Making Plans

On December 7th Pastor Pink and I will be flying to California to start laying some very important ground work for the church plant. We have in mind to meet with individuals interested in being part of a new church, meet with some church leaders in the area, look at potential meeting places, meet with a realtor, etc...

At times my head is swimming with all of the details that go into this church plant. There are numerous logistical issues, details about theology & philosophy of ministry, connections with people that need to be made, launch plan strategies, constitutions & bylaws to be written, and on and on. After I get done hyperventilating, I remember that I just need to take this one day at a time, having the faith that God will guide our steps along the way.

So many of the folks at The Branches @ Farmland have been very supportive and encouraging, and that has meant a lot to my family. Could I ask you to quickly say a prayer for this venture that God has laid on our hearts? Pray that God would prepare the "spiritual soil" of Escondido, CA. as we plant a church that leads people to Jesus Christ. Please pray that we find favor as we meet with individuals to seek financial and prayer support. Please pray that all the families that "put their hand to the plow" would not look back and that lives will be forever changed.

Thank you for praying.

Making Plans

On December 7th Pastor Pink and I will be flying to California to start laying some very important ground work for the church plant. We have in mind to meet with individuals interested in being part of a new church, meet with some church leaders in the area, look at potential meeting places, meet with a realtor, etc...

At times my head is swimming with all of the details that go into this church plant. There are numerous logistical issues, details about theology & philosophy of ministry, connections with people that need to be made, launch plan strategies, constitutions & bylaws to be written, and on and on. After I get done hyperventilating, I remember that I just need to take this one day at a time, having the faith that God will guide our steps along the way.

So many of the folks at The Branches @ Farmland have been very supportive and encouraging, and that has meant a lot to my family. Could I ask you to quickly say a prayer for this venture that God has laid on our hearts? Pray that God would prepare the "spiritual soil" of Escondido, CA. as we plant a church that leads people to Jesus Christ. Please pray that we find favor as we meet with individuals to seek financial and prayer support. Please pray that all the families that "put their hand to the plow" would not look back and that lives will be forever changed.

Thank you for praying.

You Don't Need This

You probably wouldn't have any need for this - so I'm posting this here for me. You can read it if you want.

From Perry Noble's blog...

"I remember the first time I read something negative about me on the internet. It literally destroyed me…seriously, it was like someone took a knife and jabbed it into my soul!!! I read it about four or five times…and for the next several days I hyper focused on that particular website and had this thought, “If this person and I could only meet and chat I think I could change his mind.”

It didn’t take long for me to realize that no matter what I did…no matter how many conversations I had…no matter how many olive branches I extended…that there were going to be people who hated me, slandered me and despised me…and there was literally nothing I could do about it.

Church leader…you CANNOT control what people think about you…and you can’t worry about it either. Jesus had a group of people who HATED Him and followed Him everywhere He went, pointing out His “faults,” yet He stayed true to the VISION His Father placed inside of Him and didn’t engage in trying to change their minds about Him.

If you want to silence your critics then you must…

Keep your eyes on Jesus (Craig Groeschel says that becoming obsessed with what people think about me is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about me.) Let HIM, not “them” define you!
Live a life of integrity!! (I Peter 2:15)
The rest is in God’s hands!!! You cannot shape the opinions of others…you can only be true to who God called you to be!!!"

HT: Perry Noble

You Don't Need This

You probably wouldn't have any need for this - so I'm posting this here for me. You can read it if you want.

From Perry Noble's blog...

"I remember the first time I read something negative about me on the internet. It literally destroyed me…seriously, it was like someone took a knife and jabbed it into my soul!!! I read it about four or five times…and for the next several days I hyper focused on that particular website and had this thought, “If this person and I could only meet and chat I think I could change his mind.”

It didn’t take long for me to realize that no matter what I did…no matter how many conversations I had…no matter how many olive branches I extended…that there were going to be people who hated me, slandered me and despised me…and there was literally nothing I could do about it.

Church leader…you CANNOT control what people think about you…and you can’t worry about it either. Jesus had a group of people who HATED Him and followed Him everywhere He went, pointing out His “faults,” yet He stayed true to the VISION His Father placed inside of Him and didn’t engage in trying to change their minds about Him.

If you want to silence your critics then you must…

Keep your eyes on Jesus (Craig Groeschel says that becoming obsessed with what people think about me is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about me.) Let HIM, not “them” define you!
Live a life of integrity!! (I Peter 2:15)
The rest is in God’s hands!!! You cannot shape the opinions of others…you can only be true to who God called you to be!!!"

HT: Perry Noble

Church Planting

I thought I'd try to answer some questions that folks might have about the future plans we have for church planting.

Why Escondido? We are confident that God has called us to California and to Escondido in particular. James a.k.a Pink is from Escondido and has a number of connections in the area. Many of them have no church home of their own and some are very far from God. Tammy and I have had specific confirmation that this is the right move and I would love to share that story one on one if you would care to ask me in person. Escondido is a great city and God has laid a burden on our hearts to be a part of that community and to love on people there.

Are you planting a Friends church? No.

What will the church be about? The Branches at Escondido will have the same kind of mission as The Branches at Farmland; seeing lives changed through faith in Jesus Christ. We want people to COME as they are - HEAR the word of God - DO what the word says - and TELL others how awesome He is.

When? I'm not sure. James and Tonya would like to wait until their kids are out of school. Tammy and I need to sell our home, and we want to be able to move out around the same time as the Pinkerton's.

If you have other questions that I didn't address, please leave a comment or catch me in person. We would appreciate your prayers that God would direct our steps and the steps of The Branches at Farmland Friends Church as we navigate the coming days so that we will see lives changed for the glory of God.

Church Planting

I thought I'd try to answer some questions that folks might have about the future plans we have for church planting.

Why Escondido? We are confident that God has called us to California and to Escondido in particular. James a.k.a Pink is from Escondido and has a number of connections in the area. Many of them have no church home of their own and some are very far from God. Tammy and I have had specific confirmation that this is the right move and I would love to share that story one on one if you would care to ask me in person. Escondido is a great city and God has laid a burden on our hearts to be a part of that community and to love on people there.

Are you planting a Friends church? No.

What will the church be about? The Branches at Escondido will have the same kind of mission as The Branches at Farmland; seeing lives changed through faith in Jesus Christ. We want people to COME as they are - HEAR the word of God - DO what the word says - and TELL others how awesome He is.

When? I'm not sure. James and Tonya would like to wait until their kids are out of school. Tammy and I need to sell our home, and we want to be able to move out around the same time as the Pinkerton's.

If you have other questions that I didn't address, please leave a comment or catch me in person. We would appreciate your prayers that God would direct our steps and the steps of The Branches at Farmland Friends Church as we navigate the coming days so that we will see lives changed for the glory of God.

Where's Waldo

I'm not quite sure but I think I spot Pink's hoodie around the 33 second mark?

Catalyst West 2009 | Highlight Video from Catalyst on Vimeo.

Where's Waldo

I'm not quite sure but I think I spot Pink's hoodie around the 33 second mark?

Catalyst West 2009 | Highlight Video from Catalyst on Vimeo.

Big News

This morning at church I let the cat out of the bag and shared what I believe God is calling me to do. God is leading myself and James Pinkerton (a.k.a Pink) to Escondido, California to plant The Branches. I wish I could give you a lot of details about when, how, etc., but I can not. All I know is that God has laid it on our hearts to start a new church out West. Currently we are learning as much as we can about church planting, taking assessments, reading books, making contacts, praying, and planning.

After making the announcement at both of our services today we received some great encouragement from a number of people, for which I am extremely grateful for. What the future relationship looks like between The Branches @ Farmland and The Branches @ Escondido still have yet to be navigated. It appears that James and I will be around well into next year, in the meantime we will be praying with the leadership at The Branches @ Farmland and ministering right here where God has us.

Big News

This morning at church I let the cat out of the bag and shared what I believe God is calling me to do. God is leading myself and James Pinkerton (a.k.a Pink) to Escondido, California to plant The Branches. I wish I could give you a lot of details about when, how, etc., but I can not. All I know is that God has laid it on our hearts to start a new church out West. Currently we are learning as much as we can about church planting, taking assessments, reading books, making contacts, praying, and planning.

After making the announcement at both of our services today we received some great encouragement from a number of people, for which I am extremely grateful for. What the future relationship looks like between The Branches @ Farmland and The Branches @ Escondido still have yet to be navigated. It appears that James and I will be around well into next year, in the meantime we will be praying with the leadership at The Branches @ Farmland and ministering right here where God has us.

Quick Update

Currently I'm at my parent's home near Indianapolis, as I will be speaking at my Father's church tomorrow night. I think this is my third year taking part in their spiritual emphasis weekend, and am looking forward to sharing with the folks at Providence Christian Church.

This Sunday at The Branches @ FFC we will be having just one combined service at 10:45. We are in week 2 of "Hope Epidemic" and our emphasis will be on creating and praying over the shoeboxes that we are filling with gifts for Operation Christmas Child. I'm looking forward to all of us getting out of our seats during the service and actually serving together by preparing these small gifts of hope. See you this Sunday!!

Quick Update

Currently I'm at my parent's home near Indianapolis, as I will be speaking at my Father's church tomorrow night. I think this is my third year taking part in their spiritual emphasis weekend, and am looking forward to sharing with the folks at Providence Christian Church.

This Sunday at The Branches @ FFC we will be having just one combined service at 10:45. We are in week 2 of "Hope Epidemic" and our emphasis will be on creating and praying over the shoeboxes that we are filling with gifts for Operation Christmas Child. I'm looking forward to all of us getting out of our seats during the service and actually serving together by preparing these small gifts of hope. See you this Sunday!!

Truth and Love

This thought came to my mind this morning while getting ready for work:

If you divorce truth from love you get liberalism - if you divorce love from truth you get legalism - you must tell the truth in love to truly love.

Truth and Love

This thought came to my mind this morning while getting ready for work:

If you divorce truth from love you get liberalism - if you divorce love from truth you get legalism - you must tell the truth in love to truly love.