Prayer/JourneyNote

June 24, 2010 — Leave a comment

The cat is out of the bag.

While I’m not sure just where that expression came from (or why we take it to mean a secret is not-so-secret anymore), we have some news to share.

At our District Conference last monday, our District Superintendent shared The Bridge’s plan to daughter a new church in June of next year. Sarah and I will be the lead planters in what we’re affectionately, for now, calling ‘Bridge 2.0’ and are excited about that next move. This is definitely a big step, but it’s part of an even bigger dream of developing an urban church planting and training center from which church planting teams are prepared and sent throughout the region, nation, and globe. It’s an impossible vision that will take the activity of God’s own Spirit to accomplish–and that excites us to no end!

For now, we ask you to pray for us as we identify the people and place where the next church will be. We have some ideas, but we need to be doubly sure we are focused on where God is already moving rather than just choosing something based on selfish desire.

In the meantime, we’re fully engaged with The Bridge and are ramping up to a busy summer ministry season. Please keep the following dates in mind as you pray for us and the ministry of The Bridge:

Sunday, June 27: Sharing at First Wesleyan in Shippensburg, PA
July 7-July 11: Youth volleyball clinic with the women’s volleyball team from Oklahoma Wesleyan University

Our largest event of the summer will be a free Family Fun Day at a local park on Saturday, August 28th; already churches and groups are signing up to take part in helping us offer a meaningful, engaging and totally free event that allows us to serve our community and get to know our neighbors as well as (hopefully) building momentum for our first preview service in September.

Thank you for taking this journey with us and praying for us.

We’re honored to have you in our corner.
Jeremiah, Sarah, and Jubilee

In JourneyNotes church, church planting, JourneyNotes, personal, Pittsburgh, The Bridge

Seven.

June 21, 2010 — 2 Comments

In the June 7^th Forbes Magazine, Rich Karlgaard noted some of the shared characteristics those companies which seem to have grown stronger and better despite the Great Recession. His article is good and well worth the read, but I’m taking those ‘seven secrets’ and applying them to how we’re thinking at The Bridge:

Design.
I’m not a designer, I’m not even artistic. But it doesn’t take too much to see bad design–in fact, in the past, I think a lot of our effort was just avoiding bad design. Our design is getting better… thanks to GotPrint, t-shirt producers, and Cloversites, I don’t have to be an incredible designer to have good design. We could be better, and we’re growing, but I’m glad we’re not settling for “free” when an investment in design speaks volumes about us. We’re moving to a place where we’re pursuing beautiful design rather than just running away from bad design. I’m excited about that.

Speed.
In general, things are moving much faster than we thought they would… and this is building serious momentum–we’re planning to launch and daughter faster than we thought could happen. We can’t take credit for this, but it’s happening. We also are focusing on making sure we follow up fast and do what we said we would when we said we would.

Cost.
We’re working hard to show that when someone invests in The Bridge, we’re being wise in how we expend limited resources. ‘Cost’ for us has less to do with what a customer gets from us, but how we manage the results we demonstrate to our investors. In our community, it also means ‘free’ doesn’t suck. We’re trying to do as much as we can at no cost to the people we’re ministering to… but we’re trying to do it as though they paid a premium to be there.

Service.
When it comes to our investor churches, we genuinely believe they are getting something by partnering with us, whether it’s people who participate and take a renewed passion back, or a sense of legacy, there are many benefits to being part of what God is doing through The Bridge in Pittsburgh. But when it comes to serving our community, after just a couple of events The Bridge is already ‘the church that gave the free car wash–that’s great!’ We’re finding fun ways to show our community we care, we want to know our neighbors, and that God really loves them.

Courtesy of 'altemark' on Flickr

Communication outside.
Right now, this has to do mostly with face-to-face contact. Rick, especially, has been knocking on doors and being ‘the face’ of The Bridge. This will only go so far, and we’re analyzing where to best put some communications dollars: radio? adsense? street corner with a sandwich board? As we learn our community more and more, we’ll discover the best ways to communicate outside.

Communication inside.
We could do a better job at keeping launch team members on the same page, but we’re learning how to make sure communication among senior leadership is open. Thanks to GoogleDocs, Calendar sharing, and Facebook, we’re growing in our communication and how we collaborate; we’re not ‘there’ yet… but I think we’re well on our way.

Purpose.
We’re here to help people connect with Jesus and see them grow in His likeness. More than that, we’re here to keep doing that by planting churches that plant churches to reach those far from God. The Bridge exists to love, learn, and live Jesus Christ in our context at whatever cost. We hope we have the purpose thing down… now it’s a matter of staying on mission when things, good and bad, tempt us to drift.

Why not run down the list yourself and give your church/organization a quick checkup?

In Leadership church, church planting, Leadership, Scripture, The Bridge

Myth: There is Such a Thing as A “Typical” Church Planter

May 3, 2010 — Leave a comment

I have never met a ‘typical’ church planter.

Sure, assessment helps determine whether someone has a demonstrable history of the kind of gifting and passion needed to help find success in a planting endeavor, but beyond certain gifts, history, and focus, it seems there’s no real ‘church planter’ mold.

In most of the circles I engage, it seems someone who is an ‘ideal fit’ for church planting is a young, good looking, tech-savvy, trendy, incredibly oratorically gifted, overwhelmingly catalytic guy. But the real, flesh-and-bone church planters I know are different. They are women. They are men. They are younger. They are older. They are passionate.

But they aren’t the people you would probably chase down to start a new church.

Maybe I’m looking at this too much through my own eyes–when I think of me being involved in the church planting adventure, I see all the reasons I shouldn’t be here: I am too broken, too fat, too geeky, too awkward to be a church planter.

But, so far, those things haven’t really disqualified me.

In fact, I think God can use me to engage other broken, fat, geeky, awkward people in a way a ‘typical’ church planter may not.

I guess what I’m trying to say is this: Don’t let what you think you need keep you from pursuing a ministry God might have for you. He has a Great Adventure for you, if only you’ll jump in with both feet and let him use you…whoever/however you are.

In church planting church planting, Encouragement, personal

Myths

April 2, 2010 — Leave a comment

You did it today. So did I. At least once. Probably without realizing it, we made an assumption about someone’s job–how easy or hard or menial or vital that job was; how untrained or overworked or under-appreciated or uncaring the person at the tollbooth, behind the counter, at the other end of the phone conversation, or in the corner office–having never really experienced it for ourselves.

I know there are ‘myths’ about every career, position, ministry, and activity; there are stereotypes and misinformed assumptions about what life there is like. In the past few months, I’ve discovered some of my own misled assumptions and myths about church planting/church planters, and a few that other people have about those of us on this side of the church planting adventure. So, the next few posts will have the common thread of debunking “church planting myths.”

In church planting church, church planting, Leadership, Pittsburgh

Whatchamacallit…

March 31, 2010 — Leave a comment

courtesy of stock.xchng

As we have announced the name for the Pittsburgh Church Plant, The Bridge, reactions have been interesting to gauge. Most people a generation before mine are thrilled with the name. Most people in my own generation seem to like it, but don’t have a particularly deep affinity for it. People in the generation after mine could care less about the name and what to see something done before they develop any connection at all. That really doesn’t have much to do with anything, but I thought I’d throw it out there as food for thought.

Regardless, in my last post, told you I would share the highly scientific, market research-intensive, professional process we used for landing on a name. I’m not sure how ‘real’ church planters do it, but this was our process:

Talking.
Praying.
Talking.
Killing bad ideas.
Praying.
Discussing names with people.
Killing bad ideas that we thought were good ideas.
Starting over.
Praying.
Talking.
Dealing with pressure about the need for a name from different sources.
Praying and talking.
Sensing ‘this is it’ from the Holy Spirit, other people, and launch team members.
Announcing a name.
Getting an EIN and checking account.
Continuously sharing the name and why it’s significant.

In church, church planting church, church planting, Leadership, The Bridge

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