Financial Partners

[The following is our fundraising letter. Would you take some time today to pray about being a financial partner? We are getting to a crunch time where we are beginning ministry (backyard parties, service outreach, connection cards, planning monthly services), so the dollars given mean so much!]

Friends,

    As many of you already know, God has led Kristen and me to begin a new and different church in Fort Wayne, IN. Triple Pointe Church is gathering strength and momentum as I write this and we are so excited to see what he is doing. I would like to ask you to consider partnering with us financially as we begin this adventure. Here are some brief details…

Why? Based upon our demographic study, approximately 10,000 people in this part of Fort Wayne are members of a young family who don't go to church. Many grew up in a mainline denominational church and aren't going anymore. Nationally, churches and church attendance are dropping at alarming rates, and this area is no exception.

When?    Our first official church service will be held on September 13, 2009.

Who? A launch team of 24 people, including children, has already formed and we are regularly adding more people. We hope to soon announce our second staff member as well as additional members of the team. We are also in the process of partnering with a church planting network named Growing Healthy Churches. Learn more at http://www.ghcnetwork.org/

Where? This is a good question. Although we have studied the demographics of a particular part of town, we do not yet know what facility we will be renting. Our primary concerns are that it accommodates children well and that it helps attract people who don't currently go to church.

What? Triple Pointe Church is a Missional church- meaning we purposefully engage the people of our culture with the goal of leading them to Love God through obedience to Jesus Christ. The next step is to Grow Together because Christian maturity doesn't happen in a vacuum. Finally, we Serve Others
because selflessness is the goal of the gospel. We believe at the end of year one that the majority of people at TPC will be new believers in Jesus Christ.

How much? We are seeking outside support of $8,000 a month for the first two years, now through August, 2011. We need:

• 2 individuals/churches to support TPC with monthly gifts of $1,000
  
• 4 individuals/churches to support TPC with monthly gifts of $500
  
• 20 individuals to support TPC with monthly gifts of $100
  
• 40 individuals to support TPC with monthly gifts of $50
  
• One-time gifts totaling approximately $50,000 for summer outreach an start up costs
  

What can I pray for? Please pray for:

• Our process of vision refinement
  
• The formation of the Launch Team
  
• Our process of outreach
  
• Financial backing
  

How do I respond? If you can be one of the sixty-six people we need to financially support us, you can communicate that to us in one of two ways. You can email our treasurer, Keith Layman, at keith.layman@verizon.net. You can also mail checks, made out to Triple Pointe Church, to Keith at 1919 Bear Paw Drive, Fort Wayne, IN, 46815.

How can I learn more? To learn more about our philosophy, our story, to listen to recordings about the vision, or short videos, please go to www.triplepointechurch.org. Use the contact us button for any further questions.

What will my money go for?

What are Sundays for?

You know, this seems to be a big question. As I have talked with people who are in ministry, they seem to disagree with me more on this point than on any other.

At TPC, Sundays will be focused on people who are new to the faith or still figuring out the whole Jesus/God/Church thing.

In good 'ol Rick Warren talk, we will be doing "evangelism" on Sundays and not "discipleship". In other words, I will be talking to people who aren't big time church people, or people who are still trying to make sense of it all.

So, a lot of people have said that they disagree with this approach. They have said "Sunday mornings are for the believers." They aren't wrong. It's a matter of opinion, in my opinion.

However, I have a question.

If Sunday mornings are for the church people, what is for the not-church people?

I'm just asking.

Are your small groups and Bible studies for people who haven't crossed the line of faith?

Are your classes for people who don't believe in Jesus?

Are your ministry teams for 'non-Christians'?

A friend and I were talking about this tonight. I told him what people often say to me- that Sunday morning is for believers- and I just asked, "Then what is for everyone else?"

Most of the time the answer is "Nothing".

That stinks like a cesspool of inside jokes in a room full of people desperate for a good laugh.

Vid

What do you think of my first vid on our official church site?

http://triplepointechurch.com/content.cfm?id=298

So many good things

There have been so many good things lately, and many are still developing so that I cannot talk about them.

More people are joining up with the cause.
More people are reaching out in faith to people around them.
People are not just signing up, but they are buying in.
We have raised over 11,000.
Ladies are meeting tomorrow to start work on Children's ministry.
GHC is already being helpful.
I uploaded a fun video on the website today.
God repaired our transmission with the help of some great friends.

And some of the things I can't post are some of the most exciting pieces of news!

Death Comes

I have been reading a commentary on the book of Hebrews in the Bible.

Today's passage was on Enoch, a man who 'walked with God' and then 'was no more'.

What is meant by that has been debated for years and there are many legends surrounding these simple phrases. One thing is sure, though-

Dude's gone.

He is mentioned because he had faith in God and...

"Without faith, it is impossible to please God."

My death will come... I must have faith to please God.

Sums up life pretty well.

I want to live this life full of faith so that I can meet my Maker... and not run away.

Green Means Go

We have spent the past week in Dallas, TX with Growing Healthy Churches Network.

They have been assessing church planters for some 18 years.

The week was somewhat like being on a reality TV show. We were put through personality profiling, were asked to do presentations, had to work together on teams to accomplish different tasks, were interviewed (interrogated).

At the end of the week, as one large group we were given just a few hours to develop and then present a plan on establishing a church movement in a particular city over a range of locations and campuses.

Then we were asked to make a presentation of our plan to three investors who would decide if theyt approved of our plan.

And in reality, we were being asssessed all the time. They told us that at the end of the week we would be given our results.

If we were given a red light by the staff, then we would be better off not planting a church.

If we were given a yellow light, then we might make good church planters, but not now.

A green light means "You should plant a church and plant one now."

We were thankful that the experienced and intense staff gave us a solid green light.

Thank you, Lord, for continuing to confirm our call.

Just a quick note

Day one in Dallas was good. We got to meet the other candidates, some from TX and one other from IN. We spent time with the staff and I made three presentations.

So far, so good. We have been asking a lot of questions of them and they of us.

The primary things I see in GHC are twofold:

1. They are comitted to churches replicating themselves, as we are.
2. They are comitted to churches being healthy

I appreciate the likemindedness.

I will post again later!

Why?

Imagine my surprise when i stepped our into the mild Texas morning for some quiet time at 5am this morning and there sat this yellow Lamborghini!

It got me thinking- why? Why does someone buy this kind of car? why did the young man at the airport yesterday paint his toenails silver? Why do we do what we do?

Why am i texting out a blog entry in Dallas, TX at 5am? Why am I going out on faith in such a significant way?

Why are other people joining on? Why have people given thousands of dolllars and hundreds of hours of time?

Because Jesus has called us to a life where we deny ourselves and follow him. Because we believe that TPC is going to lead people to Jesus and change people's lives.

We made it!

We are so excited to begin the Discovery Center with GHC tomorrow! Today was a long day of travel (I had the barf bag in hand several times), but we are now sitting comfortably in our hotel room in Mansfield, TX, just southg of Dallas.

Kelsey made the trip beautifully, in spite of daddy having some serious motion sickness.

We rigister tomorrow morning. Thank you for your prayers!

At the airport!

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Here we are waiting in the airport in PA. We fly 2 Philly, then 2 Dallas/Fort Worth. We are very excited about our week there and what God is doing! I am also excited that I realized I can update the blog from my phoone. ;)

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This morning we went to church in Pennsylvania. It was great and our kids had a great time.

The church is a pretty traditional place and tailored to the area culture, which is pretty rural. The chruch is pretty different from what TPC will look like.

But you know what? They preach Jesus.

And people who love Jesus are brothers and sisters.

We fly to Dallas, TX tomorrow amid a myriad of significant good news. Outreach has begun, new relationships are being made, the Launch Team is being formed and totally catching on to the vision of TPC, new people are getting connected everday.

Please pray that our trip to Dallas tomorrow will be uneventful, but that we would be sensitive to anyone God might want us to meet in our adventure.

Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer.

We arrived in PA last

We arrived in PA last night! It only took 12 hours! We can't wait to head to Dallas on Mon!

Things that make you go hmmm

You know what it's like when you plan a trip, right? And everything's loaded? Especially if you have kids and are going to be gone for a long time?

Add in that you don't have only plans for a long trip or a long flight, but both.

There's a lot of prep. And our trip is both business and pleasure, North and South, Land and Air.

We were on our way this morning at 10.

Then our tranmission fluid decided it needed to be free.

Long story short- the 6 Rieckes stranded on the side of the interstate with the end result of needing a new transmisison to the tune of $2500.

And we ain't got no money. In case you wondered, planting a new church and being a grad student don't pay big bucks.

You've been here, too, I know you have. But God has his reasons....

I met a great guy who was my tow truck driver and we got talking about stuff- church, family, God, etc. I've got to email him back about some stuff here in a bit.

It puts things into perspective. We will still make the trip- not sure the details of how and when yet, but we are getting it figured out.

My take-aways from today-

1. Life changes in a moment


2. God answers prayer (Kristen prayed that if we were going to have car problems that it would be close to hom and we only made it about 11 miles on the interstate)


3. Opportunities cannot be passed up


4. People like to come to your rescue (thanks Erin!)

Did your day suck? It's ok, God is still on his throne. Economy got you down? It's all good, life is more than money and stuff. Life changed recently? Maybe there is an opportunity in the middle of the frustration.

A Way to Reach Out

I think we all intrinsically ask the God questions. Does he exist? What is he like? How is he known? Does he like me? Why is there so much evil?

I think the people we interact with everyday naturally ask themselves these questions.

And like anything else that comes up in our minds, we have to have our way that we deal with it or it makes our heads explode.

There are a lot of us who deal with it like this...

"Does God exist? What is he like? To find out, where should I go? I guess I should go to church. But which church? What will I find there? Church people kinda creep me out and don't seem to be doing much better than me. So why would I want to go there?"

When we have dealt with friends who had a host of criticisms about the church, we have talked about taking the bullets out of their guns.

Some friends who are homosexuals believe that 'God hates fags' is the mantra of the church and therefore of the traditional Christian God.

However, when they have found Christians that actually love them and treasure them as friends, that excuse for keeping God is taken away.

I had a sense this morning.

You see, I go to Bob Evan's. A lot.

I count at least 12 times this year (and we lived in KY until March).

And when I walked in this morning, I got the sense that the workers there are starting to recognize me- in a good way.

You see, I leave good tips (even though I am broke personally:)). And I leave my card about Triple Pointe Church. And I remember people's names and situations. And I have asked some of them if I can pray for them.

Going the same place.
All the time.
Gives us an ability to make a greater impact for Jesus.

If there is a worker at Bob's that has animosity towards the church, my kindness, prayers, and good tips are helping that to go away. And maybe they are seeing that God is kind, that he cares, and that he is generous.

Network Update

Kristen and I are headed to Dallas, TX!

We will be assessed by an organization called Growing Healthy Churches Network. The assessment includes personality profiling, personal interviews, time with a counselor, presentations, etc. All with the goal of giving us feedback on our strengths and weaknesses as church planters.

After they assess us (and we assess them) a decision will be made as to whether or not to partner with GHC. (For the benefits of partnering with GHC, see a previous post.

So, we will travel to PA, where we will leave our three boys with Kristen's sister and my best friend (who happen to be husband and wife!) after spending some time with them. We will fly from PA with our baby to Dallas, stay for 5 days, then return to PA, where we will pick up the boys and return home.

Please pray for this important step towards September 13!

http://www.growinghealthychurches.org/

Out your front door...

Lies a world that just needs a little love and hope.

Jesus has ordained the church to bring it to the world.

My encouragement?

Go out the front door and take Jesus with you.

The conception

Tonight, Triple Pointe Church is concieved.

We have our first official Launch Team meeting!

We will be discussing visions and dreams of how God will use us to lead others to Love Him, Grow Together and Serve Others.

What begins tonight with a handful of people, with God's help, will grow to a movement of churches that replicate themselves time and again, leading people to know Jesus Christ in a way that makes everything different.

Thank you, God, for saving me and giving my life meaning and significance.

Please use us to bring that about in the lives of others.

This morning

I took a prayer walk around the neighborhood this morning. Praying that God would speak to the hearts of the residents of each home.

I prayed that if the people were believers that they would be a light for Christ, and that if they do not yet Love God through obedience to Jesus Christ, that they would turn their hearts to him.

I knew there was anothe pastor that lived in our neighborhood. Both cars were in the drive, so I took a chance and rang the doorbell. He and his wife were home. Rob Tippey from Level 13 Church and I had a great talk and I look forward to getting to know him better. May God bless his efforts to further the kingdom!