriage, family, finances and relationships.

Last week I came across this scripture and I have received it as God's call upon my life.

'I am sending you to them to open their eyes

and turn them from darkness to light,

and from the power of Satan to God,

so that they may receive forgiveness of sins

and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

Acts 26:17b-18

Please pray with us as we move to Albany in late June and July and then take the next weeks and months to prepare for a church to open. We have never gone into this exact kind of situation and we know that we will need your prayer support. I believe that the call God has given us is to invest ourselves in this region long-term. In time I pray that we will be able to sister other churches throughout the Albany region and toward Boston.

Please pray specifically that we and the Eastern New York Wesleyan District officials will have a clear understanding of whether we should plant or re-start.