Category Archives: Church planting

Church planting

Prayer


Bev and I went to see the Merry Wives of Windsor at Applegate Park on Saturday. We sat in our lawn chairs and watched the wonderful free performance.

After the play we got to visit with several friends, including some new friends we’ve just made. That conversation got my attention.

The person I was talking to said he and his wife had been praying very specifically for God to use the Playhouse for His kingdom. Which brings me to my point.

I do not generally think in terms of who else might be praying similar prayers as I am. I thought Bev and I were in Merced because WE prayed about it. My friend knocked that idea out of the ballpark.

He’s not the first person that told me they were praying similarly. And I am humbled by that thought. A concert of prayer for Merced going on, and ours was only a small sliver of it.

What a God we serve!

Church planting

Trip to Auburn

This past weekend was busy beyond belief because we had two major events occurring Saturday and Sunday.

The first event was the Playhouse Merced Gala which was scheduled for Saturday evening. It was held at the Boys and Girls Club.

On Friday night we got possession of the Boys and Girls Club and could start unloading supplies for the Saturday evening event. We set up over 40 tables with chairs. Decorations were put up, and the room was basically ready for Saturday by the time we left.

On Saturday the staff, some board members, and a few other people put the finishing touches on the room. Meanwhile, Bev and I attended the performance of Merry Wives of Windsor at Applegate Park.

I had to be at the Boys and Girls Club at 5 PM on Saturday, and I didn’t get away from the event until after 10:00 PM. Normally that would have been just fine. But…

Sunday we had to get up at 4:00 AM to drive to Auburn, California where I spoke at their two morning services. New Life Christian Church is going to be giving us financial support beginning in January of 2007. This will continue for two years.

New Life Auburn is a wonderful family of Christians that warmly welcomed us and also gave us a “baby shower.” We brought home several wrapped gifts which included a coffee carafe, a paper cutter, reams of printer paper, markers, and other office supplies.

Our launch team helped open the gifts, and they seemed to be quite impressed that a church such as New Life wanted to be a partner in our church plant here in Merced.

I didn’t go to the gym this morning. The bed felt too good.

Church planting, LifeSpring Church, Missional

Ordinary Attempts

Last week I got an invitation to moderate the Ordinary Attempts blog at Off-the-Map.org. After I got the guidelines, I decided to think about it for a few days. This morning I accepted.

I really like the Off the Map folks. They are keenly evangelistic, but not in the usual way. Jim Henderson, the father of OtM, tells people that he’s trying to teach evangelicals to not be weird. I think that is a good description.

By weird he means the outrageous things that we sometimes do in the name of evangelism–things that totally turn off the unchurched. Ordinary Attempts are the commonsense, respectful, and caring acts done for another person, just because.

The interesting thing is that we now live in a time that is perfectly suited for OA’s. The knock-on-your-door, programmatic approach to evangelism simply doesn’t work for most folks.

OA’s require patience, but they produce relationships that are deep, genuine, and potentially the context for future discussions about Jesus.

If you want to read over my shoulder go to Ordinary Attempts and watch the conversation that goes on there.