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Last week I had the privilege of handing out food boxes to needy families in our area at a local elementary school. Afterwards, I was asked to deliver a few boxes to families who couldn’t make it to pick them up. As I visited the second house, it was basically empty… virtually no furniture, no pictures on the wall, and three grade-school-aged boys who immediately began digging through the food boxes as I set them down. As I left the last box and began to leave I overheard one boy excitedly shout, “I got toothpaste!”
I think we’ll spend less on our kids this Christmas and give more away.
A huge “Thank You” is due to all those generous families at CCWC that donated food boxes from Food Share America. We combined those 40 boxes with food donations at the local elementary and high school to bless neighbors for Thanksgiving. Give praise to God for everything he’s doing through his people.
One good reason to plant new churches is that they reach new people. Statistically a church’s evangelistic success will plateau after 5 years of existence. Plant new churches, reach new people. That’s the idea. I’d take that a step further and say plant different churches, reach different people. And our “different” style of doing church (a network of MiniChurches) seems to be cropping up all over the place. Recently the Dales and Barna put together a book called “The Rabbit and the Elephant: Why Small is the New Big for Today’s Church.” This model of church is not for everyone, but it seems to be gaining momentum. I recommend this interesting, easy, short read to you… especially if you are hungry for more than just going to church.
“If you put two elephants in a room together and close the door, in 22 months you may get one baby elephant. But two rabbits together for the same amount of time will result in thousands of babies!” – George Barna
The idea is that something large and with a complex structure is harder to duplicate. However, something small and simple is easily multiplied. What if we applied this principle to Discipleship and Church Planting?
Please take a moment and say a prayer for my mom’s cousin, Priscilla. She has a staff infection and is in the Owasso, OK hospital. She feels absolutely terrible and is hoping to go home soon. Please pray for God’s healing, comfort, and peace. Thank you, friends.
No one likes getting spam. That’s why they call it SPAM. And knowing my email address was just handed out to 35 people I don’t know or trust is like taking a solid punch in the gut in the fight against spam. So here’s a tiny tech tip for you. When you’re sending (or forwarding… shame on you) an email to a bunch of people who don’t know each other, be a courteous emailer. Instead of putting everyone’s email addresses in the “To” box, put ‘em in the “Bcc” box. Bcc means blind carbon copy, so when one of your friends gets the email, it’ll look like she’s the only one getting it… No more passing out everyone’s email address. Yay! (Yes, I learned this from making the mistake myself.)
I love thanksgiving. Families all over the country travel obscene distances not for presents but for discussions (and turkey). If you really think about it, Thanksgiving is one of the purest holidays because there’s nothing really “in it for me”. It is, quite simply, a reunion. So why do we do it? Is it tradition? The food? The conversations? Whatever the reasons, make it a great holiday and ask some good, deep, meaningful questions and really listen. You might be surprised the opportunities that present themselves.
Where are you traveling this year? Are there any silly or unique traditions you have? Post a comment… we’d love to hear from you.
An 18-month dream came true on Saturday night. TreasureField held it’s first Reunion of our MiniChurches. In other words, we have a couple MiniChurches that meet every week and this was a get-together of everyone. We even had some other folks join us just to show their support! Thanks to everyone who pitched in to make this evening possible… we enjoyed some great home cookin’, acoustic worship songs, and encouraging words.
I would be a liar if I told you this wasn’t a big deal to me. Although we’re trying to fly under the radar and facilitate more of a grass-roots movement, this Reunion was a big milestone in the life of this church. Jaclyn and I, and many prayer partners have been praying fervently for God’s given vision to come about. Yes, we had more people there than I expected, but what is much more important is that the Lord is definitely moving and doing something unique and powerful in and through us. What a privilege it has been to be a part of His church!
Please join us in praying for two new MiniChurches that seem to be forming. We’re begging God for souls in the Denver area! If you’re interested in joining us for our next Reunion, it’ll be on Dec. 12, same bat-place same bat-time. Thanks for being a part of the movement of love in action!
About two months ago our group split up and became 2 MiniChurches. This Saturday is a big day in the life of our church plant… we’re having a Reunion! Whether you’ve been involved to this point or not, if you’d like to come, we’ll be gathering this Saturday night (11/21) in Cherry Creek Wesleyan Church’s sanctuary, 5:30-7:30pm. Everyone is welcome! Your network of MiniChurches, TreasureField, will be providing turkey and drinks for everyone! If you are able, please bring a side or a dessert to share with others. If you can’t attend, please pray that God speaks to us and continues to lead us on His mission here in the Denver area.
What are we going to do at the Reunion? Our core purpose for gathering is CELEBRATION. We’re going to be celebrating what God is doing in individual lives as well as the MiniChurches. We’ll also be singing songs of praise and worship in response to God’s goodness to us. We’ll hear some teaching and share communion. If you’d like to be baptized, please reply back to me and I’d be ELATED to do that with you.
Who’s coming? My hope is that all of you receiving this email will make it a priority to be there. Not out of guilt or obligation, but with joyful anticipation and excitement about God and His Kingdom. In addition to you and your family coming, would you please pray about who God might want to introduce to TreasureField? This gathering would be a perfect time to invite a friend or family member who might be interested in what we’re doing. I’ll be sharing the vision the Lord gave me to start TreasureField, who we are, what we do, and why we’re doing it, so please feel welcome to bring guests.
Here’s a map for directions. See you Saturday night!
We meant to post these as we were working; but, well, we were working. So here they are, finally. (Fair warning: Before photos are not for the squeamish.)
more about “Home Improvement“, posted with vodpod
Since arriving here three years ago, we’ve had a growing desire to reach spanish speaking people for the kingdom. Aurora is 19% hispanic. We love living in such a diverse area! The only problem… Our high school level spanish. But the Lord has a plan. Without any recruiting on my part, God has spoken to Gloria, a fully bilingual woman from our mother church CCWC. God is leading Gloria to plant a MiniChurch with us. So sometime in the next couple months, we’ll be celebrating the birth of our third community of faith. I just love it when God does all the heavy lifting!
We moved out of our rental house on September 18th. Since then, we’ve been living with my (Jaclyn’s) sister, Jenae, and her husband, Aaron. They have been such gracious hosts to us and our kids, and we’ve enjoyed getting to spend time with them.
The past (how many? 6?) weeks have been a blur of scrubbing and painting and tiling and installing as we’ve worked to fix up the HUD home we purchased. It was more than a little daunting. It was the filthiest house we had ever set foot in: no carpet, urine-stained subfloor throughout, no appliances, drywall holes everywhere, gashed up sinks, murky windows, and every single surface coated in grime.
But we saw its potential. It’s a big home with a nice, open floor plan, and plenty of space for our 8-foot folding table for TreasureField. And now, after more hours of work than we’ve kept track of, and more help from our parents, friends, and Marty’s grandpa than we can ever repay, we are hoping to spend our first night in the new place on Monday the 2nd!
We are so excited and thankful. Now that it is nearly finished, we can’t believe we get to live in such a beautiful home. Our prayer is that over the years, many, many people will feel God’s love and presence in our home, and that He’ll enable us to bless others through it.
I learned from my Mom that a welcoming Christian home is a powerful thing. We’re eager to put this new ministry tool to work!
