March into April

Once again I have failed at my attempt to communicate weekly with you via this blog.  With all my best intentions it is still a struggle to keep you as up to date as possible on all that God is doing in Tacoma, what we have planned and how you can pray.  Hopefully I can accomplish those things through this post.  Thank you for being patient with me as you pray for The Pathway and please don't ever hesitate to call or email if you want a specific update.

First and foremost I cannot believe it is already February 26th.  2013 is flying by and God is doing so much.  To be perfectly transparent the year started off slow and frustrating for The Pathway.  Our involvement waned through the holidays and the new year.  Our worship gatherings were sparse in attendance and our IC gatherings hit a lull as well.  But the one thing God kept reminding me is that life is hard, full and you cannot experience the fullness of the mountaintops with out faithfully pushing through the difficulty and dryness of the valleys.  During the last couple of months we have experienced a great amount of Spiritual warfare as a church.  I think this is tough for me as a pastor because I view the church as my spiritual children.  I would much rather undergo the attack myself than to watch the people of our church endure persecution and tribulation.  That being said, it has also been unbelievably encouraging to see the church be the church.  To face challenge in the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.  To support each other through the trials and attacks and begin to come out stronger on the other end.

We were blessed to celebrate baptism in February.  We baptized 4 and celebrated what it means to be a new creation in Christ.  It has been awesome to see the Lord moves in the lives of these individuals over the last couple of weeks and to see their faith grow and solidify.

As you know The Pathway's ministry Hub is called The Spot and it is a place God has generously allowed us to use for the past 2 years.  Well, we have been wrestling with an obvious call to keep using The Spot but the reality that we are like a fish in a bowl, every time we grow to the size of the bowl our growth is stunted.  We need to find a worship gathering spot where we can receive the harvest that we believe God desires to bring.  With that wrestling came God's answering.  He has generously provided us a way to keep The Spot for all the day to day ministry that flows through it, but move our worship gatherings to Franklin Elementary, a school in the heart of central Tacoma that will allow us to grow and begin serving and sharing Jesus with a new neighborhood while continuing to serve and share Jesus with the Hilltop through The Spot and our other Intentional Communities.  This transition is a challenge and we are praying that it is one that goes smoothly an spurs the church on to reach more friends, more family members and more neighbors for Jesus.  The transition will happen March 24th but our official launch will be Easter Sunday March 31st.  I can barely contain my excitement and I am in awe of how God has put the pieces in place.

In the midst of all this we are going out into the harvest fields through our March into April outreach.  Just as we did last year it will kick off with two community dinners and will be followed up with multiple outreaches that will allow us to not only serve our community, but build relationships in the process.  Pray for me and our church that we would keep the big picture vision in mind of why we do this... that is to make disciples of Jesus!  Please pray for the harvest to come.  Please pray for strength, energy and perseverance.  I've listed our March into April schedule below.  Please mark your calendars and pray that God would do exactly what God wants to do!  We love you all and thank you for the role you play in The Pathway!

March into April: Schedule
Saturday 3/23-- Community Dinners  @ 5pm & 7pm (Masa on 6th Ave.)

Sunday 3/24-- First Worship Gathering @ Franklin Elementary

Friday 3/29 & Saturday 3/30-- Community Fun Night
     March 29th @ Franklin
     March 30th @ The Spot

Sunday 3/31-- Easter Worship Gathering @ Franklin Elementary

April-- Launching new Intentional Communities

Saturday 4/13-- Tacoma goes to the movies

Saturday 4/27-- Community Financial Seminar

Momentum

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Acts 9:31 ESV

All throughout the first half of the book of Acts, as we see the supernatural birth of the first church unfold, we see statements like the one in Acts 9:31.  These are statements describing a work of God.  These are statements descriptive of the work of the Holy Spirit.  These are statements that embody a thing we have come to know as "momentum."

Momentum is like most other things, it has its good and bad aspects.  The fact that momentum exists proves that the lack of momentum can also exist. I've come to see momentum as a vital part of the movement of God in our world today.  As a pastor and church planter, I love momentum when it's moving on the side of the kingdom of God, but I have come to loathe it when it ceases to exist.  When momentum dissipates, it's like running into a brick wall.  I remember during my awkward middles school days I was walking down a small hill between classes with all my momentum focused on downward motion and the people around me.  What I didn't notice was the pole in my path.  I slammed into it forehead first and all my momentum (and all my pride) came to a screeching halt.

Momentum is what I have used to describe what God has granted The Pathway over the course of the past 8 months or so.  We have scene tremendous growth.  As our Intentional Communities Director Stacie Hooks puts it, we've been growing in both depth and breadth.  It's been fun, exciting and worshipful to watch God move in such a visible way.  But as a pastor and as a person, I knew that at some point the momentum would stop.  There are many reasons for it, but it always happens.  I think that part of my role as pastor, leader, teacher and vision caster is to make sure that our church is falling so in love with Jesus, is so committed to the disciple making vision, and is becoming so disciplined in our walk with God that when the momentum stops, or turns, we are ready for it.  We are willing and passionate about fighting through it.  And most importantly, we hit our knees and ask God to bring another wave of momentum, resulting in life change, kingdom growth and God's ultimate glory.

We hit that wall in December.  I could make you a list of the reasons why.  But that list doesn't really matter.  What matters is that our young church, full of new and not yet believers, is facing a test.  And I want to put the call out to all of you... those here in Tacoma who are in the midst of this test and those all over the country who are a part of what God is doing here... to pray for us.  Pray that we would fall deeply in love with Jesus.  Pray that we wouldn't lose sight of the mission of God.  Pray that we would be disciplined and committed.  Pray that God would break through the wall, and a new wave of life change and growth would be birthed.

As I think back to that horribly embarrassing and painful moment in middle school when my head collided with that metal pole and all my physical and perceived social momentum came to a halt, I remember one thing.  The momentum returned.  I looked around, got my bearings, and continued down the hill.  I was still focused on all the same things... getting to class and looking cool (I messed that one up), but I learned something in the process.  None of those things could happen if I ran into every pole along the way.  I learned, I moved on and the momentum came again.

Thank you for praying for Kingdom momentum in Tacoma.

I am the church.

Wanted to share this video with you all.  I hope it gives you a glimpse into the heart of The Pathway.  Our heart being the people who make up the church and the people in our city.  Thank you for praying for what God is doing in Tacoma!

Christmas Eve... from a different perspective.

The Pathway Christmas Choir

I was planning to blog about our Christmas Eve gathering.  Our worship leader is Donna Christian.  She planned and organized the entire gathering and did a fantastic job.  One of the best things she did was recruit her mother-in-law Roberta to play key board for us.  God has done a work in and through Roberta and by his grace he used our church and our Christmas Eve gathering in the process.  Roberta wrote about what God has done... her perspective is significantly more beautiful than anything I could write.  As you read, please know that the way God has used Roberta is the same way he uses all of you who pray for and support The Pathway.  Thank you and Happy 2013!
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The Best Christmas Gift of 2012- Roberta Christian

I hesitate to share this with you, as it may be misconstrued as being about me, but this is a story that needs to be told. It is a story about God working in the lives of ordinary people who love Him. It is a story of God’s compassion and care for the people He seeks to love and to redeem. It a story of God’s great plan, His ability to work out all the details, but most importantly it is a lesson about how much God loves us and the kindness and goodness of God’s heart.

In the fall of this year I was approached by my daughter-in-law, Donna. She asked me, with some reservation, if I would be interested in playing the piano for her church’s Christmas Eve program.  It was an interesting thought to me, and was hard to refuse because our Pastor had just announced that our church would not have its Christmas Eve service this year. He said that he hoped that each of us would find other places to serve the community on this night. Since 2005 we had attended our little church, and every year we have had a Christmas Eve service, so what was I to make of this? Without much hesitation I told Donna, I would be glad to help.

The Pathway-- Kids Ave Choir

Donna explained that there was no one available to play the piano that would be able to play well enough to help with the program that she was planning. Donna explained that her church has about sixty people who attend.  She explained that her church is called, “The Pathway” and was started about three years ago on the Hilltop area of Tacoma, Washington. What I knew of the Hilltop area of Tacoma was not good. I remember as a newly-wed in the early 1980’s hearing the news reports that this area had the highest murder rate in the entire state of Washington. I had driven through it several times on my way to and from work at Tacoma General Hospital in the 2004. Every time I drove through this neighborhood I would pray and ask God to protect me. I really did not want my car to break down in this neighborhood.

After we arranged a practice schedule, Donna emailed me the sheet music. It had been some time since I had played new music, but after browsing through the music and playing it through, I thought that with some practice, I could do this. Our church loves the old hymns and a traditional form of worship, but I as I played, I knew this would be a bit out of my comfort zone. I found it enjoyable and nerve-wracking listening to the music; enjoyable, because I loved the challenge of learning a new song, a new style; nerve-wracking because I would have to play it in front of everyone and playing with musicians likely more comfortable with this style of music. 

The choir of about 8-10 people met a few times before the program to practice. Each time we had a different group. I loved their enthusiasm. I loved their joy. I could see that I could find a place in their group and could help where I had strengths and they could teach me a great deal about soul and rhythm and heart. It was a great joy to be with them. 

The day before the program was a Sunday. We met for practice together after our church service. I met several more members of their church and I met their pastor, Bobby. Talking with them and hearing them talk and pray helped me to understand the heart they had for the Hilltop community. Practice went well. Donna made sure everyone knew the dress code, but was reassuring anyone who did not have black pants, dress shoes and a jewel-toned dress shirt, not to worry, but to wear the best they owned. Once again, it showed me the limits of the resources these fellow believers have. 

After rehearsal Ritchie, my husband, Josh, my son and Donna and I went out a got a bite to eat. As we were sitting waiting for our meal, we began to talk about the needs of their church body. Donna and Josh explained how the church got its name, a little about the people, about the church’s mission and the activities at the church. I asked Donna if the piano I had seen in the corner of the church’s meeting room belonged to the church. She said that it was and that it was presenting some difficulties in their worship. The piano was a tall, upright grand piano. She said that it had great sound and was a fine piano, but because she lead the worship team, it was difficult to see the congregation as she played and lead the singing and worship. 

On the way home from practice, I said to Ritchie that I think this church needs us to help them. I sensed there was a need for a new keyboard so they could worship in the way that fits their style. I told Ritchie that I thought we should give our keyboard to them. Ritchie said that he did not think we could as we needed it to help with our church’s music services. I did not say much, but thought about it the rest of the ride home.

Monday night was Christmas Eve and we got to the church at about 3:30pm. We helped with some of the loading of equipment into the vehicles. Again I could see the heart of this little group of people. They so desperately wanted to reach the hearts of their community. They were loading chairs, tables, sound equipment, decorations, refreshments, and everything that would be needed to have their small Christmas Eve program at the small public elementary school a few blocks away. They said that they wanted to be in the community they were trying to reach. We prayed with them as they were about to leave. Their hearts were full of warmth and care as they asked God to bless their efforts and prepare the people to come and receive God’s message with an open heart.

We caravanned the few blocks to the school and followed the lead van and trailer through a set of gates that opened into the playground. Within about thirty minutes the gymnasium was turned into a church auditorium. The sound equipment was checked after hooking up all the equipment. I watched as the drummer spent almost thirty minutes making sure the chords were all securely taped down so the choir members and the children would not trip during the performance. The gymnasium was very cold, but thanks to a kind lady who worked at the school, she had come earlier to turn on the heat and the lights and give us entrance into the building. The room then filled with music as the choir went over their songs. 

At seven o’clock, the program began. More than sixty people watched as the screen introduced the reason we had gathered. Jesus’s birthday party had begun. We sang. We listened and watched with enjoyment as the children sang. The pastor shared his heart and the vocalists sang. The band played and the worship team led us in praises adoring the baby, who came so humbly and quietly. We knew the end of the story, and were reminded of the immense price He paid. Sadness and joy were intertwined in our hearts. The program ended with candles and, “Silent Night”. It seemed like it had only lasted a few minutes. After the music ended, the chairs, tables, sound equipment, decorations and everything else that had come out of the vehicles, were loaded back into the vehicles and driven back to the little church. We all drove home very tired. This little group of people had worked so very hard.

On the way home I stared blankly out the front window of the pick up and said to Ritchie, “I am convinced now, more than ever, that this church needs us to get them a keyboard.” Ritchie said, “We can’t afford it right now. You know that there may be a strike coming up.” I said that I knew that, but that I was convinced this is what we should do. We said nothing more about it the rest of the drive home.

The next day was Christmas. I got up early and put the sticky buns in the oven and set the timer on the oven for thirty-five minutes. I sat down in my chair and began to pray. I told God that I could not get this out of my mind. I knew that He wanted me to work within the boundaries of my marriage, and my husband had told me that he did not think that we could get this keyboard right now. I told God that He says that we do not receive because we do not ask, and that anything we ask in Jesus name, He will give it to us. I reasoned with God and told Him that I was not asking this for myself, but for this little church that has such great needs. I want Him to provide a keyboard for this church, and if possible through me and I wanted it to be the same keyboard as mine. I also wanted the place or person we purchase the keyboard from to use the money that we give them to serve you. I also requested that He prepare a special person to play the piano. Besides Donna, I wanted Him to find a person in the Hilltop community that He has placed a special talent of playing the keyboard. This person could be just learning to play or already be an accomplished musician, but that the person would be changed by this keyboard and would use it as a tool to further God’s kingdom. 

After my prayer was over, I opened my Bible. As I began reading, the verses I had just spoken to God were right in front of me. My regular Bible readings had stopped in the middle of John chapter sixteen and as I began the following words were the first words I read, “And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.” Could this be the Lord speaking directly to me to confirm what I had just prayed? I read on and continued to look for confirmation about my prayers. At the end of the reading, I was more convinced than ever that God was going to accomplish what I had asked. 

As I cleaned up from breakfast and began preparing the Christmas meal, Ritchie came up from down stairs and said that he had just sent off an email to a guy on Craig’s List inquiring about purchasing a keyboard. He was selling the exact same keyboard that we have, for significantly less money than a new keyboard. I smiled and let Ritchie know that I was happy that he had done this and told him about my prayer. 

The next day I had to work. I asked Ritchie if he had heard anything from the man selling the keyboard. In an email, he said that Outlook had not sent the email the previous day, and that he had just sent it. I said, “No worries. God is in control.” I was expecting that if this wasn’t the right solution, then God would provide a better one. By the end of the day, Ritchie had heard back from the man and they agreed that if the keyboard was still available that we would purchase it and pick it up in Vancouver, Washington on Friday on his way to see his parents in Portland. He also learned that the man was a music pastor at the First Evangelical Church in Vancouver and that he was using the money to pay for a guitar for his wife. It sounded to me like God was hearing my prayers. Ritchie picked up the keyboard on Friday, December 28, 2012 and by 5pm that night, The Pathway worship team was practicing with their new Christmas gift.

As I said at the beginning, the events that happened are all about God. God’s direction and guidance, God’s timing and plan and God’s care for his people are all demonstrated during these events. What I love most about this story is that God has made statements in His Word that He has demonstrated as utterly reliable. When I took Him at His word and pleaded my case before Him, He showed me, without questions, that I can depend on Him. And this story is a testament to all who are eagerly looking to see the relevance of God at work today. He is who He says He is and He cares about us. What better Christmas gift could one get?

The Leadership Challenge & God's Provision

Those of you who have been following our journey for several years now know that for the longest time our greatest challenge, our greatest deficit, our greatest need was leadership.  For over a year I would shamelessly beg through my blogs and my newsletters that we desperately needed the help of some mature Christian leaders.  Kelli and I dedicated one whole trip to Texas to recruiting singles, couples or families to move their lives to Tacoma to help us make disciples.  For the longest time it felt like God was not moving.  It seemed that God was not answering.  It seemed that nothing would happen.

Then, in what felt like a blink of an eye... God said yes.  It kind of reminds me of bed time with my kids.  We usually let them have a small cup of chocolate milk before bed.  Healthy?  Probably not.  But it's just one of those things we stumbled upon that makes them smile and makes bed time easier.  Well, often times Rylan will start asking me an hour early for her chocolate milk.  I seldom respond with a "no".  Sometimes I say, "Not yet sweetheart".  Or I'll just keep quiet, not responding at all, knowing the time is coming.  Then, when that time finally comes and I let them know it's time for chocolate milk, they get so excited, start screaming and yelling frantically about which cup they want their treat in and then they run and jump on the couch because they know that's where they need to be to receive their reward.  However, in the midst of the frenzy, they seldom say thank you.  They rarely recognize that they have been asking for the milk for so long and when I finally give it to them they are so consumed by the goodness of the treat, they don't acknowledge the one who provided it.

That little story describes how I feel I've acted as the recipient of God's answer to my prayer.  I begged and I pleaded with him to provide leaders and for the longest time it seemed that he was either saying "no" or just not responding at all.  When in reality, he had a plan all along.  He knew what he was doing.  He knows what he's doing.  And he has provided so perfectly.  So graciously.  How has he provided?  Let me just tell you...

Towards the end of last year God brought 2 young adult ladies to serve with us for a month or so.  They were awesome.  A breath of fresh air.  They were energy and life to us as we have been exhausted and tired.  Right before they were about to move on I shared with our small leadership team, and they happened to be present, that I felt like God wanted us to pursue some specific leadership.  Two specific positions were a Kids Ministry Director and a Director of Intentional Communities.  Shortly there after these ladies came to me and told me they wanted to fill those spots for the next 6 months.  Before I knew it, they had decided to move their lives to Tacoma permanently.  God has used Jenna to grow our Kids Ministry from 5-6 kids to 30+ and has used both of them to plant an Intentional Community in their apartment complex where several people have already come to know Jesus.  God has used Stacie to help us recruit and train leaders, launch Intentional Communities, develop a direction and vision for our IC's and to develop an intentional discipleship process.  

While all this was going on God had also been stirring and moving in the heart of one of our former interns.  When Kyler left us after her summer she knew that God had uniquely connected her heart with Tacoma.  She was so committed to this that she went home and worked through her calling with her then boyfriend, shortly to be fiance, and now husband Chase.  They wrestled for a year with this calling and Chase even came up on his own to see if Tacoma was the place for him.  Along the way the challenges of ministry were overflowing my plate and I realized I needed help with the day to day aspects of ministry.  Kyler and Chase answered God's call to Tacoma by moving here a week after their honeymoon.  Kyler has stepped in to be our Ministry Assistant and they have both been passionately living as missionaries in their apartment complex where they are planning to start an Intentional Community.

While all this was going on we still didn't have a worship leader.  For those who have heard me try to lead worship, you know this was something that needed to change!  We have a sister church in Tacoma called Discovery and their pastor has been nothing but a support and encouragement to us since we've been here.  He knew of our need, connected us with a young worship leader named Donna and then blessed her and her husband to be sent out to serve with us.  An amazing demonstration of a heart for the kingdom.  The other area where we definitely lacking was in the "gray hair" department.  Our church is very young and we desperately needed some committed believers to be a part of The Pathway not in an official position, but just as regular people pursuing Jesus.  I approached another church in our area and asked their pastor if they could send us such a couple.  They prayed and approached 5 couples about the possibility and God pulled on the heart of Duke and Miri!  Now they are not exactly gray hairs... although I like to give them a hard time... but all their kids are out of the house and they have so much wisdom and life experience to share with our church.

All that has been going on and God has also been raising up leaders within as well.  One of our interns from this past summer is moving back to help us full-time in March and another young single lady is moving from Texas in a few months to be a part of The Pathway.  It's simply been amazing to watch God move in response to not only my prayers, but your prayers as well.

All I can do as I reflect on the leadership challenge we faced and how God is providing is to say thank you Jesus.  He knows what we need when we need it.  My challenge for you is this.  What might God be calling you to do that seems absolutely crazy?  Is he calling you to help a church plant?  Not as a pastor or worship leader, just as a committed disciple of Jesus.  We still have needs... a youth pastor, a future church planter, an associate pastor and more IC leaders.  But there are similar needs all around you.  You might be the solution to the leadership challenge that a church plant is facing today!  Pray and see how God responds.

Advent Conspiracy

For those who don't know, my wife Kelli had strange abscess in her bottom lip that popped up very quickly about 2 weeks ago.  She went from bad to worse pretty quickly and before we knew it she was in major pain, had her lip sliced open three times and was extremely sick.  A week ago Thursday we found ourselves in a plastic surgeons office and Friday Kelli had surgery to clean out her lip.  By God's grace Kelli's mom flew in from Dallas to help with her recovery, help with the kids and ultimately to celebrate thanksgiving with us.  For all the health issues Jagen and Rylan have had I often take Kelli's health for granted.  She's pretty much back to 100% now and I'm certainly thankful for that.  God is so gracious.  Thank you for your prayers.

Two weeks ago when I posted an update on our vision series I asked you to be praying for several things.  One of those things is the series we launched this past Sunday called Advent Conspiracy.  If you're not familiar with it you can learn about it at www.adventconspiracy.org.  It's an awesome movement of churches in America who are trying to reclaim Christmas from our consumeristic culture for the glory of God.  I tell you what, we're in week 1 and it is rocking my world.  Each week has a different theme but the basic idea is to remind ourselves that Christmas is about Jesus.  In doing so, the goal is that we would be much more intentional with our spending and gift giving.  The idea is that if we think more about what we give, we will not spend our money on frivilous things that will be forgotten about or thrown away in a month.  The hope and prayer of Advent Conspiracy is that the money we save by getting creative and thoughtful with our giving, can be given back to Jesus for his glory, his mission and his purpose.

I'm incredibly excited about the way The Pathway has decided to give back to Jesus.  Some of our ladies have set up a weekend of inexpensive and creative gift making using our church network called The City along with that insane thing called Pintrest.  They are rallying the church to spend less and give more... two of the Advent Conspiracy themes.  In the meantime, we have picked a local cause and a global cause that our church is going to give to.  Every week people can designate their giving to one of these causes and then we are going to take up an offering at our Christmas Eve gathering where 100% of the giving will go to these causes.  

The first cause is a halfway house in our neighborhood .  It's a home for women and their children who are in recovery and God has blessed us with the opportunity to get to know many of the ladies.  Quite a few of them are now an active part of our church.  It's amazing to see the change in these ladies lives and their hunger to know Jesus.  The global cause is to support an organization called Living Water International.  The mission is pretty amazing.  They have identified a need... the global water crisis... and they are intentionally helping provide clean water for people who don't have access to it and at the same time are sharing living water, the gospel of Jesus.

In just one week it's been phenomenal to see the response of our church.  This is the first time we've intentionally pushed ourselves to look beyond Tacoma for the purpose of meeting physical and spiritual needs.  I don't know what will happen over the next 4 weeks but I ask you to pray that our church, myself included, would take our eyes off the gods of consumerism that have attempted to steal Christmas and place our faith back in the God of the universe who gave us his only Son Jesus.

A closing story... the first week's theme was Worship Fully.  One of the things we talked about was that to worship fully means that we have to always worship.  We have to take worship into our homes.  I challenged our church to read the Christmas story in Luke 2 with our families at least once a week for the rest of the advent season.  Kelli and I started tonight by reading to our kids from the Jesus Storybook Bible.  As a parent, it was one of those moments that humbles you and makes you so thankful for the love and grace of God.  By the time we were part way through the story Jagen was anxiously awaiting what would happen next with "baby Jesus."  Of course it hasn't all registered yet.  But we are prayerfully and intentionally trying to teach our children (and ourselves), that Christmas isn't about giving in general, it's about the one gift that changed everything.  It's about God's gift to us... Jesus.

Vision Series Update

Where to begin?  Sometimes my heart and soul are so full, excited and even overwhelmed that I don't know how to start sharing with you all that God has been doing in an adequate way.  I've shared that we have been going through our 2012 vision series entitled What if? and we challenged our entire church with an initial question.  We spent the entire month leading up to the vision series asking...

     What if... you committed to taking part in the 3 week vision series including all three worship gatherings and 3 Intentional Community gatherings?

To be fair that is a hard thing to ask of people.  Lives are full and busy.  Plans are made for things in advance.  Work happens.  Life happens.  We tried to be clear that we know some people just won't be able to do all 6 gatherings.  But we were also clear that we believed many people could do it.  We asked unapologetically for people to rearrange their schedules, ask off of work, stay in town and quite simply to make the vision series a priority.  Why?  Because our leadership truly desires for the entire church to know where we've been, where we are, where we're going and what we're asking each individual and family to do in order to get us there.  We challenged, but the question remained... how would our church respond?

Let me just tell you the response was overwhelming!  People have gotten excited.  People have decided to commit.  People have shown up.  We asked three questions over the course of the three week series and it was all based around our vision scripture and vision statement...

Vision Scripture

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in 
       him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  
       And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of
       those who preach the good news!”
(Romans 10:13-15 ESV)

Vision Statement:
We want to be a church with beautiful feet committed to walking with our city down The Pathway of life by...
          Serving our communities extravagantly.
          Sharing the gospel with those we serve.
          Showing people how to grow with Jesus.
          Sending missionaries to start new Intentional Communities and new churches in Tacoma &
          beyond.

The 3 Big Vision Series Questions:
1) What if... we served our communities extravagantly? (serve)
2) What if... we make our mission making disciples? (share & show)
3) What if... you ARE a missionary? (send)

As we preached through the series and dug deeper at our IC gatherings it was amazing to see the response, the consistency and the commitment.  Every week I got to hear stories of how God is working in the lives of the people who make up The Pathway.  I had a teenager come up and ask me to help him serve his school extravagantly. I had a couple ask for prayer as they welcome an unbelieving family into their home as they try to get back on their feet.  They said they don't just want to serve them but they also want to try and make disciples.  I had a young dating couple come to me desiring to be baptized.  We had a man who has only been to our worship gathering once but is a committed part of one of our IC's give his life to Jesus last week!!!  That's right, you should be saying "Amen!" and jumping up and down... the Kingdom is growing!

Numerically speaking we are so encouraged!  We are basically out of room in our Kids Ave area... we're trying to figure out how to cram them all in!!!  Our Wednesday IC had over 15 adults this past week and more kids than I could count as we talked about how to engage in making disciples.  One of our IC's meets in a local apartment complex and they had 15 adults crammed into a tiny one bedroom apartment!  Now I know sometimes people don't want to focus on the numbers... I get that... I actually put filters in place for myself so I don't even see our numerical growth on a regular basis.  But lets face it... the people I just mentioned are not just numbers.  The 2 getting baptized, the teenager wanting to serve his friends, the couple opening their home, the man who gave his life to Jesus... the over 30 adults in two IC's.  These are not numbers, they are souls.  They are lives that God cares deeply about.  They are lives being changed, transformed & saved by the gospel of Jesus!  Praise Jesus for those numbers!!!  Our desire is to see the Kingdom of God grow in Tacoma.

So what's next?  How can you pray?  Let me tell you a few things.
     1) Pray that the commitment we've seen over the last 3 weeks does not dwindle.  Pray that it
         multiplies.  I don't know how it will happen.  But God does!

     2) Pray for the Christmas season.  We are taking part in a pretty amazing movement within the
         church in America called Advent Conspiracy.  We are going to be launching this series the last
         Sunday of November.  It's all about Jesus & all about the true meaning of Christmas... that would
         be Christ being born for us!

     3) Pray for salvation and life change.  Pray that God continues to change lives and bring people  
         from lostness to salvation and from spiritual milk to solid food.

     4) Pray for our Christmas Eve gathering.  We have never done this before but everyone is so
         excited!  We want it to bring glory to God, be an awesome worship time for the church and a way
         to connect our community with the gospel!

That was a lot.  Thank you for caring.  Thank you for praying.  Hard times will come.  Satan doesn't like God's kingdom growing.  Please go to battle with us in prayer.