A Special Day For A Dad

I felt God gave me an idea. For lack of a better title, I've dubbed the fruition of this idea as "Super Saturdays". The vision is to keep our contact making, team building, and desire to love people to a clear view of Jesus moving forward by inviting our team (and everyone we know) to join us in some type of a ministry in the community on Saturday mornings (at least one time per month). Our first Super Saturday was February 23rd (this past weekend). Since no one else could make it and Trish was a busy keeping Silas busy... Seth and I made the most of our slotted ministry time.

Together, we assembled about 60 "Beat the Winter Blahs" packets (that included some ClearView info., 2 packets of hot chocolate, and 2 "fireballs"). Since I needed to tote Seth (and all that he entails- drink, Goldfish, some toys) AND a box of handouts, we decided to pack up Seth's wagon and get to as many doors in our neighborhood as we could. This would also be an opportunity to touch base with neighbors we haven't seen since warmer weather and meet some new ones.

We had a great time. God gave us some good conversations with people and our packets put some smiles on people's faces. Maybe there were even some good seeds planted. Only the Holy Spirit knows. But, what I do know was great was my time with Seth. I was amazed at his willingness to help me assemble and his patience as we endured the cold and trudged through icy sidewalks. My heart was warmed as we discussed why we were doing what we were doing (showing love to people in Jesus' name) and why we were working to start a church. Seth even said that he wants to plant a church some day and do some of the same things that we're doing now.

It was then that I realized it didn't matter how many people we met or how many great conversations we had or how many people did (or didn't) show up to help us... what mattered was my five year old gaining a heart for sharing the love and hope of Jesus with people. I don't know what God has in store for the Wirts or ClearView...but if our boy learns to love Jesus and people through this experience of church planting...it's worth it. I'm so thankful to the Lord for this experience and the opportunity we have to work together as a family to accomplish the calling God has placed on our lives. Praise God!

Things To Pray For This Week

God continues to open doors! I am truly amazed at the opportunities we have to impact thousands of lives... just in the next few weeks. A quick run down of our schedule includes:

• last Saturday's Super Saturday where Seth and I (more on this later) gave out "Beat The Winter Blahs..." packets in our neighborhood
• 30 students from Powell Grace Church coming this Saturday (3/1) to help us pass out more "Beat The Blahs" packets
• offering free Caribou coffee to voters at Gahanna's YMCA on "Super Tuesday" (March 4)
• offering free hot chocolate to a projected 4,000 people at New Albany's Easter Egg hunt on March 22
• assisting the YMCA with its "Healthy Kids Day" on April 12
• moving our weekly gathering from Thursdays to Sundays (beginning March 9)
  

I was excited about a meeting I had yesterday with a key staff person at the YMCA. Malik and I discussed the possibility of ClearView serving free snow cones to people at their outdoor pool each Saturday this summer. We've also locked in serving coffee on Nov.8 election day.

I'm excited about these opportunities because they put us in front of people. As I think about Jesus... one tool He used to draw crowds was His miraculous healing. I constantly ask myself, "How can we draw crowds..." I believe these opportunities are God's answer. They put us where people are already gathered. And, by offering simple blessings... I'm praying we can find the teammates we need and that God will open doors for deepening relationships and spiritual conversations with people Jesus loves that don't yet know him.

In this vein, please pray with me this week that:

• God will lead us to receptive people when we go out into the community this Saturday, March 1 with Powell GBC's youth group. Praise God for these young people coming to help us!
• God will appoint conversations and possibilities for teammates as we serve coffee on March 4.
• God will supply resources needed to figure out how to serve hot chocolate to 4,000 people. Anyone want to help?
• God will give us several more families in March.
• God will bring new people to our Sunday a.m. gatherings (beginning March 9)

Thanks!

We're getting ready!

Each day that passes means we're one day closer to meeting our little girl (Trish is due around April 4)! Preparations are in full swing. We've been busy preparing her room (our first pink one!), washing car seats and baby swings (etc.!), and are ready for no sleep (just kidding!). We're pretty sure we've arrived at a name..."Sara" as you can see on the wall. To God's glory, Trish had a doctor's appointment yesterday and all seemed to be well. Reality set in last evening when we toured one of the hospitals where Trish could deliver. It was nice to have two positive birth experiences under our belts.

Also, this past Sunday, the small group we've been attending at Northwest Chapel threw us a "sprinkle". What a blessing to enjoy the company of these fine brothers and sisters. They have been gracious in accepting us into their class and lives. Several of them have served in ministry with us and many are planning on joining us for a gathering or two as we begin meeting on Sunday's soon. Their friendship and support have been a great blessing to us. Thanks, Marriage Builders!

Thanks for continuing to pray for Trish in the last few weeks of her pregnancy. We believe God has special things in store.

Some Exciting Developments

This week, we're thankful to God for the following:

• Franklin Church, a United Brethren in Christ church in New Albany, invited us to share a 10-minute mission's moment in their worship service this past Sunday. What a joy and privilege to share about what God has called us to and is doing with this fine group of believers from our own community. Several signed up to pray with us and the pastor and I are building a good rapport. I'm thankful for Pastor Mike and his overtures of friendship and willingness to allow us to share in a service...an opportunity that, I know from experience, doesn't come often from nearby churches.
• Super Tuesday in OH (March 4) will be a super Tuesday for ClearView. God has once again opened the door for us to serve FREE Caribou Coffee to primary voters at Gahanna's YMCA. My friend Malik, the Membership Services Director at our Y, says he wants to make the free coffee "a tradition." So... we'll be there... hoping to touch hundreds of lives with a free cup of good coffee in Jesus' name.
• Yesterday, God opened the door for a meeting with a gentleman from New Albany that I have been trying to schedule for weeks. Ron is the lead guy on New Albany's Events Board which is a team of people that plan a handful of community events throughout the year that draw thousands of people to each gathering. Our meeting went very well, and I left with an invitation to join the events board and information on how ClearView could volunteer and or sponsor a vendor booth at these events. This is an amazing open door to get on the "inside" of the community, have influence with influential people, find opportunities for service in Jesus' name, and touch thousands of lives by "being the church where people are already gathered" in these community events. I praise God for Ron's graciousness to me and for this HUGE open door.
  
• I've been praying about and looking for an opportunity to make an impact around the Easter season. One of the items in my conversation with Ron was the answer. The short version of the story is that ClearView has the opportunity to serve coffee and/or hot chocolate at New Albany's Easter Egg Hunt on March 22. Ron expects around 4,000 people at this event! So, as long as we can figure out how to provide the drinks for that many people... we're in. Praise God!

Please pray with me that God uses these open doors to help us find teammates and more importantly, love people to a clear view of Jesus and His mission.

What's God Up To?

We had an interesting gathering tonight. One of the couples that has been dedicated to our work and been wonderful and faithful friends to the Wirts communicated with our team that they sense God leading them to conclude their time with ClearView. I had been prepared for this discussion by a phone conversation with the husband earlier in the day...so I'm thankful that God allowed some time for Trish and I to process. Their reasoning for moving on was that they sensed God leading them to continue in some meaningful ministry opportunities at another church.

Tonight we listened to this couple share their hearts and communicated back that we love them, will miss them, and that we're thankful for their time with us. They were very faithful over the last 9 months in a time where we've struggled to grow. They have filled valuable roles in ministry experiences, gatherings, and by being encouragers. We're thankful for them.

Yet, obviously, this is a bit of a set-back for us. One of our major obstacles right now is finding the bodies to yield a sense of momentum that will propel us toward weekend gatherings, renting a space for public worship, and ultimately launching a new church. We're not really in a position to lose people right now. So, what is God up to?

I can't get a way from the hopeful feeling in my heart. I believe God for something special this year. I'm not sure how what seems to be a set-back to me fits in... but it must be part of God's perfect plan. He certainly is not doing this how I would have scripted...or even hoped... but I know He is doing something. And, I know this is for the best...even if it seems like an obstacle.

Would you pray with us that God would replace this couple with numerous others? Would you pray with us for wisdom in how to proceed and for me in how to lead with vision and hope? Would you pray with us that God would protect other team members from discouragement? What's God up to? I don't know. But, I do have peace that it's the perfect plan...

"I am not a Christian anymore..."

I've been building a relationship with two parents during Seth's swimming lessons on Tuesday night. Last night there was significant movement in our conversation. Joan knows I am a pastor. She is an English professor at a local university. We got talking about writing and how that translates into preaching. She has had some "church" experience in the past...but commented that she "is not a Christian anymore because I have a problem with the basics." Of course, right then, and I'm not kidding... the kids were done and the conversation was halted due to wet, shivering kids that needed towels.

In the same conversation, another parent, Joe communicated that he is, in his words, a "non-practicing Catholic." His wife grew up Baptist and sometimes attends weekend services at a local (great) mega-church.

I'm ashamed to admit that in the hustle and bustle and results-driven pressure of church planting that sometimes I forget our motivation for wanting to begin a new church. It was to fulfill Acts 20:24...that our lives are "worth nothing unless (we) use (them) for doing the work assigned to (us) by the Lord Jesus- the work of telling others the Good News about God's wonderful kindness and love." God has been prompting me lately to not forget...ever...the reason for our efforts. We are first and foremost to be missionaries. Whether its in our own personal relationships or through the church that we hope to build... the purpose is to reach people for Christ. That's it. That's the only rationale. Whatever we do, whatever efforts we make to recruit teammates or find the dollars to do what we're called to...it must all be pointed towards loving the Joe's and Joan's of the world to a clear view of Jesus and His mission.

Please pray with me for Joe and Joan...pray that hundreds would ultimately won to Christ through ClearView.

A Refreshing Weekend

God was good to us this past weekend in the opportunities He gave us to spend time with friends from northeast OH. A kind friend of Trish's through a great shower for her and baby #3 on Saturday. Trish enjoyed seeing old friends from our days at WRGBC (in Macedonia, OH) and got a lot of pink to help transition our baby clothes wardrobe from boy stuff to frilly, cute girl stuff.

Then, on Sunday, our family trekked back to the blustery Cleveland area and enjoyed being back at WRGBC for a worship service. It was so great to see many friendly and familiar faces. We were reminded how many people are praying for us. It was special and touching to our hearts to be received so warmly after being away for a year. I was reminded how different it is to be in a familiar, warm environment. Most of our days are filled with initiating relationships with people we don't know where we receive a lukewarm reception. It was like a breath of fresh air to savor established friendships and relationships again.

I love what we are doing and wouldn't trade this opportunity for any other set of circumstances. Tasting the sweetness of genuine fellowship with loved brothers and sisters hastens my desire to establish those types of relationships in our new home town. May God help us and may our community be impacted by the loving relationships to come. Praise God for a great weekend and thanks for praying with us!

Young Adults Helping ClearView

I was excited about a lunch get together yesterday with two local leaders of young adult movements in greater Columbus. I had the good fortune of reconnecting with friends John Ward (Driven steering team leader) and Jonathan Wiley (Pastor of Young Adults at GBC of Columbus and leader of Front Porch). One of the topics in our discussion was the possibility of several different groups of 20 somethings helping ClearView impact northeastern Franklin County.

One exciting possibility is that Driven has an interest in sending 50-75 people over to our neck of the woods for hands-on ministry experience as a component to their June 26-28 conference. How exciting! Also, J. Wiley asked me to look at some dates where we could use help with some other projects/community events and get back to him for the possibility of bringing Front Porch teams over to assist.

Praise God- He is mobilizing people to help accomplish the vision of showering our community with Jesus' love in 2008!

Contacts...Contacts...Contacts...

I should have written about this much sooner... but the last few weeks and months have afforded us some rich opportunities to sow deeper into the lives of people we've been building relationships with.

• Seth turned five on January 7th. We celebrated his birthday with about 12 or 13 families at an indoor play place in our community. Many of the kids and parents present were from Seth's pre-school class or soccer team. Seth had a great time and Mom and Dad were able to deepen relationships with many parents.
• The day before Seth's party, Seth was invited to a party for one of his classmates. This afforded Dad the opportunity to stand around and connect with other parents while the party continued. These two opportunities, coupled with the article about ClearView that ran in the paper the week before, gave us great opportunities to share about our work and what we moved to the community to accomplish.
  
• I've had numerous opportunities to meet other parents during Seth's latest round of swimming lessons at the YMCA. It has been exciting to sit by the pool for a half hour with these other parents and have a natural avenue to start conversations with captive adults. In one instance, I met a friendly lady who attends another Grace Brethren Church in Columbus, lives in New Albany, and was very excited to hear about our ministry. This family is willing to talk with us about the possibility of hosting a Kids Club in their neighborhood this summer. I've been praying for "people of peace" in local neighborhoods that would allow us to work out of their yard to reach families with a one or three day program for kids and families (similar, but smaller in scale, to the Backyard Bible Club we ran last summer). When I told Melanie what we are doing, her comment was something like, "This area really needs a good, Bible-teaching church." I asked her if she runs into many people in her neighborhood that go to church and she answered, "I don't know of one of my neighbors that is connected in a local church." I left this conversation confirmed in the need for a new church here and our calling to accomplish that. Yeah, God!

God is working and leading us to pre-ordained conversations...working out His perfect plan to see this new, disciple-making, church launched in our community. Thanks for praying!

Exciting Movement...

Sorry it has been soooo long between posts. We've been busy prepping for a busy ministry year and preparing our home for baby #3! God is good and life has a definite air of excitement as we anticipate what God has in store for our family and ministry in 2008.

Some GREAT things to report (please give a big shout-out to God):

• Several weeks ago I was invited to share about our ministry with an adult ABF (Sunday School class) at the Grace Brethren Church of Columbus (Polaris area). In essence, this is our grandmother church (GBC of Columbus helped begin Northwest Chapel decades ago AND Trish spent some of her most formative years in their youth ministry) and we have been discussing avenues for partnership with them over the last few months. So, we were very thankful for this opportunity to share with this fine group of Christ-followers. Thankfully, the group responded well to our work with inquiries about how to help in our work and pray. One key prayer item...As God would have it, at least 5 families present in this class live within a few miles of us! Please pray that God would build our team...perhaps some of these people or others they might refer us to might be part of God's provision.

• That same Sunday night, our family shared about our ministry with Northwest Chapel's Awana children. This was a FUN night and an exciting opportunity to talk with children about what a missionary is and they fact that we need many missionaries right here in Columbus. We're glad to be on the Northwest Chapel team and so thankful for Jan Bowman and the Awana staff. They have recruited many children and families to pray for us.

• God has provided VERY GOOD interaction with the YMCA of Gahanna staff. Last week I had a great meeting with the Executive Director there, Chris Angelatta. Chris has communicated that there is an open door for ClearView to rent space from the YMCA on Sunday mornings and even that the YMCA desires to colloborate with ClearView on projects to love people in practical ways. What an amazing blessing from God. The YMCA has 12,000 members (that is not a typographical error!) and would help us get the word out about ClearView to their membership. Wow! Needless to say, I left this meeting stunned and amazed by what God is doing. Please thank God for Chris, the YMCA, and pray that God would bring fruit from our partnership.

• We've had very positive reaction to our initial efforts to invite teams to come to the area to help us with ministry projects this year. We're in discussions with 5 or 6 groups from numerous churches about how we could partner together on prayer walks, canvassing efforts, or servant evangelism projects. If you or a group you're a part of our interested in a ministry trip to the New Albany area, please let me know (andy@clearviewgrace.com). Please pray that we can secure many groups to fill up our schedule with hundreds of people that can help us touch thousands of people with Jesus' love in 2008.

Thanks for praying!