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.