Confessions of a Church Planter

A quick update on how our small groups are going. Our Friday night youth gathering is going awesome! We had to draw a line in the sand regarding the ages of the people who were attending in order to assure spiritual depth over numerical growth. That is a test of faith to say the least but even though our numbers have definitely dipped, we are seeing a new depth of Bible study, discussion and spiritual growth that gives me great confidence that numerical growth will soon follow.

We started a Monday afternoon small group a while back that grew to about 6 people but it was always a different 6 and then kind of faded when bad weather hit because we were having it outdoors. Antwon and I brainstormed and restarted a few weeks ago. So far it is just me and him so please pray that we would be faithful to invite more unchurched and lost friends. Antwon has agreed to work towards leading that group which is very exciting!

Our Sunday group is where I want to spend most of my time and honestly confess my backwards heart. Those who know me and anyone on our leadership team you know that we have prayed for a diverse church from the very beginning and at the core of our church we have a heart to bring spiritual & physical restoration to the poor, broken, forgotten, needy... the "outcast." Well, a lesson I should have learned a long time ago... be careful what you pray for because God just might give it to you... has become very relevant in my life!

I think in my heart I truly wanted a diverse church that included the "outcast" as a part of the church and not just a "ministry" of the church, but I wanted God to birth the church in the order that was convenient for me. I wanted him to connect us with lots of cool, young, techsavvy people who would bring innovative ideas to the table so we could have a church "worthy" of church planting in 2010. I truly wanted God to bring us those people who have a heart for the "outcast," and then together we would begin to bring diversity to our church... How ignorant I am!

What God has decided to do instead is bring us a church where I am the minority in every way... ethnically, economically, marital status... our church is diverse, but the lost, unchurched, poor "outcast" has become the foundation and it is hard for me to accept. One of the most difficult things about reaching the poor is that it is almost impossible to communicate with them. Every church planting class I took in seminary and since has emphasized the importance of social media. Okay seriously, the people God has brought to The Pathway seldom have a home phone, much less have a clue how to afford a cell phone or stay connected via our website,facebook and twitter! Talk about frustrating! Now I could ramble on and complain about this for ages, which is my sinful tendency, or I could accept what God has beautifully begun to piece together and trust him with the results.

What has God taught me through this unusual church birthing process? That's easy. Everyone, including our 30 year old schizophrenic, our 2 brothers with mental handicaps, single mom full of questions whose rebellious & recently saved daughter brought her to church, our 21 year old Montana intern, our 19 year old homeless guy, our 50 year old Cuban single dad and everyone in between, every single one of them is a soul, created by God, separated from him by sin and desperately in need of a Savior. All of these people need Jesus and I have decided, no matter what order God decides to piece together our diverse church, I will be thankful and faithful to the call he has placed on my life.

Jesus-- I'm sorry I wanted it my "selfish" way. Thank you for moving despite me. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your church.

Hitting the Wall

There are all kinds of walls in life and I believe running into them at times is a virtual certainty.

I believe we have hit our first wall in Tacoma. To be honest, if you asked our leadership team I don't know that they would agree because of all the things we are seeing God do. However, I believe the fact that God is still moving does not have any bearing on the existence of a wall in the life of our church. Walls pop up at many points along the pathway of life but God never stops moving. It's simply an obstacle that must be recognized and overcome.

What is our wall? Our wall is one of leadership. I have alluded to this wall before but it is becoming more evident everyday. Our church is built on the idea of reproduction. We want to reproduce believers, reproduce disciples, reproduce leaders, reproduce small groups and reproduce churches. The only way we can do this is if people, from all different backgrounds and experiences, lead. There are two major problems with this at The Pathway (and maybe in your church as well).

1) Many people don't want to lead.

2) Most leaders have been taught to look for the potential in a future leader rather than to create a future leader by believing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

What do we do about this? The short answer is "I don't know." If I did, we would already be through the wall. What I do know is that we can't start by working on problem #1. The only way to change #1 (which is built into others), is for us to change our own struggle with #2 (which is built into us). We have to realize that if we wait for leaders that show "potential," especially in unreached and pre-Christian cultures, we will be waiting a long time. God has called us to take fisherman, tax collectors, prostitutes, persecutors... sinners... introduce them to Jesus and teach them to believe they can lead. Only then will they want to lead. Only then will we break through the wall of leadership and begin to see rapid reproduction.

The wall is before us.

The question is, how will we respond? Will we lay at the foot of the wall stunned and unresponsive? Or, will we find a way to climb over, go around or break through the wall we have encountered?

Completely Inadequate

This week flew by so fast I don't even know what happened. My desire is that this post be a testimony to God's desire and ability to use us in our weakness. I laugh with Kelli on a regular basis about how inadequate we are for the calling God has placed on our lives. We genuinely don't mean that in a self-deprecating way and we're not throwing out a lame attempt to get sympathy. It's just that the things God is doing through our church, in the lives of the lost, it's simply amazing and most of the time we have no idea how to handle the situations that come up. We literally just have to keep our feet moving forward and trust that God is going to provide the answers.

We were reminded of our inadequacy about a week ago when we were fortunate enough to be able to attend the Catalyst West Coast Leadership Conference in Orange County, CA. It was an amazing time of learning and refreshment. Kelli and I even got to spend one awesome California evening walking barefoot on Laguna Beach... but I digress. Most of you have heard of Louie Giglio and Christ Tomlin (The Passion Events). Well, they are now planting a church in Atlanta, GA and Louie Giglio was speaking at Catalyst. His comments really hit home and reminded us of the small role we play in this whole process and the huge role the Holy Spirit plays. To sum up his comments he basically said, "I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing!" To hear a guy like Louie Giglio say that, and really mean it, was awesome! Not because he or we want to be a part of an "ignorant" church planting movement. But because we want to be a part of a Holy Spirit led church planting movement. And when that happens, you literally have no idea what your doing, you just bask in the grace of Jesus and watch lives being changed!

That's how we feel here in Tacoma right now. We truly believe God is preparing our city for something great. Something deep. An awakening. We don't believe it will be because of us or The Pathway. We believe it's going to happen in spite of us and through the church. We believe that the Holy Spirit has been at work here for a long time, using many churches and church plants, and for whatever reason we believe he has chosen us to be workers in the harvest field. I think though that the key is our complete inadequacy. We're nothing special... on our own. But through the grace of Jesus and the Acts 1:8 power of the Holy Spirit we can be used in a special way.

Keep praying.

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.

"I want to be one of your first church members..."

This week we began to see the first fruits of the harvest we believe God is desiring to bring through our relationship with the Tacoma Rescue Mission's transitional community called Tyler Square. We have been hosting "Family Night" at Tyler Square the last Thursday of every month. Our prayer has been that through those times we will be able to make friends, share Jesus with people and eventually connect them with existing small groups and then start a small group at Tyler Square. The long term prayer is that Tyler Square will become a launching pad for new believers being sent back out into our city.

Well, Kelli has connected with very nice single mom who is extremely interested in getting to know God. She has come to one of our Bible studies and has joined us for dinner at our home. Most recently God has connected us with Orlando. Orlando is from Cuba and has recently found himself at Tyler Square with his young daughter Mariella. The first time I met Orlando I was inviting him to Tyler Square and he yelled at me to go away and that he was not interested in that kind of stuff. Over time and through the power of the Holy Spirit Orlando began attending our Family Nights and he and his daughter came to our Good Friday Gathering. Finally, last week, he called me and told me that he knows God but hasn't been living for him in a long time. He said, "I want to come back to Jesus. I want to be one of your first church members."

Wow! Orlando and his daughter came to our small group Sunday night and he is excited about helping us start a group at Tyler Square.

Something to be praying about is our Monday group that was started by Antwon. After growing to about 6 in attendance it has dwindled and Antwon has been struggling to keep his passion. Please pray that a new shot of energy will be shot into the Monday group and God will begin using it to reach people for Jesus!

What to do?

It's Sunday morning just becoming afternoon and I'm sitting at Tully's Coffee feeling incredibly excited, somewhat anxious and slightly overwhelmed by all that God is calling us to be and do. It's a testament to God's grace that I'm able to function on a daily basis because my mind is constantly bouncing back and forth between what I WANT to do, what I'm SUPPOSED to do, what I NEED to do and what GOD has actually told me to do. I'm pretty sure if there were 42 hours in the day instead of 24 hours my dilemma would not change.

Leading is CHOOSING.

Following Christ is SUBMITTING.

If we are to follow Christ AND lead others in a lost and dying world to do the same I'm convinced that we will have to CHOOSE to SUBMIT to Jesus and ignore what we want to do, need to do and are supposed to do and just do what God has told us to do. Doing this, or even considering this, leads to my original statement...

I'm "incredibly excited, somewhat anxious and slightly overwhelmed."

So what does this mean for The Pathway? Well, if I knew for sure I'd be in really good shape but here's what God has been doing and how you can be praying. First-- we are committed to being an EFFECTIVE and MULTIPLYING church. We believe God has called us to do this by starting small groups throughout our city that live and function individually as the church but are just as much the church when gathered together. We are also CERTAIN that God has not called us to reach the reached... he's told us to reach the lost and unchurched. So here's the question...

How can we start small groups (churches) throughout the city of Tacoma (and beyond) if we're only reaching the lost and unchurched?

1) Those of us who already know Jesus must focus not only on reaching more lost people but teaching new believers how to share their faith, teach what they know, and lead small groups.

2) We MUST, amazingly enough, TRUST the HOLY SPIRIT! If we continue to set the "spiritual" bar for leadership so high then we cannot reach the lost, poor & broken of our world and expect them to reach others. We must lower our bar for leadership and raise our FAITH in Jesus to a whole new level. New believers must be empowered to lead and reproduce themselves from day 1, not after they've gone through years of "discipleship" and theological training... that is why we are losing the battle.

Ask me in a week if I'm living this out. I'm going to be asking our leaders if they're living this out. We all need accountability. We all need to sacrifice. We need to lead. We need FAITH!

I'm "incredibly excited, somewhat anxious and slightly overwhelmed" but my FAITH is increasing by the grace of Jesus.

A Taste of the Harvest

Thank you all for continuing to pray for us as we do our best to follow Jesus and specifically for praying for our Good Friday gathering. As usual God did not do things the way I had it planned out in my head but he did answer our prayers and do more than we asked or imagined!

Friday started out a little rocky to say the least. First of all it was one of the nastiest, cold and rainy days we've seen in a while. Because God has been saving souls we were excited to be able to baptize some people Friday and The Commons Church up in Arlington, WA allowed us to use their portable baptistery. Unfortunately, when we went to put it together Friday morning I realized we had forgotten a major piece!!! Arlington is about an hour and half from Tacoma if there's no traffic so we hit the road and thankfully The Commons Pastor (Tim Corbin) met me half way so we didn't waste the entire morning!

The complications had already begun because one of our leadership team came down with mono the week before (Becca E.) so she was not able to come and another one of our main helpers (Matt B.) got a new job and had to work. Things were shaping up to be pretty rough. However, somehow God kept me calm (not usual for me) and we were able to remember how much he has done without us to this point... why let our worries and attitudes get in the way!

Well, long story short we had a great turn out (not really sure of the numbers) plenty of help setting up and tearing down, the baptistery was perfect and we were able to baptize 8 people... 2 of whom made a public profession of faith that night for the first time! Now the work begins as we attempt to follow up on the connections we made and see if God desires us to start a new group or two. The journey is far from over but another milestone has been accomplished. Praise be to our God and Father and our Lord Jesus Christ for the work that is being done. God alone is the initiator and the redeemer. It's fun to walk with you all through this process!