The Harvest is Growing... Lord bring the workers!

I'm beginning to feel like a broken record but I have to say it again... God is so great! This week we get to praise Jesus because two more have been added to the Kingdom! Michael Cornelius, a 15 year old self described atheist has been attending The Pathway with friends for months and months. Over the past few weeks it has been obvious that the Holy Spirit has been drawing him to salvation. Today I was mowing the lawn and Michael came walking through our gate. We started chatting and he began telling me how he and about 5 or 6 other students want to form a leadership team and start reaching more students and stepping up in their leadership roles. I said, "That's great Michael... so have you decided to place your faith in Jesus for salvation yet." He said he really thought he was going to be ready soon. I asked him what he was waiting for and after he began sharing his story with me a bit he said, "You know what, I think I'm ready now!!!" Praise Jesus... now he is ready to lead!

Jessica is also a teenager that Tiffany has been sharing Jesus with. Becca H. has started a new high school girls Bible study on Thursdays and while Kelli and I were at a conference in California this week we got a call from Becca and Tiffany telling us that Jessica had put her faith in Jesus!!! Well the story doesn't end there. Jessica spent the night at our house this weekend and I was able to talk with her mom on the phone. Her mom had tons of questions for me and I was able to share the gospel with her and invite her to place her faith in Jesus and come to our Sunday night Bible study. She has not yet decided to follow Jesus... yet... but she did come to Bible study yesterday and she showed a lot of excitement. Please pray for Vitha and Jessica!

God is continuing to grow our current groups. He has provided us with more leadership for our Friday night student gathering and new direction for our Monday and Tuesday studies. We've been averaging 10 at our Sunday night gathering and tonight we had 20!!! Please continue to pray simply for "life change." That has been our prayer since The Pathway's birth and God has been so faithful to provide exactly that!

Finally-- I want to leave you with an excerpt from an article written by Francis Chan, author of Crazy Love & The Forgotten God, describing what God has been teaching him about the church. It sums up beautifully our vision for Tacoma & beyond. Please feel free to leave comments with your thoughts, agreements & disagreements about the true nature of the church.

Practically, I'm toying with the idea of starting a network of gatherings that meet in homes in order to practice the commands of Scripture. They could watch sermons via DVD or have a leader give the lesson. They may even sing together. But the gatherings wouldn't stop there. They would discuss how to live out the sermon in their neighborhood. They would also pray for each other. They would take communion and remind each other of the mission. They would meet the needs of the members of their group and their unsaved neighbors. Rather than coming to church, they would be the church-- not in a sacred building, but in their neighborhoods. Occasionally, we could all gather in an auditorium or stadium to celebrate and worship collectively.