Items To Pray For This Week (10/29)

This could be an exciting week in many respects.  Here are some things we're asking for movement from God in... We appreciate your prayers!

• Tonight we meet with a young couple that I met at New Albany's Oktoberfest.  Pray we can be a blessing to them and that we would have skill in feeling out whether they could be potential team members.
• CE National's 412 Commission (a group of college-age students on a year-long study of the Bible and ministry experiences) is joining us for an afternoon of ministry in our community on 10/31.  We're unleashing a new door hanger targeted at finding team members.  We've ordered 1,000 copies and are hoping to get these out (and more!) in local neighborhoods.  Pray that as we canvass, these pieces will land on the doors of families God has appointed to help us launch a church.
• This Weds. evening (10/31) hundreds of trick-or-treaters will be coming to our door.  We're going to try and serve coffee or hot-chocolate to as many parents as possible and give invitations to our meeting.  Pray for some great conversations and contacts.
• On Saturday (11/3), we are hosting about 6 families from Seth's soccer team that I coached this fall for an end-of-season party.  We'll play some games and eat some pizza...but what Trish and I are most trying to accomplish is to foster deeper connections with these families.  Pray that they would see Jesus in us, that great conversations would take place, and that several would inquire about our work.  Some of these families will be getting the door hanger (above) at their home this week...perhaps that could spark some good interaction.
• I have a request out to our local YMCA for permission to serve coffee to voters as vote on 11/8 (this YMCA is a polling station).  Pray for receptivity among the Y's staff and that this might open a door for further partnership in contact making and community service ventures.
• We are continuing to send out fundraising letters...searching for churches to join us as partners.  Pray that these letters land in willing hands and that God would reveal His sources for funding our 2008 ministry year.

Thanks for praying with us!

Silas Doing Well After Surgery!

We're so thankful to God that Silas came through a procedure well on Friday to have tubes placed in his ears and have his adenoids removed. Yesterday (Friday) was a bit rough and he was (understandably) pretty fussy, etc. But, today he seems back to normal and as ornery as ever. We had planned to do some traveling this weekend... but decided to rest at home. I think this is probably best for Silas... and we've had a chance to explore some things happening in our local area and make some contacts. That's always positive. Thanks for praying!

Go Nittany Lions!

What A Great Weekend!

I am praising God and so excited about the weekend God allowed me to experience October 19-21.  I've been praying and asking God to guide me to ministry opportunities and He seemed to open the floodgates of opportunity last weekend.  I traveled to Winona Lake, IN for the following:

On Friday evening and Saturday I had the privilege of working with 6 leaders from an Indiana church.  We spent time at CE National's Philemon Center (a beautiful, retreat-like, setting) discussing where the church was at, analyzing current ministries and leadership structures, praying, and strategizing for greater missional effectiveness.  God really met us and I believe that each of us left challenged to reach more people for Jesus and make more disciples in our local contexts.

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to preach at Community of Hope Grace Brethren Church in Columbia City, IN.  This worked well since I was already in the area anyway and was a great opportunity to communicate God's Word to the wonderful church there.  I always find that when God brings an opportunity to preach, the passage He leads me to for the message is exactly what I need at that moment (and hopefully a blessing to the people as well!).  I talked about Genesis 24 and some tips on how to accomplish assignments from God through prayer, taking initiative, and praising God.  To God's glory, I think the time went well and I think God used it.

A final praise for the weekend is that Trish and the boys did great in my absence.  I'm so thankful for a wife that shares our ministry fully and makes it possible by her hard work at home (and in many other areas!)

Thanks for praying with us for our ministry.  It is on weekends like this, where I sense God's literal guidance and provision, that I know we have a great team of people praying with us!

Encouraging Phone Call!

Got a call from my friend Jason Haymaker today to inform us that our church family from Macedonia, Western Reserve Grace Brethren Church (where I worked for almost 6 years prior to moving to Columbus), will support our ministry through their missions budget for 2008.  What a blessing!  Please praise God with us.  If you've been praying (see several posts below) about our fundraising needs for 2008- Thanks!  God is working!

Major Prayer Items For This Week

We're in an important time for our ministry. It seems there are many crucial things happening right now. We'd appreciate your prayer this week for the following areas:

• The board of an organization that supports church plants is meeting this week.  One of the many items on their agenda will be to discern which church plants they will support financially in 2008.  We have provided necessary documents to apply for this assistance.  Please pray for wisdom for these leaders and for God's provision for ClearView.
• I have the privilege of traveling to Winona Lake, IN this weekend to serve as a facilitator for a "Vision Weekend" sponsored by CE National.  On Friday evening and Saturday, I will meet with the leadership team from a Grace Brethren Church.  The purpose of the time will be to walk along side these leaders as they discern a workable and specific strategy for reaching out to lost people and making disciples.  This is the first time for this exercise.  I'm very excited about it.  Please pray that God will guide us and that, ultimately, people will be loved to Jesus as this church practices the strategy they sense God leading them to.
• Perhaps the most important thing you could pray for...related to our goal of beginning a new church is this:  God is leading to a tweak in our strategy.  We've been focusing almost solely on building the foundation for a new church through reaching unchurched people for Jesus.  While this is the reason ClearView exists, and we can NEVER depart from this objective, we need to find some seasoned, pioneer-type, Christ-followers to join us on our journey and help us launch a missional church.  I'm dreaming about and trying to put on paper another arm to our current ministry--targeting believers and asking them to join our team.  Obviously, one thing that would GREATLY help us move forward in this area is establishing working partnerships with other churches that share our vision for reaching people for Christ.  Please pray for wisdom, creativity, and skill in communicating our vision.  Pray God would lead us to 75 adults to join our team by Summer 2008.  Pray for pastors/churches that would partner with us.

Thanks!

Update To Northwest Chapel

I had the privilege of giving an update to the people of our principle sponsor, Northwest Chapel, this past Sunday morning.  To God's glory, I think the time went well and people seemed to respond with interest and excitement for all that God is doing in northeastern Franklin County.

Below is the text from the manuscript I practiced in preparation for this event. I include it here for you to praise God with us for His work over the last 8 months or so.  Sometimes the day-to-day movement seems slow... but when I am forced to look at the big picture (as I was when I prepared the text of this update)...God is moving in amazing ways.  Thanks for praying with us.

The talk went something like this:

Thank you so much for your financial support of our family and church plant. Without you, the dream of ClearView would never become reality. Your leaders are mentors and encouragers to me and your financial support has helped my family make a living. I am forever indebted to Northwest Chapel and its vision to be missional and reach the world for Christ through church planting.

When I think of my journey of spiritual formation over the last year, the first thing I think of is the transformation God has done in me. I’ve been a pastor for 10 years. But, I think God had to take the pastor out of the church in order to teach him to be a missionary. We’re planting a church from scratch. When you’re a pastor with no people…you have to learn how to go out and find them.

Church planting is the most difficult thing we’ve ever done, but I feel more alive than I ever have. We have the opportunity, everyday, to start conversations with people, build relationships and look for opportunities to share Jesus’ love. To God’s glory, for the first time in my life, I know I’m doing what God made me to do.

God has also been using challenges along this journey to build faith in our hearts. In June, we began our first Bible study group with 13 in attendance. We’ve really been working hard to grow this group…praying, inviting new people…everything we can think of.

I remember the day in July when one person showed up to our meeting. Even though we had been prepared for this scenario mentally, I was so disappointed. I was thinking, “How are we going to build a church when we can only get one person to show up at a Bible study?”

That night, I spent several hours reading the Bible and crying out to God. God did something in my heart that night, and I haven’t been the same since. It’s hard to describe, because I don’t really understand it, but in those quiet, intimate moments with God, I sensed Him strengthening my heart. He confirmed our calling, assured me of His promises, His perfect plan, and timing, and of His presence with us. As I stand here this morning, and reflect back on that dark day, God used it strengthen our resolve. To God’s glory, I now feel a burning sense of confidence in my heart. I believe God is going to do improbable things miraculous ways because He wants a new church that loves people to a clear view of Jesus and His mission in northeastern Franklin County.

As I reflect on the last nine months, God has moved in amazing ways. To His glory, our journey has also included countless answers to prayer and miracles that only God could do.
• I remember the day Pastor Martin helped us move into our house. I didn’t know anyone. I felt afraid, lonely, and overwhelmed. 9 months later, those same people I was afraid of… we’ve met more than half of the people in the 191 homes in our neighborhood, hosted over 60 of them at our Neighborhood Bible Club, enjoyed 50 of them at our block party, and loved many of them in practical ways through mowing their lawn or delivering flowers at times of tragedy.

In one case, a lady we had never met was violently assaulted. With some friends, we arranged to send her flowers while she was in the hospital. A few weeks later, there was a knock at our door. That was the first time we met Mesarat. Wednesday night, I sat across from Mesarat and her fiancé, Gary, at Max and Erma’s. One topic of conversation was how excited they are about ClearView and their desire to be an important part of our team. Out of tragedy and kindness…God brought us a key couple.

In addition, God has allowed us plant our family into the soil of our community. We’ve met and are meeting hundreds of people through coaching soccer, pre-school, swimming lessons at the YMCA, and just being friendly and initiating conversations. Last Saturday, we reached a milestone…our first community-wide service project where we gave out over 750 balloons, painted hundreds of faces, and met countless new people at our ClearView booth at New Albany’s Oktoberfest. God is leading us to people and allowing us to make an impact. I wish I could tell you more amazing stories of people God has led us to. You’ll have to have us over for dinner…☺

• God is also answering prayer by leading us to our initial team members. In addition to our own, there are four families committed to our work. Considering we didn’t know anyone when we moved to the area, God has moved greatly and given us great people work with—people that are actively working to share the love and hope of Jesus with those around them.

I’m so thankful for the journey God has us on. He is teaching us about Himself as He reveals His plan for a new church step-by-step. Thank you, again, for your vital part in our work. Our journey continues…and as God leads, today, I ask you for your help.

You can help us in two important ways:
• We need prayer. Please pray with us. There is a prayer card in your bulletin with suggestions on how to pray. If you’d like to join our prayer team and receive regular updates, e-mail me at the address on the card.
• We need teammates. In a group this size, perhaps some of you live close to the northeast side of town. Maybe you know people in New Albany, Gahanna, or Westerville. Please tell them about our work. Refer them to our website. Give them my e-mail. Or, give me their name and I’ll contact them. If you would stop by our table in the Commons, I have some invite cards for our weekly meeting that you could give to them. Please help us find partners.

The Word About ClearView Is Getting Out!

I was thankful for the opportunity to sit down with Tom Avey, Fellowship Coordinator for the Fellowship Of Grace Brethren Churches, at a retreat last week. Tom asked me a few questions about how God led Trish and I into church planting and how people could pray for us.

If you'd like to take a listen, click here. This information may be familiar to most of you...but it may also help you further understand our story and context and how to pray for us. Thanks!

A Picture Of The Battle For Souls

I was moved today as I watched a video sent by a friend. I'm not one to quickly come to tears...but this video really touched my heart. It reminded me of the Scriptures that describe the very real battles going on around us all the time (see Ephesians 6:12), the need for constant prayer to maintain intimacy with Jesus and ministry effectiveness (see Ephesians 6:18-20), a heavenly crowd cheering us on as we serve Jesus (see Hebrews 12:1-2), and Jesus' desire to walk closely with us.

Take a look...could be more like reality than what you typically think of...

An Image And A Smile

We are praising God for a GREAT day Saturday at the New Albany Oktoberfest. God opened a door for us to have a booth at this event where several thousand people enjoyed almost 90 degree heat (enjoyed is a bit of a stretch for me!), great food, college football games on an enormous screen, games for children, and other vendors. This was our first ever ClearView Church festival booth...and I hope there will be many more to come. We met hundreds of people, gave out over 750 balloons, painted hundreds of faces, and were able to get hundreds of names/addresses with our free iPod Shuffle raffle. It was so cool to see the whole venue area filled with red ClearView balloons!

There were multiple God-victories to be excited about yesterday:

We accomplished our objective. Stated simply, we wanted to begin to seed ClearView in the minds of the people of New Albany and associate that image with a smile. One man even commented to me, after a great conversation, that "kindness will go a long way." Pray with us that a logo on a balloon, banner, or t-shirt will stick in people's minds and that when they see further advertising in future months, they might think, "Hey...I want to check that out...those people were great..."

God provided plenty of help. I was so thankful for our team. Each person that has been regularly attending our weekly gatherings were there with their families and all worked the whole 5-6 hours of the event. In addition to that, a couple I married earlier in the year helped for a few hours and two families from our ABF at Northwest Chapel drove over a half hour each way to work several hours painting faces and blowing up balloons. I was very concerned when we jumped into this opportunity (less than two weeks ago) that staffing our booth would be tough. But, thanks be to God, our team and friends came through BIG.

We were able to further conversations with several existing contacts, and have some good conversations with 4 or 5 families that might be interested in checking out what we're about. Pray that some team members would develop out of the conversations we had at Oktoberfest.

The most exciting thing for me was to observe our team and friends working cohesively, with great excitement for our mission. Several remarked how exciting it was to be out where people are, serving with love, and working together to make a difference for Jesus. I think serving at Oktoberfest expanded the missional horizons of our team...and we all want there to be much more community involvement and contact making to come as we build the history of ClearView together.

Thanks, God! And, thank you for praying with us for Kingdom impact to come from Oktoberfest.

Pray For 2008 Funds

Church Planting, for us, is all about trying new things in faith. Fundraising is one of those new areas. By all indications, it looks like we need to raise about $75,000 for 2008. This includes part of our salary and all of our ministry expenses for next year. I've begun praying, thinking, and seeking council on a multi-faced strategy to seek to secure needed resources. We'll approach organizations, churches, and individuals in coming months, share the vision God has given us, and ask for financial assistance. To God's glory... I have great faith in God's provision. One thing we felt God strongly saying to us at the outset of this faith journey was that He would provide the resources...we simply had to obey.

So... please pray with me... for wisdom to develop a sound strategy...boldness to ask...and that God would lead us to funds He has already appointed for His vision to be accomplished in northeastern Franklin County. Specifically, please:

• Praise God for a meeting with a godly man today. This person has been a great encouragement, prays and fasts for our ministry, and has a heart for church planting. He and his wife also made a $1,000 gift to our ministry today. Thus... the need for next year is $74,000! :)
  
• Pray that God would lead us to churches that would partner with us... I'm beginning to send letters to churches this week.
  
• Pray that God would allow us to achieve "Project Status" with Grace Brethren North American Missions. This would provide help in resource development and publications for financial solicitation. I'm sending in an application and project overview to request this support in the next few days.
  

Spiritual Movement...

I've been asking God for opportunities to share my faith. I've seen God answer this prayer in diverse ways in the last week or so...

• A week ago I followed up on a contact from a fellow Columbus GBC pastor. I called (let's call him...) Tim and we talked a bit. Long story short, he shared that he's struggling in many areas of his life. I drove about 15 minutes to pick him up and bring him back to our Thursday gathering. I think he enjoyed himself and I'm so pleased with our group/team and how they welcome new people. They really understand what it means to accept new...and even different... people. On the way home, we talked through the elements of the Gospel. Tim believes in Jesus...but also a lot of other things that even contradict John 14:6. A typical post-modern, 25 year old, Tim kind of has a synchretistic view of theology. We had a great discussion and I was thankful to be able to affirm him as a person while challenging his other-than-biblical worldview. Hopefully we'll see Tim again.
  
• A few nights ago a neighbor walked over. I've intiated conversations with (let's call him) Joe on numerous occasions. I've found him cautiously friendly but a little distant. He came over and we talked about our patio and some work related stuff. Out of the blue (to me... not to God!) he said something to the effect of, "I've been talking with a friend at work about God. He's giving me some passages to read from the Bible and I've really been making some changes in my life." As I picked myself off the floor...God gave me the opportunity to really celebrate God's work in Joe's life. We talked about the best Bible translation to pick up and I offered to talk any time. I'm going to try and follow up with Joe. Would you pray with me that God would open a door for continued relationship and confirmation of belief in Jesus?
  
• Silas and I were shopping for a raffle prize for our free raffle at the Oktoberfest (we landed on an iPod Shuffle). We're hoping to get hundreds of contacts/addresses to expand our mailing list. In the Best Buy parking lot was a "vegetable-oil powered bus" inhabited by some very friendly, young envrionmentalists that are criss-crossing the country. My little evangelist wanted to see the bus...so we want over and started a conversation. They showed us the bus and we had a pleasant conversation. After exchanging business cards, I offered to take them home and allow them to use our shower. I know this sounds foolish in our (sometimes) overly skeptical society...but I really think the Holy Spirit told me to offer hospitality. They had an appointment they needed to get to...so I couldn't carry on the conversation. As I thought back on this, I was thankful God pushed me to just be friendly and kind. I'm sure these fine young people and I would disagree on much politically...but I sure hope they saw me as a pastor who was kind and a positive representation of Jesus. Who knows...maybe they'll be back in town someday and we can have them over.
  

Please pray with me that God continues to teach me how to share His love and grace wisely and boldly. With all my heart I want to used of God to lead people Jesus and help others lead people to Jesus.

Pray for ClearView Impact at Oktoberfest

I'm so excited about tomorrow! This will be one of our first community-wide servant-evangelism type outreaches. Community Event planners are anticipating 3-4,000 people from the area will participate in this event. We're ready! God has provided almost 20 people to staff our booth (from our team and Northwest Chapel), we've purchased 1,000 balloons with new ClearView logo and website, arranged for free face painting, purchased free hand sanitizer for people to use, purchased a beautiful 3x8 banner complete with logo and website, printed 1,000 invite cards (to our weekly gatherings) to hand out, and most importantly...our team has prayed that God will use our smiles and acts of kindness as a positive testimony of Jesus and a very beginning recognition of a new church in town. (Was that the longest sentence ever!).

Please pray with us... that we'll meet hundreds of people, that God would bring people to us that are spiritually sensitive (maybe even willing to check out a new church), and that God would cement a hunger and thirst in the hearts of our team members for loving people to a clear view of Jesus and His mission.