And We're Off...

About 15 months ago, Ryan and I decided that we would launch City Church community groups on the Wednesday evening after the Kentucky Derby in order to take full advantage of the event's symbolism. Although we never mentioned this connection explicitly, everyone on the Launch Team noticed this connection and commented favorably about our wit and foresight.*

Anyhow, I am excited to announce that City Church community groups have launched! Community groups first met last Wednesday evening (May 8), and included a joint meal, teaching, discussion, and prayer. What a joy it was to see the people God has gathered over the past several months assembled in the same place to grow in Christ! Our community groups currently meet at the same location and share a meal and a teaching session before meeting separately as two groups for discussion. Community groups are open to everyone, and current community group members are actively encouraged to invite friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc. to these groups. Please pray that the Lord would multiply these community groups and raise up new leaders to lead them!

By the way, City Church now has a logo! Take a look...

I could tell you what it is, but I thought it would be far more interesting to hear your thoughts first. Feel free to contact me if you want to express your views and/or hear what it actually is.

Please Pray:
- That the Lord would raise up new leaders to lead new community groups
- That new people would join our community groups and come to know the Lord
- That people currently in the group would be loving and hospitable to those who visit our community groups

*Nothing in this paragraph is true. 

We Need to Look Like a Team Out There!

It is a joy to announce that the Launch Team for City Church is (mostly) set. This past Sunday evening, our two supporting churches in Gainesville (Creekside Community Church and Christ Community Church) gathered for a joint prayer service in order to commission the Launch Team. All who attended the service were encouraged. I was particularly moved when the pastors and elders from the two supporting churches prayed for the Launch Team members after they assembled on the stage of Christ Community Church. How exciting is that?! Elders from two churches from two denominations united to prayerfully commission a new team of Christians to go love Gainesville. What a testimony to God's grace.

There are currently 32 committed members of the Launch Team, including:
- People in their teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s (plus three kids!)
- Medical professionals, an IT professional, a business consultant, teachers, a salesperson, a wealth management professional, engineers, a Cru staff person, a public transit supervisor, a not-for-profit organization worker, graduate students, and undergraduate students (and more!)
- People of different ethnicities and people who speak different languages (five Spanish speakers and one Mandarin speaker)
- People with musical gifts, artistic gifts, technology gifts, and more

Check out the launch team uniforms by clicking here.

Most importantly, this Launch Team consists of people saved by God's grace. We want to extend this grace to others as we seek to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ.

Please, please pray for this launch team. The launch team is excited and ready for action, but many members are facing unusually difficult and/or tragic life circumstances. Satan seeks to destroy, but praise God that the gates of Hell will not prevail against God's church.

Please pray:
- That all members of the launch team would experience significant spiritual growth as they serve on the Launch Team.
- That the right people on the Launch Team would have the right responsibilities.
- That the Launch Team would be about the business of making disciples as they build relationships in Gainesville.
- That the Lord would provide perseverance and healing to those on the Launch Team who are facing significant personal challenges.

Our Name Revealed...

CITY CHURCH

That's our name.

"An authentic community walking with God in our city"

That's our tagline (who and what we aspire to be).

"To be and make disciples of Jesus Christ"

That's our mission (what we're doing right now).

I hope all of this gets you pumped! In due time I will point you to our website, which will contain our very own logo. Click here to see one of our logo concepts...

Please pray for us as we work with a graphic designer to make final decisions about our logo, color scheme, and website. This is all important stuff!

This past week Kristen and I hosted two informational meetings for potential launch team members. Both meetings were very encouraging. A wonderful group of people is gradually committing to the team. On April 28, Christ Community Church and Creekside Community Church (our two supporting churches in Gainesville) will join forces to pray for and commission the launch team. This service will take place in the evening (most likely 6pm) at Christ Community Church. All are welcome to attend. More information to come...

Please pray:
- For the graphic designer (Nate) as he works with us to design our logo
- For Ryan and me as we explore our website options and make important decisions regarding our online presence (this is so important in our context)
- That the remaining people who are considering the launch team would make wise decisions regarding their potential involvement.

The Best Way to Use Water

I am thrilled to announce that an awesome woman from the small group Kristen and I host was baptized this past Sunday! She is a new follower of Jesus, and it is such a joy to walk with her as she delights in her new faith and desires to learn as much as she can. This kind of passion encourages and challenges everyone in the group. What a blessing it is to watch God work in such a visible way.

This past weekend I participated in part of Prelude to Revival, an intense week of preaching, prayer, testimonies, and worship hosted by Evanston Bible Fellowship (one of our supporting churches). On Friday evening four people were baptized! It is so encouraging to consider how God is working in the life of this church plant and in the lives of our supporting churches. If you want to check out the evening messages from this powerful event, check them out here. Warning: if you listen to the message I preached, do know that the first ten minutes of the message are a bit unusual since beer started leaking through the ceiling tiles (you read that right). Church planting is edgy...

We are still very much in the process of asking people to prayerfully consider joining the launch team. This process is certainly building my faith as it forces me (and Ryan) to completely depend on the Lord to direct the right people to the church plant. Keep praying with us as people make decisions!

We've submitted our incorporation papers to the State of Florida. Once we hear back from them, we can announce our name. I want to announce it now (really bad), but wisdom dictates that I wait.

Please pray:
- That the Lord would use the church plant as he draws more and more people to himself in Gainesville. We want to see more and more baptisms as people become followers of Jesus!
- That two members of our launch team would find great jobs. They moved here in December and are still looking.
- For the people who are thinking about joining our launch team. This is a huge decision! Pray for wisdom for us and for them.

   

Gathering a Team (or, "How to Build a Church in 5 Easy Steps")

We are now fully engaged in building our launch team, which (Lord-willing) will consist of about 30 committed, Christian adults who pledge to be a part of the church plant for at least one year. All launch team members are asked to commit to our team by the end of April (they even sign a contract!), and then the one-year clock starts running on May 1. We have 17 committed adults at this point (exciting!), and we are waiting to hear back from other families and individuals whom we have already approached. Potential launch team members still have about two months to make a decision, so please be praying for them. This is a significant decision! There are still some families and individuals we would like to approach, so pray for us as we make these additional appointments. If you're reading this blog and thinking "hey, I want to be a part of this, but no one has approached me" - well, now would be your time to approach me or Ryan and express your desire.

(In case you're still wondering, the "5 Easy Steps" to build a church do not exist. Adding that tagline to the title was merely a way of drawing you into this blog. So if you were hoping to see 5 steps, or if you were scoffing at my naivete, sorry to disappoint.)

 I am also excited to announce that we have selected a name for our church plant. Once this name clears all of the necessary legal hurdles I will gladly announce the name on this blog. Hopefully I can do this in a couple of weeks! We have also hired a graphic designer to work on our logo. This designer is a UF graduate (so you know he's talented and good-looking), and his name is Nathan Akers. We are also working on a website, and I'll let you know when that rolls out. We invest lots of time and prayer into all of this design work, and we invite you to pray with us. This is important work, not because good marketing will bring people to Christ (it won't), but because a professional look and layout is hospitable to those who want to know more about the church and because quality design work is expected in our cultural context.

Please pray:
- That the Lord would work in the lives of 30 adults (plus some kids!) and lead them to commit to our launch team. Pray that the people we have already asked would make wise decisions about our invitations.
- That the incorporation process that the church plant is going through (with the state of Florida) would go smoothly and quickly.
- Pray that our design work would glorify God and be an effective asset as we minister in downtown Gainesville.   

 

The Council, The Team, and The Jobs (with a Cali twist)

Tomorrow morning Ryan Harding (associate church planter) and I will drive to Lakeland, FL to meet with a council of pastors from our denomination. This council will ask us questions about a theological paper we each submitted to the council for licensing purposes, and then our licensing process will be complete. The council will also require us to walk over some hot coals, play something on the piano from the Baroque period, and demonstrate a working knowledge of British literary history. Decide for yourself how much of what I just wrote is true.

Ryan and I are preparing to meet with people who are interested in joining the launch team. This is a critical stage of the church planting process, so please cover this process with prayer. Pray for the Lord to guide a committed, passionate group of people to the launch team. Most people who will join our launch team will make commitments in the next couple of months.

Two of our launch team people from Chicago are still looking for jobs. Pray that the Lord would provide jobs for them soon! They showed incredible faith by moving to Gainesville before securing jobs.

Kristen and I recently returned from a six-day trip to California where we raised additional support for the church plant and I preached at the Evangelical Free Church of Huntington Beach. For those of you wondering about our connection to California - I lived in Huntington Beach from about eight years. The trip was a wonderful success on so many levels, and your prayers were surely a part of that. Be encouraged that families and individuals from California are praying for and financially supporting a church plant in Gainesville, Florida!

Please pray:
- That the Lord would strengthen and guide Ryan and me as we go before the licensing council tomorrow morning.
- That the Lord would guide passionate, committed followers of Jesus to join our launch team in the next few months.
- That the Lord would provide jobs for all of the launch team members from Chicago.

The Name Game, Plus an Exciting Week Ahead

ANNOUNCING OUR CHURCH PLANT NAME!

Except not. Today I planned to reveal the name of the church plant. However, due to an unbelievably odd (I mean really odd) series of events, that will not be happening. In fact, we have to ditch that name altogether and pray about a new name. While this is certainly frustrating since we did put a lot of time and prayer into picking out this name, the Lord was very gracious in keeping us from using that name. Had we gone forward with this name, it would have caused us a significant headache down the road. This is life in the church planting world - lots of excitement and plenty of interesting turns.

This past week I preached at Christ Community Church (PCA), one of our two supporting churches in Gainesville. It was a wonderful time of fellowship, and some families from that church have already expressed interest in supporting us or even joining us. It is so encouraging to have supporting churches from different denominations.

On Thursday Kristen and I will leave for California to spend six days support raising in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas. I will also be preaching on Sunday at the Evangelical Free Church of Huntington Beach (CA), a church I attended for almost eight years. This church is now supporting the Gainesville church plant, an amazing development since this church is about 3,000 miles away from Gainesville!

Please Pray:
- That Ryan Harding (the associate church planter working with me) and I would prayerfully settle on a different name for the church plant in the next week or so. We have some other awesome choices, and we're thankful for that.
- That the Lord would raise up several families from Christ Community Church to join the church plant launch team. Pray that my time there this past weekend would help people think more clearly about their involvement.
- That the Lord would speak through me in powerful ways on this coming Sunday morning as I preach at the Evangelical Free Church of Huntington Beach for the first time. 

Schools and Courtrooms

One of the primary ways Kristen and I  (and everyone on the launch team) hope to reach Gainesville as we plant a church is to serve the schools in our community. We have identified two schools where we are trying to invest our time, including an elementary school on the west side and a K-12 school on the east side of our target area. Beginning in February, Ryan Harding and I (and possibly other people on our launch team) will begin helping twice per week with an after-school tutoring program at the school on the west side. Last night Ryan and I attended a student advisory committee (SAC) meeting at the school on the east side and met the principal and the guidance counselor. They have invited us to tour their school during this coming week and we hope to start spending time in classrooms soon. Approximately 97% of the students at the east side school are in the free/reduced lunch program. Praise God that things are beginning to happen at local schools!

Please keep my family in your prayers this week. On Thursday I will spend time in court with my mom at a pre-trial hearing for the teenager who is accused of hitting and killing my dad. This is the first time either one of us will see this teenager, so this will inevitably be a very difficult time.

Please pray:
- That the launch team would serve faithfully at both the west side and east side schools and find ways to bless these schools for the long haul.
- That the launch team would find favor in the eyes of school administrators so that we can continue to love and serve these schools in substantial ways. These are also schools where we might consider trying to meet for Sunday services in the future.
- For my mom (in particular), me, and the rest of my family as we deal with the emotional and practical implications of Thursday's pre-trial hearing.