Impact

The word impact is used all over the place today. Google "Impact" and you will discover an array of organizations from letterhead development paper companies to inner city youth ministries.

When I looked for the formal definition on my trusty laptop here, two words stood out. One was strike. Of course, in the physical sense of impact, there is always a striking.

"The bat made an impact on his brother's head."
See? That sentence implies striking.

The next word that stood out was alter. No, not the place where the priest says the mass- that's altar. Rather, impact carries the idea of that which recieves the impact being altered.

"That bat made an impact on his brother's head."
And likely, his brother was altered, for a time at least.

By both these definitions, the windshield on our 2001 Ford Windstar was impacted this week.

Like much of the area, we experienced 2 major winter storms on Tuesday and Wednesday. The progress of precipitation went like this: 5 inches of snow, then 1/2 of ice, then 4 more inches of snow.

So, we shoveled a lot this week. And our vans sit outside. So, they needed to be cleaned off.

And as we were cleaning off the black van, we got the ice off, for sure.

It wasn't till the next day when she had all the kids in the van that Kristen realized we had not only broken the ice.
Yeah.

Striking.

Altered.

And after a few hundred dollars, it was all reversed.






Now, as you can tell, the effect was felt all over, not just at the point of impact.

Then, this morning, Daniel and I went to a simulcast of the Super Bowl Prayer Breakfast put on by Athletes in Action. The key note person was Coach Tony Dungy.

People like John Stallworth, Derek Brooks and Warren Sapp talked about the impact that Tony and Lauren had made on their lives.



Yeah.

Striking.

Altered.







God's Agenda, Not Mine

Yesterday as I sat in the waiting room of the Auto Glass Shop, I was doing my school work. I had binder and highlighter in hand.

But God had a different agenda.

A man came in who was obviously looking for someone to talk with. So, I opened myself up and listened to him. We evetually got to the point where he was talking about losing his dad when he was 15, losing his mom last year, and his own death. He was recently diagnosed with something rather serious that will have life-altering consequences. So, he's thinking about eterninty.

We talked about the eternal nature of God and us, and the temporary nature of everything here.
At one point, when talking about his medical issues, he said once, "I should have died."

Then, again, he said later, "I should have died."

Although I had been just listening mostly, I took a chance here.

"Why didn't you?" I asked.

After stammering for a second, he said, "God's grace."

It's amazing when you listen and care and ask questions that people seem to come to that sometimes.

Then there was the nice lady that was working there. Her luck had been pretty bad. Single mom for years. Has one son who just got out of the Marines because he contracted menengitis overseas. Another son is joining the National Guard soon. She is helping take care of her grandbabies.

My heart went out to her. I told her that I have a good friend who just returned from Iraq and that military service is close to our hearts.

At this point in the day, I was on a roll, so I asked if I could pray for her right then. She said yes.

I prayed very briefly for direction for Keith and comfort for Joseph and help for her as she helps them.

She was a little misty eyed, but very thankful that someone had cared.

It's so easy. Really. So, why not do it more?

Impact is a striking.
An altering.

You've experienced it- someone has impacted you.

And Jesus said, "The greatest command is this- Love the Lord your God with everything you've got. Then love others as yourself."

We are on a mission from God. It is characterized by love for others.

Neighbor Ministry

As we have considered this new step in our lives, we have looked back into the past to places we have lived and thought over the ways we have been able to minister to our neighbors along the way.

The summer of 2001 came to mind when we used a van that we were loaned from a friend (the Rainwater family) to shuttle 5 neighborhood kids (and Kristen's little brother) to VBS and back for a week.

That same summer we established a good friendship with our neighbors and have had continued communication with them, even having their daughters in youth group and getting to baptize the mom.

Then there was the house before that were our neighbors across the street who weren't real church people had gone through some loss that was very similar to ours. We had dinner several times and talked about the hard issues and where God is at in it all.

We had several connections at our last home in Fort Wayne with neighbors and was able to have several over from time to time. When we stopped back by several months after moving we got to see one set again and had a good talk with them.

Then we moved to KY, where the summer seemed to last nearly forever. It was wonderful. Our house seemed to often be the place for kids to congregate. As I sit here I know that we have had good talks where we were given the opportunity to talk about faith with 5 or 6 of our closest neighbors. Some of them are more church people than others, but we have enjoyed just in the 10 months we have lived here.

We are looking forward to ramping this up a bit in our next place, since that will not only be our social opportunity to connect with others and hopefully show them the love of Jesus, but will be my job as well.

We are all called to let the love of Christ overflow out of our hearts and into the lives of people around us. We don't do it perfectly, but we can do it with his help.

On this note, I would like to recommend a great read.

Outflow by Steve Sjogren

Maybe I have mentioned it on here before. It is all about the love of Christ, in real and practical ways, flowing out of your life and into the lives of people around you. It's a five week devotional and you will cry and laugh your way through it.

If you think God might be calling you to great loving impact on the lives of people near you, read Outflow.

To learn more about Steve Sjogren, go to http://www.stevesjogren.com/

I am learning more about this everyday, and I am blessed to have the perfect model- Jesus, and the next best thing as well- my wife, Kristen!

Let the FUNdraising begin!

I have just submitted my first form to a church for consideration for funding. It was actually a great process.

The church has a system in place and well developed forms to be completed. So, it gave me a good opportunity to present the ministry.

When I think about the amount of money we need to pull all this off, it can be overwhelming! But, when I think of how God has shown up already, this is much more overwhelming.

In short, we are attempting to raise about $60,000 for a start up budget (one time gifts). 42,000 of this goes towards everything we need to start having morning services- from a sound board, to rockers in the nursery, to the signs inside and out, to the trailer it all goes in. All this comes from an amazing business called PCI (Portable Church Industries). Check them out at www.portablechurch.com

Then we have a rough draft year one budget of $210,000. We anticipate that some of this will come from weekly offerings, of course, but most new churches cannot raise their entire budget from the weekly offerings.

So, we are seeking:

1. $60,000 in one time gifts
2. About $8000 in monthly pledges and gifts

Would you help us? We need lots of help. Do you know people that could help? Do you know a church that you could talk with about taking us on as a mission for a year or two?

These dollars will translate into changed lives, not simply keeping lights on, or the salaries paid.

God has given us a vision to reach countless families with the unconditional love of Jesus Christ and by his power, this vision will be realized.

Imagine a few years from now when God has blessed us so much that we are launching a second congregation to advance the kingdom in a whole new way. Imagine the faces of people whose lives have been changed by the love and acceptance they have found in Christ. Imagine the momentum going forward of two congregations who work day and night to love people to Jesus and are making a significant difference in their community.

Now imagine you were a donor towards this cause from the beginning.

Paul tells us that some of us are to go and other as to send. We stand here, about to go. Will you help send us?

Please make tax deductible checks out to "The Development"
And mail to 1919 Bear Paw Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46815 c/o Keith Layman

Facebook

I have been thinking for some time about how to utilize electronic communication to minister to people who are outside Christ in this new venture.

One of my thoughts from the beginning was for the ministry itself to have a Facebook account. That way, when people who use FB get on they could recieve feeds about the minsitry.

This morning, I had another idea that added to this.

What we are trying to do is to lead people to love Gove, grow together and serve others.

In my experience one of the keys to all of the above is having genuine relationships and connections with others.

This is part of the reason we will be having backyard parties this summer at our house and hopefully a few other homes as well.

So- at these backyard parties, why don't we give people info on a FB group for the neighborhood?

As our Launch Team people share their lives with people in the neighborhood who are outside Christ, and build real relationships with these people (not simply with the goal of 'winning' them, but with the goal of loving them) we can make use of this social network tool.

Picture this- this August there are a handful of neighborhoods in North Fort Wayne that are pushing past the normal disconnectedness that accompanies most middle class subdivisions. And they are doing it, in part, because of the motivation of Christians who want to display the love of Christ to those who live near them.

If some of this doesn't excite you, I am sorry. It does me. The opportunity to love people and see people love God, grow together and serve others is why I am risking everything on this venture.

Only one life, then it's past. Only what's done for Christ will last.

BTW- if we aren't already friends on FB- look us up- our name is PatrickKristen

Salud,
Patrick

Race

It's a race against the clock. As usual. Don't you feel like you could say that pretty much any day of your life?

However, what I mean is that I have oodles of school work to do before we move in about 5 weeks. Having the flu today (it finally got to me) didn't help, although I did still manage to translate 33 verses of John 16.

I am so looking forward to the time in the near future when I am not just doing what I can when I can on this new ministry, but doing it all the time.

So, as long as I am upright tomorrow- more time at the library!

Sunday morning, the Flu, and strategy

We were supposed to travel back to KY last Saturday. Then, during the night on Friday Daniel woke up with the flu, as did Levi later and then Kristen. They were all down on Saturday and needing the comforts of a home, so we could not travel.

That put us leaving out Sunday morning. As we left our addition, I realized that the people in our neighborhood that we will be reaching out to with the love of Christ were probably home right then.

Now, it was about 11:30, so surely some had gone to church already and were back home. But there were a suprising number of people out- shoveling or doing some other work. Lots of cars parked in driveways. Lots of driveways with no new car tracks since the snow the night before.

That got me thinking yesterday about an opportunity.

See, there will be some time in the pre-launch phase where we will not yet be having Sunday morning services. We will visit other local congregations during this time and likely travel to a couple larger churches that are within driving distance.

However, what would be a good way to reach these families who are at home on Sunday morning?

What if we, in addition to the backyard parties on Saturday nights, hosted some Sunday morning brunches? Would that not connect sort of automatically with people who aren't going to church anywhere on Sundays? And with the house God has provided, we could do it and host multiple families.

There are 505 houses in our neighborhood. If the stats are true, then about 350 of them need to be reached with the love of Christ. So, if we had the modest goal of hosting 5% of those families on a few Sunday mornings, we could host about 17 families.

Hmm. God, could you use this?

The Fight

I remember some time ago a friend asking me what was the most surprising element of parenting. At the time I believe we only had two children. I answered after some thought.

The twenty-four hour nature of the job.

Parenting, like so many other things that are important, is a three steps forward and two steps back kind of a deal. And sometimes it is a three steps forward, three steps back process.

Many things are like this- and starting a ministry is one of those things.

This past week (even despite now being on our second round of the flu) could more aptly be described as 100 steps forward and about 15 steps back.

We are in a fight. The fight is not against other people we can see- it is against our Enemy. Certainly our Enemy does not want to see this type of ministry succeed.

We are reminded, though, that the good book says that greater is the one who is in us than he who is in the world. And Proverbs says that when you commit your plans to the Lord, he will make you prosper- he makes things turn out for his own ends.

Our mission is clear- to share the love of Jesus Christ in a life changing way with people who are outside the church in Fort Wayne.

Once the love of Jesus brings them in, they will have the chance to grow more like him alongside other believers.

The end of this is that they will be selfless servants- continuing the mission of spreading the love of Christ.

We should not think that this mission will go unnoticed.

But we will not stop. We will not be discouraged. We will not give in. We will stand toe to toe with the one who would dissuade us and declare the victory that only comes in Christ.

My brother-in-law gave me some good advice this week.

"When you doubt yourself, just stick your nose back in there."

There will be many obstacles- obstacles of doubt, disappointment, sin, money, accusations, rejection and others. But the obstacles will not define us- they will only serve to spur us forward.

We have often sung the following lines to our sons-

"Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross.
Lift high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss.
From victory unto victory, his army shall he lead.
Till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed."

Only one life and then it's past- only what's done for Christ will last.

Onward,
Patrick

People People People

In a week bombarded by snow- sub-zero temps, and the flu earlier in the week- we have seen more people than I can count.

I believe I have had about 12 meetings so far. I think about 10 children 7 and under have visited our scantily furnished abode.

Some things are in place now. The ball is rolling. Slowly, maybe, but it's rolling.

Honesty

Had a great meeting at lunch today with Mark Cleaveland, pastor of The River on the Southwest side of town, and his associate, Scott, today. They are two heartfelt sincere men who were very kind and helpful.

They are leading a church that is nearly 3 years old- started from scratch with a mission to reach people who aren't a part of church. They also have a mission to be a practical blessing to the community and have done many things in their area for people in need.

They were very honest with me (as others have been) about the hard task of allowing God to use you to build something from the ground up and how to do all while working to maintain a bond of love with other churches around you.

After all- we are all in this together.

So, although I have also had several other productive meetings since my last post, I only have time tonight to give a shout out to these two guys and to say a Thanks to them.

God is so Faithful

Had more meetings yesterday and one already today where God is conitnuing to show up and do amazing things. Please pray that:

• Focus is maintained and increased daily
• Funds cotinue to come in
• Open doors to speak the Word of God to those who need to know his Love
• The bond of love between brothers in Christ to be cherished continually

We praise God for his faithfulness in so many ways and we thank him that so far no one else in our family has gotten the flu and Aidan has recovered well.

The finger, the flu and the rest of my day

Today was amazing in great ways and not so great.

Just before we went to bed before a week of appointments and meetings, one of our boys woke up and started puking everywhere. We bedded him down in our room after that and he got up again at 12:45 am and did the same thing.

By 6 I was at a restaurant getting ready for the first appointment (with Eric Melby) of the week. Great breakfast and start to the week. Then it was off to mom and dad's to wash puked on stuff.

Then it was rearranging the meetings for the rest of the day because of the flu at our house.

Then two lunch meetings (btw- I was a Bob Evan's twice today)- both wen great.

Had a great lunch with Erick Riddle at Christ's Hope and Mike Kjergaard at Cedar Creek- wise and great men. They were a blessing and encouragement as we talked about our common goals in Christ.

Then tonight we had a meeting a small group of people that we are asking to consider joining the work. They were all great. It was a great night filled with questions and interest.

God is working amid my weakness.

Oh yea, the finger. I got flipped off in the car today for the first time in a little while. I guess I wasn't moving fast enough in the snow covered parking lot. He gave me the finger for about 20 straight seconds. I kept trying to catch his eye so I could smile at him, but he wouldn't look at me.

As I pulled away, I just started laughing. Not laughing at him, but just at the crazy twists of life- the flu, staying in this great house, God's clear leading and provision, people jumping on board, the tons of work.... and in the middle of it all--- I get the hand gesture that I gave out too frequently when I was in high school.

God's grace. That's the only common demoninator I find in today.

Hope his grace is as evident in your day.

So you hate the name

So you hate the name, The Development.

At least five of you do.

Hahaha. The great thing is- I don't care. I kinda hate it too.

Any other suggestions?

Leave a suggestion in the comment box. We might not adopt your idea either- but don't feel bad, no one likes my idea, either! Hahahahahaha!

Patrick

Roller Coaster

Tomorrow begins a week that we have been looking forward to for some time. I have 4 meetings tomorrow- with our worship leader, a potential board member, two area ministers and our launch team. More ministers the next day. After that, our financial guy, another minister, and my entire family. Then another ministry contact, a potential financial partner, a couple other potential board members and a couple more potential financial partners.

We went to Crossbridge Community Church this morning- they meet at the YMCA. Met Dan, their senior minister, his wife Kim, the worship minister (a fellow Northrop grad) and his wife Becky. We talked (while each entertaining questions from our respective children hovering around) after service for about half and hour. They were great and very excited to have someone else in the area working towards a similar goal- reaching people for the Kingdom.

This afternoon, as I was driving just a bit before reaching the Expresso Gallery (The Mill) on Dupont Road by Kroger, where I am typing this, I was praying. Not for me. Not for launch team members. Not for potential funds. Not for a board, meeting site, or bylaws that need to be written.

I was praying for the neighborhoods I was passing.

Neighborhoods full of people who need Christ's love in their lives.

We can't reach all of them... or can we? I guess that's God's call...
But even it cannot reach all of them, we can reach some. And by God's grace we will.

We got the fireplace and hot tub working in our new home today. We aren't living there yet, but just staying the week there.

I have images of having new friends in that living room- with the fire going- and sharing Christ's love with them.

I have visions of sitting in the hot tub with my wife and a couple on our leadership team rejoicing over the people who have been growing in Christ.

I walk through the about-to-be-finished basement and know that there will be countless appointments, sermons, conversations, meetings, and counseling sessions in that home office.

More and more I am...

Humbled.

Corinthians calls us God's ambassadors and tells us that we have the message of reconciliation. Then it also says that God has put this surpassingly great message of reconciliation in Jars of Clay so that it would be apparent that the message comes form God and not from us.

Please pray that:

• God gives me clarity in these appointments
• That God helps me build bridges
• That ministry doors begin opening wider and wider

Let the fun begin!

We arrived in Fort Wayne yesterday. We are staying at the wonderful house that we will be renting. It's a 4 bedroom home with a great basement that is in the process of being finished.

Upon arrival, we gathered out little troop in the new living room. Before we even looked through the house.

And we prayed. Prayed for opportunities.

The first night went great and we are loving what God is doing. We have about a million appointments set for this week and will be also seeing friends and family.

On the way up we had a special opportunity.

We met with a family that The Development intends to support financially. The Gables. They are a family of 7 who minister in the Ivory Coast, Africa.

To learn more about their ministry, please visit www.gablesinivorycoast.blogspot.com

This week, please pray about:

• Our newly forming launch team
• Open doors to share Christ
• Fundraising

More to come!

It's a Process

I have been reading a book I highly recommend:
Simple Church

The essence of this book conveys that a church ought to have a process- not just programs- for people within the body. What that means is that you have a developmental model for people to grow through in your midst. For example, a church might decide they want people to:

1. Love God
2. Grow Together
3. And Serve Others

So, they structure their efforts around these steps. They ask questions like, "How are we helping people to Love God (by following Jesus) for the first time? Where are we investing time, talent and dollars to facilitate this step?" They examine their programs, "What programs are we implementing to help people in this step, and are they effective- how do we know?" It's not enough to say that the Sunday morning service helps people to Love God for the first time. There has to be some evidence of that.

The next step is linear. Once people have been helped to Love God, how can we help them Grow Together? What ways can we spend time, talent and dollars to facilitate people's maturation process? Since Christian maturity cannot happen in a vacuum, what ways are we putting people together to sharpen one another and Grow Together?

Finally, people who have grown in their faith are ready to Serve Others. So, the church asks the question, "How are we living out our growth in Christ? How can we afford opportunities for as many people as possible to Love God in a practical way by Serving Others? If we have really Grown Together, then Jesus seems to think that will impact how we live in this world."

And here is the beauty. When we Serve Others, it can be a way to facilitate new people coming to Love God.

Now let's move from the hypothetical to the real.

This is how we will conduct The Development. Our Sunday morning services, neighborhood evangelism, backyard parties, service evangelism, and marriage outreaches will all be steps to help people Love God for the first time.

Then, once a family starts to catch on and show up 2-3 times on Sunday morning, we will invite them to come to weekly GT meals (Grow Together). These will not be traditional small groups, but will have an element where we sharpen one another.

After some time spent growing, we will help the new family find a way to purposefully Serve Others. Some people outside will be influenced by this and may take steps in their Love for God. So, the process repeats itself.

LoveGod->GrowTogether->ServeOthers-> LoveGod->GrowTogether->ServeOthers-> LoveGod->GrowTogether->ServeOthers-> LoveGod->GrowTogether->ServeOthers-> LoveGod->GrowTogether->ServeOthers-> LoveGod->GrowTogether->ServeOthers-> LoveGod->GrowTogether->ServeOthers-> LoveGod->GrowTogether->ServeOthers-> LoveGod->GrowTogether->ServeOthers-> LoveGod->GrowTogether->ServeOthers-> LoveGod->GrowTogether->ServeOthers->

Yeah, it’s like that.

This is sort of like saying there are three areas that are important to a football team:

1. Offense
2. Defense
3. Special Teams

If the team spends too much time cutting the grass on the field, picking out nice uniforms, or running concessions, they will do one thing consistently- lose! The duties of cutting the grass, picking uniforms and running concessions are all important, but they are not what a football team is supposed to do!

I think you get the analogy.

One Week From Today

One week from today we will be in Fort Wayne preparing for a meeting with our potential launch team.

It's a beautiful thing.
We are so ready.

God has given us so many good contacts. The small group of people we are going to share with in that meeting are believers who are missional (they want others to experience what they have experienced in Christ), live in the area, and all are young- most married couples.

Beyond that, they are friends.

And some of them at least will become partners. Missionaries.

It won't be easy. It's more like signing up for the army than going to the carnival.

But I believe it is something that God honors (he has done so huge in our lives so far).

What could ruin our mission?

Grumpy Christians.

The most sincere threat to our mission to reach people who do not yet follow Jesus is not evil. Not rejection. Not pluralism. Let me paint for you a picture of my last day with The Development:

It's a day when we get filled up with people from other area churches who didn't like the way things were at their church. It was all about them and they weren't getting their itches scratched, so they up and left.

These people will be dealt with. They will be encouraged to have their personalities disappear behind the banner of the mission...

or find someplace else to grump.

Our mission to minister to the souls outside is too dear for me or other leaders to spend our time catering to Christians who think it's all about them.

One thing I learned from Acts class this semester (thank you, Dr. Jon Weatherly): The purpose of the book of Acts is to chronicle the vigorous advancement of the Gospel.

I want to be a part of the vigorous advancement of the Gospel.

And I won't let anyone get in the way. Those who want to join me in that advancement are welcome. Not those who think church should be a member-focused endeavour.

With that note, I begin my detailed prep for the Launch Team meeting- one week from today.

Giving God Honor

I want to give God honor. He has done amazing things lately. I mean.... a-m-a-z-i-n-g.

As you might guess, finances are interesting for our family right now. We have been very fortunate so far- blessed- in my Masters. I haven't worked since last March (other than a short stint this past summer), have completed 24 graduate hours and we have welcomed our fourth child- all with no school loans!

As of this week, we decided we were finally at the point where I was going to need to take out my first loan to bridge the gap between now and when the new ministry gets on its feet.

Enter God (again).

A fiend who wished to remain anonymous gave us a gift that will take all sorts of pressure off.

We also have in hand our first contribution directly to the ministry.

And, The Development will write its first check of missions support to Missionaries in AIDS stricken Ivory Coast (Africa).

And, my classes have worked out in the most ideal way possible- a way that will be ideal in three ways:

1. Ease for this trasition (mostly distance courses)
2. Learning (tailored to my interest and with my advisor)
3. Future (it allows me to take a course that will be a doorway to a possible PhD later)

And, lately I have been self-doubting about this venture just a bit (as is understandable). A good friend wrote me 3 pages of scripture giving me more courage.

And, I have been asking if I really have the right strengths for this opportunity that God is calling us to. Today I found a book in my boxes called "Strengthsfinder 2.0". It's a book we looked through at Christ's Church to discover our strengths. I share my list with you not to claim that I am really that great in any of these areas, but to show you how good God is- and to affirm that he knows what he is doing:

1. Analytical
2. Strategic
3. Learner
4. Ideation
5. Responsibility

Add to that my spiritual gifts of preaching, leadership and disicpleship and it makes me think that perhaps God does know what he is doing (not that it needs to make sense to me).

Do you want something to repeatedly pray about? This is all I ask:

Pray: "God, through your Spirit enable these believers to speak your Word with boldness."

He has done everything else, and is continuing to- so we must be faithful to speak his Word.

Please praise God with me.

Something to post

We have something we are excited to share. However, today we are helping Steve and Kelly move and don't have the time necessary.

God has been faithful beyond what words can express. We will try to share more late tonight or tomorrow.

Please keep praying for this minsitry- that the way would be cleared for us to begin speaking boldly the Word of God to people who need to hear the hope in Christ.

Patrick

A couple FAQs

After I posted about our trip to Fort Wayne, it occurred to me to answer just a couple FAQs:

• When are you moving to Fort Wayne?

We don't have a hard date yet, but likely the last week of February.

• Aren't you going to finish your masters?

Working on it today! I have three classes left that I will complete by April. Then I only have my thesis to complete before I graduate in December.

• Why another church?

Because it's needed! Less than a third of people in Fort Wayne are actively involved in the Christian faith. Our church will not be focused on people who already follow Christ- but on those who have yet to commit to him.

• What do the boys think?

They are thrilled- Daniel especially. Daniel and Aidan even understand the mission somewhat. (It is a great test of my communication abilities to explain evangelistic chruch planting to a 4 and 6 year old).

• How will you fund it?

With your help! We will ask our Launch Team to begin giving in the near future. We are looking for two years of financial support from churches as well as individuals who understand the need. We are working up a 'start up budget' (monies and things we need to start) and a regular budget.

• What do the local churches think about your coming?

Eveyone has been helpful. We look forward to building bridges in pratcial and meaningful ways as we link arms with them for the cause of Jesus Christ.

• What's the goal?

Simply put, our goal in the first 3 years is to lead about 200 people within young families to follow Christ who do not follow him now. We will spend huge amounts of money and effort and prayer to this end.

After three years, we will launch a new church who will follow a similar pattern. Thus, at year 6, there are two additional churches launched (for a total of 4) and at year 9-10 an additional 4 (for a total of 8).

• When do you plan to buy land and build your building?

We don't. Instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars on a mortgage, we would like to spend much less to rent a facility and use the excess to fund efforts to reach the lost, care for the broken locally, and bless the poor overseas.

• Who can join you?

Anyone who is willing to get their hands dirty for Christ. This ain't a country club. It ain't about me or you. It's not even just about God. It is about God and us advancing his agenda of love into people's lives.

• Will you be a 'Christian Church'?

Yes, we will be a church that follows Christ. However, we aren't unduly committed to any specific expression of Christianity.

• What will your worship service look like?

It will be simple. It will be engaging. It will not have laser lights and fog machines. Either literally or figuratively it will be a group of adults sitting at round tables discovering together what it means to love God in this world.

We are excited to say that we have a trip planned to Fort Wayne! And it is very soon! We will head to Fort Wayne on Saturday, January 10 and stay for about a week. For those who don’t know, we are going to be renting a friend's house.

Since our friends have already moved out, they are going to let us stay in the empty house when we are in town! It will feel so great to not only be in Fort Wayne having meetings and making some things happen, but also to be in the home where we will live for at least the next year.

We are planning meetings with all sorts of different people. Please pray about a few things:

1. Our launch team (a few people we will ask to help us get this whole thing off the ground, who will be instrumental to the success of this ministry).

2. Fundraising (we must raise at least about $60,000 for a start up fund and also raise some support for regular ministry for the early season of the ministry).

3. Ministry partnerships (we value the connection and mutual encouragement in the local body of Christ).

4. Focus (that we would not be dissuaded from the mission even one bit).

5. Young families in the target area who do not go to church regularly (that we could bring them into a more active involvement with faith in Jesus Christ).

Thank you!