The Fruit of Longevity

This morning I want to share some of the fruit we are seeing that is a direct result of our longevity as a church in Tacoma.  I also need you to know that our longevity is a direct result of the faithful partners... both locally and nationally... who support our church, pray for our church and serve with our church consistently and have done it for the long haul.

Let me give you two examples of what I'm talking about.

Quite a few years ago... maybe 4 years... we had a family connect to our church.  This family was pumped up to reach their extended family for Jesus.  They began inviting all their friends and family to everything The Pathway did.  To make a long story short, one family connected to the church as a result of all the inviting.  The husband and wife both made professions of faith and were baptized and then over time, as life through them a lot of difficulties, they faded away.  As a pastor, church planter, and a disciple of Jesus, every time someone makes a public profession of faith through our church and then fades away, it breaks my heart.  I feel like a failure.  I feel like the mission God has called us to... the mission of making disciples... has been left incomplete.

There was also a young lady we met during our days at Wright Park.  We call those the early days.  During that time we were doing nothing but sowing seeds of the gospel.  There was very little discipleship because no one was interested in being a disciple yet.  There was very little leadership development at that point because we had no potential leaders and honestly had very few people to lead.  During that time we met a lot of young kids... teenagers... who were on the streets.  Most of them had dropped out of high school, were homeless and were into a lot of things that set them on track for disaster.  One of these young ladies had dated a guy we had also been investing in.  She got pregnant, and fell off the radar.  She made a lot of mistakes and has had a harder couple of years than I can probably even fathom.  Again... heart breaking when we invest and share the gospel and then someone just disappears.

Fast forward to the last couple of weeks.

Easter Sunday brought the family I mentioned back to our worship gathering.  That was exciting but has been a pattern the last couple of years.  But this time, their oldest son made a profession of faith in Jesus!  We got to sit with him and his parents and talk about the commitment it takes to become a disciple of Jesus.  They came back the following week and he was baptized!  They brought a lot of family and friends with them, including another guy we haven't seen in years.  This guy is pretty hardcore, has never made a profession of faith, and only ever came to a worship gathering if one of his loved ones was being baptized.  But this time, his girlfriend expressed a desire to become a Christian.  

And then came the true test... for me anyway... the first "normal" week after Easter.

No baptisms.  No special gatherings or expectations.  Just the church of God gathering to worship Jesus.  And that's when the fruit of longevity started to show itself.  I was walking up to the school and I saw the hardcore guy and his girlfriend.  To my knowledge, this was the first time he had ever come to a gathering when one of his loved ones wasn't being baptized.  The mom and kids of the family who had fallen away were there too!

After seeing that incredible sight, the door to the school opened and in walked the girl I mentioned above.  Talk about the last person I expected to see.  I later found out that she was invited by another gal in our church who didn't even know this girl had ever been connected with The Pathway.  We learned that she is now living at a transitional home that our church supports and to be honest, she looked better and more stable than I've ever seen her before.

Are these the sparks that will ignite the flame for a movement of God that we have been praying for?  Maybe.  I don't know.  God does and that gives me peace.

But it is definitely the fruit of longevity.  If our faithful partners, both nationally and now those who have covenanted with us locally, had given up on The Pathway after 2 or even 3 years, we would not be here to re-connect with people we were able to sow seeds of the gospel into years ago.  But because of your faithfulness, we are getting to water seeds that were planted 3, 4, even 5 years ago and we're even seeing salvation spring up in others as a result!  

God is faithful.  Longevity matters.  Please pray for this family, this young lady, the other couple and many others like them who God is allowing us to re-engage, re-share the gospel with and demonstrate unconditional love and grace to after years away from Jesus and his church.

It starts TONIGHT!

About a month ago we introduced our church to something we're calling the Best Day Challenge!  In short, we built an Intentional outreach all around what we believe to be the Best Day in history... the day Jesus' rose from the dead... and Challenged every person in our church to pray for, engage and invite 2 people to attend a dinner the week before Easter.

These dinners are hosted by each of our Intentional Communities and were paid for by the generosity of one of our partner churches.  There are 2 goals.  The first is to show love to our friends, family, neighbors and co-workers in an extravagant and tangible way.  How often does a church offer to buy dinner at a delicious restaurant for 40 people a night?  That leads to the second goal.  We want our friends, neighbors, family and co-workers who have been invited to ask us why?  Why is your church doing this?  What's the catch?

And that's when we have the opportunity to share with them.  God has loved us so extravagantly, by sending his son Jesus to die for us, that our church tries to come up with any creative way possible to love the people around us in an extravagant way.  Through these conversations and explanations, our prayer is that our church would have countless opportunities to share the gospel.  We want to specifically share with those we invite how we came to know Jesus and that what Jesus did for us (the church) he also did for them (his creation).

It will never flow completely seamlessly and smoothly.  Gospel conversations are often messy and awkward.  But the point of the Best Day Challenge and specifically our Intentional Community Dinners is to provide opportunities for the people of our church to engage, and love, and share the gospel with the people they are around day in and day out.

But the Best Day Challenge doesn't end there.  Through the dinners we are praying that folks in our church will find out that their friends, neighbors, co-workers and family are intrigued by this extravagant expression of love.  We are praying that our church will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and when he leads, that we would invite some our loved ones to our Easter gathering this coming Sunday where we will be celebrating and talking about the Best Day in History... the day Jesus rose from the dead!  We are strategically and prayerfully launching a new 6 week connection group the week after Easter for people to get a short-term taste of community.  We have asked all of our existing Intentional Communities to throw parties the week after Easter so that we can have easy invites for our 2 people to be around and have fun with the people of God.

Most ultimately... we are praying and challenging our church to seek opportunities, sometime over the next 2 weeks, to share their story and Jesus' story with their 2 loved ones and then invite them to start following Jesus too!  We are praying, we are crying out to God, that as a result of the Best Day Challenge we would see more people baptized on April 19th (our next baptism gathering) than we ever have before and most importantly, that we would see disciples made and lives changed by the hope of the gospel!

Will you commit to pray Monday 3/30, Tuesday 3/31, Wednesday 4/1 (2 dinners) and Thursday 4/2 as dinners are being hosted each evening.  Please pray for the Holy Spirit to do something only the Holy Spirit can do.

Thank you!

BEST DAY challenge

We're entering an exciting season in the life of the church.  Resurrection Sunday is rapidly approaching!  We have a tradition in our Sunday gathering that whenever the resurrection is mentioned we scream and cheer (well... maybe I'm trying to make it a tradition by telling everyone to yell and scream when I mention the resurrection)!

Either way, as followers of Jesus, the resurrection should evoke in us emotions of awe, joy and gratitude.  It was literally the BEST DAY in history and when we put our faith in Jesus, the one who died and rose again, we will experience the BEST DAY of our lives.  We also know that all of us who have trusted Jesus will one day experience the most ultimate BEST DAY when we see Jesus face to face.

Thanks to the generosity of our partners, we launched what we're calling the BEST DAY challenge a little over a week ago.  Our goal is to give our people the opportunity to love their friends, neighbors, family and co-workers extravagantly.  We're trying to give them a chance to provide multiple "great days" for those they love with the hope and prayer of doors opening for gospel conversations.

We're challenging, encouraging, and praying that through these "great days" our people would have multiple opportunities to share about the BEST DAY in history... to share the good news that Jesus died and rose again to provide forgiveness of sins and restored relationship to God.  Ultimately, we're praying that on our next baptism Sunday we would see more people than we ever have before celebrating new life in Christ!

How can you pray?
1) We challenged everyone in our church to pray for 2 people that they want to pursue with the gospel and to pray for the Holy Spirit to draw them to salvation.  Please pray that our folks would accept this challenge and that God would be working in the hearts of all the "two's" that are being pursued.

2) The first "great day" we want to provide is dinner at a nice restaurant in Central Tacoma called Engine House 9 (E9).  Each of our Intentional Communities have been given a night to take over the party room of E9 and fill it (up to 40 people) for the purpose of showing love and sparking gospel conversations.  Please pray that our people would invite.  Please pray that their 2 would come to dinner.  Pray for gospel conversations.

3) The second "great day" is Easter Sunday.  We're challenging people to invite their 2 to our Easter gathering April 5th.  We have several photographers in our church and one of them will be taking FREE family portraits and we'll be providing one free print per family.  Just another way to show God's love.  Pray that people would come on Easter, that they would hear the gospel, feel the gospel and trust the gospel.  Pray that they would connect to one of our Intentional Communities or to one of 3 new groups (pray that these all materialize) that should be launching after Easter.  Most of all, pray that our people would use our Easter gathering as a catalyst for sharing their faith and inviting their 2 to follow Jesus.

4) The third "great day" is the week following Easter.  All of our Intentional Communities will be throwing parties so that people can come and connect on a relational level with the community of believers.  Some will be having dinners, others might have game nights or go do something fun in the community.  Please pray for people to find themselves immersed in the body of Christ and that they would be radically changed by the gospel.

5) The fourth "great day" will hopefully come after the BEST DAY... the day many of these people put their trust in Jesus.  We will be celebrating baptism April 19th and are praying that more people will be baptized than we could ever imagine!

Thank you for your prayers.  We'll keep you posted!

Together: Women

For years and years when someone asked me how they could pray for The Pathway, my response was the same.  "We need leaders."  Specifically, I meant we needed people willing to step up and take initiative.  People willing to see a need and meet a need.  People willing to get outside their comfort zone and take the lead for the glory of God and the advancement of his kingdom.

Having some fun TOGETHER!

If you asked me the same question today... my answer would probably be the same!  I'm not sure we can ever have enough leaders.  But my perspective would be different because we are seeing those leaders raised up.  And it's exciting!

Becca Hurst came with us to Tacoma over 5 years ago to help plant The Pathway.  So much has happened over the last 5 years that she's not even Becca Hurst anymore, she's Becca Smithwick.  She's got a great husband, a precious baby boy named Ethan and another one on the way.  Becca has always been a leader.  But leaders never stop finding new ways to lead and Becca is living proof of that.

Several months ago Becca came to me and said that after some significant life changes including some major trials, she saw the need for the women of The Pathway to be sharpened together.  To grow in spiritual maturity and unity.  And best of all, she said she felt like she was being called out by God to lead the charge.  And from that the idea for Together:Women was born.  A day of training where the women of all our Intentional Communities come together to fellowship, worship and be trained and encouraged.

Because I'm a man, I wasn't there.  But my wife was and I wanted to share her thoughts on the day.  Glory to God and thank you for your continued prayers.

From Kelli... For the first time ever all the women of The Pathway gathered together and had a day of training & worship led and attended by the women of our church. It was wonderful!  God called Becca Smithwick to do something for the women of our church and she obeyed.  She gathered a team of women to organize this event and together they put on a gathering that was encouraging, refreshing and challenging. 

Becca shared her heart and motivation for putting planning the event. We played games together, ate together, listened to the incredible testimony of one of our own...  a testimony of grace and life change.  We worshiped Jesus together and went to several break out sessions led by women of The Pathway where we were challenged by the Scriptures. Women had the opportunity to learn more about prayer, studying the Bible and learning to love the woman God made us all to be. 

It was amazing to sit in that room of around 30 women, some of whom I haven not yet gotten to know, and all grow and be challenged together in our walks with Christ. It was amazing to see how God has worked in the lives of so many women in our church. There are times in church planting when it feels like we are not growing and we are not impacting this city for Jesus at all.  Legitimate times of discouragement.

But there was no mistaking all that God has done and is doing in the lives of the women of the pathway Saturday at Together:Women.

Big things coming...

This is not going to be a very long post.  I simply want to ask you to be praying.  Be praying for something BIG to happen in Tacoma.

I think every mission driven pastor and church planter is always expecting God to do something BIG.  We are constantly crying out to Jesus and for the most part honestly anticipating the next great awakening to break out in our city.  It has been beyond incredible to experience, over the last 5 years, a church being born.  To literally walk into a city with 4 adults and see a church born is incredible.  And over the course of the last several weeks Kelli and I have met with many of our partners and shared story after story of life change right alongside countless stories of heart break.  It has been a worshipful experience to reflect and recount all that God has done.

But time and again and I come back to the reality that while God has done amazing things, and most importantly his glory has been reflected in our lives and in our church, the growth that we have seen has been incremental.  It has been small spurts of growth both spiritually and numerically.

Don't get me wrong.  I wouldn't trade that growth for anything in the world.  But I still believe God is for us.  He's for our church.  He's for our world.  And he is for the city of Tacoma.  I believe he wants life change way more than I do.  I believe he wants the gospel to take root in our city with a greater passion than I'll ever be able to fully comprehend.  I believe he wants spiritual awakening and revival to break out.  And I still believe he can do that in the city of Tacoma.

So as we approach the season celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, I want you to pray a specific prayer if you feel so led.  Please pray that God would use The Pathway and other Jesus loving churches to see the gospel take root and bring explosive spiritual and numerical growth for the kingdom of God in the city of Tacoma. 

We know we serve a resurrection God because our lives have been changed by a resurrected Savior.  Please join me in praying for spiritual resurrection in our city in a BIG way!  And while you're at it... I'd encourage you to pray the same prayer for your community... for your city.

The Power of Partnership

If you're familiar with The Pathway or follow this blog at all you know that partner churches play a huge role in what God has done and is doing in Tacoma through The Pathway.  Seven years ago Kelli and I were prayed over and sent out by our home church, Trinity Baptist in Ada, OK.  Seven years ago!  And they are more engaged in partnership than ever before.

Now, the focus of this blog will be Trinity Baptist.  But let me tell you the truth, we have 12 partner churches and even more individuals, couples and families that pray for, give to and engage with our family and our church.  But you have to know, unfortunately, this is not a common tale.  Somewhere along the church planting trail of tears, churches got the idea that they should partner with plants for 2-3 years and then move on.  Of course I cannot speak for all plants, all partners and all situations, but for us, that would have meant the death of The Pathway.

But by God's grace alone, and for God's glory alone, our partners have been so faithful, so engaged and so generous to us.  And by God's grace alone and for God's glory alone, I believe The Pathway will become a generous, engaged, reproducing church planting church.  That is thanks, in large part, to the kingdom minded example set for us by all of our partners.

Trinity Baptist, Lifepointe Community & The Pathway

Seven years ago Kelli and I were sent out by Trinity to help plant Lifepointe Community Church in Snoqualmie, WA.  The plan was to spend 2 years helping plant, learning the Northwest culture, and finding the city where God had called us to plant our lives and the gospel.  During that time so many families from Trinity prayed for us, supported us financially and encouraged us as we struggled with this new calling on our lives.  Trinity sent a short term mission team to serve with us and Lifepointe in the summer of 2009.

Then God called us to Tacoma.  And let me show you the power of partnership.  Trinity could have easily said good-bye to us after walking with us for almost 2 years.  They could have easily said good-bye to Lifepointe because they had committed to supporting us as a couple and not Lifepointe as a church.  They could have done a lot of things.

What did they do?  They stuck with Lifepointe & The Pathway!

Over the years Trinity has sent Lifepointe and The Pathway more mission teams than I can count.  Trinity has sent both churches summer interns.  Over the course of the years Trinity has sent us young, fired-up young couples and singles who felt compelled by the gospel and supported by their home church to move to an unchurched part of the country and use their gifts for God's glory and mission.  Incredible.

Then in 2014 God called Trinity's own worship pastor, Adam Forgety, and family to come and serve with The Pathway.  Again, the people of Trinity embraced them, encouraged them, prayed for them, and sent them out.  There are individuals and families at Trinity who have been financially supporting The Pathway for 5 years.  They could have easily said they were done.  They could have stopped supporting The Pathway and started supporting Adam and Khylee Forgety.  Instead, so many have continued their generous support of The Pathway and have decided to generously support The Forgety's as well.  WOW!

But why?

I don't think I have an exact answer for that.  But I do believe part of the reason is that Trinity understands and believes in partnership.  Specifically partnership in the gospel.  I believe they love Jesus and the gospel so much that they are committed to seeing lives changed all over the world... Tacoma included.  I believe it's because that church is filled with families, leaders and pastors who passionately love God, believe the gospel whole-heartedly, and are committed to the Great Commission.

Then this weekend, in an attempted "surprise," (thank you Chris & Courtney!) Trinity sent a 10 member team (5 to Snoqualmie and 5 to Tacoma) to bless our churches and our leaders.  They came simply to encourage our family, the Forgety's and the pastors and staff in Snoqualmie.  That's it.  No agenda other than to bless and encourage us.  And they sent our friends... really, they sent the spiritual family we left behind in Ada, OK.

They sent Irby and Cheryl Clary.  They Clary's stayed with our family for 4 days and we were blessed beyond measure.  Irby and Cheryl were our Bible Fellowship teachers at Trinity.  They were the first people we asked to pray for us about our decision to move to the Northwest.  They came to serve on the first mission team to Trinity sent to Tacoma.  They allow us to stay in their home when we come to Oklahoma.  They genuinely love us, they faithfully support us in multiple ways, and they encourage us all the time.

And not surprising, Irby and Cheryl were also Adam and Khylee's Bible Fellowship teachers.  They love them, support them, and have encouraged them through this entire life transition.  One of Khylee's closest friends, Courtney Folsom, came to love on her.  She came to bless all of the women who lead in our church.  She came and encouraged us.  Brett Wiseman, a close personal friend of both Adam and myself, came to the west coast for the first time to minister to us.  He left his family (thank you Rachel) and all the things in life I'm sure he is falling behind on, simple to bless us.

Partnership.  It's a beautiful thing when embraced fully.  And by God's grace alone we have been blessed with "all-in" partners.  And it's those partners... God working through those partners... that keeps me believing that someday soon, our church will mature to become a generous, reproducing, church planting church.

Breaking the silence

Together: Christmas 2015

Happy New year!

I apologize for the extended silence on the blog.  We've had a fantastic holiday season and I wanted to update you.  The church did great things over the Christmas season.  Attendance in our Intentional Community gatherings was steady and our Sunday gathering numbers were up significantly from last December.  Praise Jesus for that!  This past Sunday we had a slim turn-out for the kick-off of our Luke series, but hopefully now that school is starting we'll see consistency rise and growth continue.  That is our prayer and what I'd love for you to be praying as well.

The picture above is of our first ever Together: Christmas gathering.  It was a blast!  As leaders of the church, we try our best to listen to the church as a whole about what's working, what's not and what we should change.  In recent days we continued to hear a cry to do more things Together.  Everything we do flows through our Intentional Communities and we do not want to lose that.  We believe that approach allows fewer people to get "lost" in the busyness of life and ministry and that it provides the most effective pathway for being the church.  But we LOVE that people want to be with their church so we've started a Together initiative.  These are opportunities for all of our IC's to unite together for a gathering, celebration, training, etc.  Together: Christmas was the first such gathering and it was so much fun!

We had a big family style pot-luck dinner on Christmas Eve.  We had an interactive telling of the Christmas story with all of the kids in the church and then we went caroling in the neighborhood around the school where we gather.  It was crazy, informal, fun and worshipful.  And best of all it was Together!  It was family time and we are learning how valuable that can be.

I also finished up my UPS experiment on Christmas Eve.  It meant I arrived at Together: Christmas a bit late but I didn't miss it all.  Overall the UPS experiment was a success.  It was not nearly as draining on my family as we feared it might be.  It gave me a foot in the door with a good company in case I ever need to go back to work seasonal, part-time or full-time.  It also gave me a great refresher course in what the missionaries in our church face every day in their jobs, on their campuses and in the "real world."  I thought I remembered... I didn't.

The culture was just spiritually dead.  That's the best way to put it.  It was lost.  It was broken.  It was self-serving and cut-throat.  It was sad and it was in need of joy.  It was hopeless and in need of hope.  It was dark and in need of light.  I'm so thankful that we have a church pursuing the calling of being missionaries to their worlds and I pray that God would use my time and UPS to make me a more relevant teacher, encourager and disciple-maker so that our people are better equipped to be more effective as they go into the world and preach the gospel.

Thank you as always for your support and if there's one phrase I would ask you to repeat over and over in your prayers for our church and the people of Tacoma, it would be life change.  Pray that God brings massive, undeniable and supernatural life change this week, this month and this year for his glory and fame alone!

We are also anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first mission team of 2015 tonight.  Please pray for God to use a group from The Austin Stone to reach people for Jesus over the next several days.  Pray specifically for a concert we are sponsoring at a local spot in downtown Tacoma on Saturday night.  Thank you!