What’s In a Name?

February 20, 2010
bridge (nikkispick on flickr)

image: <nikkispic> on flickr

It’s been far too long since Joy in the Journey has had an update.  A good friend of mine, Stevan Sheets, expressed frustration about ministries that don’t let some light in on the process they’re using/journey they’re on.  So, for Stevan, I’m going to do a better job at updating our process/journey as church planters in Pittsburgh.


It seems fitting to begin by sharing that what we have been calling “The Pittsburgh Church Plant” now has a name.  We are: The Bridge.

Now, I know this may not seem the most unique name for a missional community of believers you’ve ever heard of (we were thinking of something heretofore unheard of like “Faith Community Church” or “First Baptist” or “Second Wesleyan” or “St. Luke’s”, but, alas, we found out those names had already been taken, too…) but “The Bridge” really does fit our passion and mission in Pittsburgh.  We are driven to see people cross from death to life in Christ Jesus.  We are focused on the birth of a multiethnic, multicultural church where race, culture, and ethnicity aren’t seen so much as obstacles to overcome but aspects of life to embrace and celebrate in worship to the creative God who gave us something greater than a monolithic human race.  We are engaged as missionaries connecting a relatively rural district to an urban center.  We are praying God uses us to help equip others to overcome obstacles to they can further engage Pittsburgh and many other urban centers.

So, there it is: we’re The Bridge.

Soon, information on where we can be found on the web and through social networking will become available.  In the meantime, we humbly ask that you pray for The Bridge and the people who will be part of this new church.

Next post: a little bit on our process for landing a name.


By JeremiahGomez | Posted in church planting | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

JourneyNote #3

December 13, 2009

55.5 Square Miles

Within an area of 55.5 square miles, not very far from where I write these words, is a community which is home to fortune 500 companies, seats of commerce, houses of industry and institutions of innovation and education.  Within those 55.5 square miles, hundreds of thousands work, live, and build relationships.  Millions more live just outside the area.

The community found within that tract of land is known for an uncanny ability to reinvent itself; so resilient are these people that the recent G-20 Summit was hosted there to showcase one city’s ability to not only weather but grow stronger through economic crises and global storms.

Within those 55.5 square miles, you will find incredible fusions of old and new, stayed and untried.  You will also find 455 bridges, 712 public stairways, 8 tunnels, 90 distinctive neighborhoods, and 140 separately identifiable ethnic groups.

But you won’t find a single Wesleyan Church.

In fact, you won’t find a Wesleyan church within what is considered ‘reasonable driving distance’ of those 55.5 square miles.

I’m sharing about the city of Pittsburgh, where “95 percent of the local population has no recognizable, identifiable relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Sarah and I, partnering with the Cox family (Rick, Eunice, and Trevor), and, hopefully, partnering with you, are working to change at lease one of those statistics.  The Coxes and Gomezes have joyfully accepted the call to church planting in the Pittsburgh region and are growing in passion for what we sense as God’s desire in the area.

Our heart’s passion is to see a multiethnic, multicultural church right in the ‘Burgh.  We sense God’s leadership in developing a relevant, engaging hub of ministry to people from a variety of cultural, economic, and spiritual backgrounds–where once steel was forged, now lives are fused with the Spirit of God, strengthened and engaged as members of His Body.   What we can see is a multiplication center working within the heart of the city where countless individuals are sent out as missionaries to the communities of Pittsburgh, the surrounding areas, throughout the region and around the world.  In fact, God is already drawing people to be part of this great work and we believe His dreams are far bigger than ours.

Does any of this stir your heart with excitement and passion?  If so, remain on the lookout because in a few days, we’ll be sending you more information on how you can be involved in this Great Pittsburgh Adventure.

By JeremiahGomez | Posted in JourneyNotes | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

JourneyNote

November 7, 2009

bridgeA couple of months ago, my wife sent the following JourneyNote to many of our friends and family.  It’s a bit of a personal update I thought you might enjoy.  The second Note was sent out yesterday; but here’s the first one for your perusal:

To our family and friends:

Yes, you.  If you are receiving this note, than you can be sure that we consider you family or friend (or both!!).

As many of you already know and some may have heard through different grapevines, life has taken some twists and turns in the last six months or so for Jeremiah and me.  Our time of pastoring at Carlisle Wesleyan came to an end in mid-June, and since then we have been trying to decipher the ‘next steps’ that God has prepared for us to do.  God has been proving himself to be our provider as we began the difficult transformation into realizing that we couldn’t do it for ourselves!

Part of what God has begun to unveil to us is that deep in the DNA of who he created us to be, there is the unique make-up of “church planters”.  While the idea of taking part in a church plant (a new church) has shown itself a few times since our years at Bethany, it wasn’t until recently that God began showing this to us not only as a viable option of what he could do through us, but perhaps even the very thing he wanted to accomplish through us.

So our journey continues; as our family and friends, we cherish the idea of taking you along for the ride.  Every couple of weeks, we will be writing these “JourneyNotes” to hopefully accomplish two things: 1- to keep you up to date on what we are up to, and 2- to keep you aware of specific ways you can be praying for us.  If you’d rather not receive our JourneyNotes, all you need to do is reply to this email and let us know you’d like to be removed; if you do wish to receive these updates, please be sure to add these two email addresses to your ’safe email’ lists: jeremiah<at>jxgomez<dot>com and sarah<at>jxgomez<dot>com (also, if you have another e-mail address you’d prefer we send these Notes to, don’t hesitate to let us know!).

We know that we are not the only ones involved in this sojourn through life, and would love to hear from you and have you share specific ways we can be praying for you as well.

We thank God for the gift of each of you,
Sarah (and Jeremiah!)

PS–Another way you can keep up to date on what we are up to is to follow our blogs (these notes will be posted there as well). Jeremiah’s blog can be found at jxgomez.com/blog and Sarah’s blog is at sdgomez.blogspot.com

By JeremiahGomez | Posted in JourneyNotes | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Retail Reflections: StockBoy

October 1, 2009
487794_chemistry_4<image courtesy of vierdrie>

A little while ago, I shared my experience interviewing for a home improvement retailer.  You can read that post here.  During my recent journey of searching for and being given work, I experienced some interactions with the retail world that might be useful in informing different aspects of the Church world.

One of the other potential employers who needed ‘very open availability’ was only able to commit to five hours a week of work.  Again, the pay rate wasn’t anything spectacular.  But here’s how the interview process played out:

  • Brief, initial phone interview focused mostly on verifying information from the application and confirming ‘very open availability.
  • One-on-one interview with a potential supervisor.  Questions covered everything from experience to hypothetical ‘what-if’s.”
  • One-on-one interview with the potential supervisor’s supervisor.  More questions, but mostly casual interaction much more conversational in tone.
  • One-on-one conversation and clarification with the “HR Lady.”

Pretty involved for a part-time, low-paid position, wouldn’t you agree?  Much of the questioning and conversation centered around two things: availability and chemistry.

In a retail world, availability is king.  If you can’t actually be at work when people are going to be buying things, you’re not going to be much of an asset to the company.  The question was, “are you actually willing to commit to being here and making this a priority?”  Through experience as well as recognizing the ramping-up for the holiday shopping season, this potential employer knew they needed to clarify issues of availability.  Not being able to show up when they most needed to show up meant not getting the job.  Period.

Remember, we’re talking about a guaranteed *five hours* of work a week here… but needing wide-open availability all week long.

Chemistry was also important.  Everything related to serving in this environment was about ‘teamwork.’  Each shift contributes to the success of the store as part of a team; preparations for the next day’s selling activities are completed as a team; training is administered to staff as a team.  The concept of the ‘team’ is very, very important.  Someone coming on who is focused too much on themselves will have a negative impact on the team; likewise, someone who can’t take personal responsibility will also negatively impact those around them and the store’s bottom line.

It was clear this working together aspect was incredibly important… and why, I believe, I interacted with so many people in the course of pursuing a job offer.

When it comes to finding people for our ministry teams, we would be wise to consider these aspects of the process as incredibly important, too.  If a retailer spends so much time checking to see if commitment and chemistry are so important before investing a small hourly wage in their employee, maybe the Church should care for these things in pursuit of advancing the Kingdom of Christ.

What level of commitment are we expecting from our people?  Now, I’m not saying we push people too hard or too far; and I’m not advocating the idea that every member should sacrifice everything outside of church for church (that’s not really ministry… but I’ll save that for some other post some other time).  In my experience, people rise exactly to what we expect of them.  Expect half-hearted participation and that’s what you’ll get.  Expect deep commitment from those who serve out of love, and watch them rise to the occasion.

How much are we looking for chemistry and teamwork rather than ‘rising stars?’   I got the feeling this particular retailer had passed ‘qualified applicants’ by because they lacked the ability to work on a team.  Maybe we could take a page from that play book and again realize that a ‘qualified‘ ministry team member does not always the right ministry team member make.

By JeremiahGomez | Posted in church | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Retail Reflections: CartBoy

September 17, 2009

92853732_0e89e5cc83<image courtesy of iboy_daniel>

Since leaving a position as pastor of a local church this summer, I’ve been hunting for work wherever I thought it could be found.  Recently, I was provided with a job at  a retail store, but this wasn’t the first retail interview I had experienced as of late (a couple of interviews led to job offers which needed ‘very open availability’–read “Sunday-Saturday 8AM-10PM available”–with very low pay and no guarantee of more than five or eight hours a week).

But as I’ve gone through the process of interviewing for and engaging with a job much different than my last one, I’ve been struck by some of the lessons/practices which could be used by the Church in its pursuit of invading the world with Christ’s love & power.  I’ll share some of them here in between the next few Joshua posts.  Here’s the observation for today–simple and obvious, but worth mentioning:

Discern Stengths and Abilities
One of the jobs I interviewed for was CartBoy (not the industry term) for a popular big-box home improvement retailer.  You may recall earlier the mention of little pay and few hours and, as you can imagine, “CartBoy” is a position that mostly requires interacting with shopping carts.  Still, this particular retailer knew that even CartBoys and CartGirls can strengthen or undermine a positive customer experience.  So, before the interview for a low-paid, very part-time CartPerson position could be completed, I was assigned another employee who would observe my interactions with customers on the salesfloor.

Either I would be comfortable and able to engage customers or I wouldn’t function well within the structure and focus the organization had.  Rather than wait to find out if I had no personality, the store mananger didn’t want the interview to go forward without a sense of my strengths and abilities.

You know what they didn’t check?  My knowledge of pushing carts.  Cart-pushing technique–and, oh yes, there is a technique–can be taught.  Chemistry with the customer can’t.   The store could have just settled for a guy or girl who was willing to push a bunch of carts, but the skill was less important than preserving the purpose of the store: to serve the consumer.

The lesson here: just because someone has a skill doesn’t mean they are right for a given position or service opportunity.  We can teach whatever skill we need; but finding the right people and getting them in place is harder work.  If we ignore this lesson, though, we end up with burnt out, tired, frustrated people with hearts of gold… when all they needed was the opportunity to fulfil their purpose and that of the church in a way that can’t be taught but is incredibly valuable.

By JeremiahGomez | Posted in church | Tagged , , | Comment (1)

Today…

September 1, 2009

church_modern_classical_234086_l…I’ll be spending the day with a great group of people who are dedicated to creating a movement of church multiplication in what many would say is an unlikely place.    I’ll be meeting with the Church Multiplication Task Force for the Western Pennsylvania District of The Wesleyan Church or TOOMANYLETTERS if you’re making an acronym.

Say what you will about our penchant for too-long names, but the fact is the people I serve with are passionate about seeing new churches planted.  Now, you may find yourself wondering why Western Pennsylvania needs new churches, anyway.  If you were to take an even cursory glance at many of the communities in this area, it would seem most of them need yet another church like most communities need yet another abandoned storefront.

But here’s the deal: just because you may see a lot of churches, that doesn’t mean there all that many who are connected with a local church.  More than ever before it seems our communities—large and small; rural and urban; new and historic—are in desperate need of churches who will bridge the divide between culture and the hope, love, and power of Christ.  Those very communities may not even recognize this need, but it is there and it is almost palpable.

So, today, I get to take part in what God is doing to make the dream of new churches a reality… as part of the dream of seeing the lives of those yet unreached in our own neighborhoods invaded with the light and life of Jesus.  Our thinking is that every local church exists because somebody at some time had the courage and foresight to start it…

They Did.  We Will.

–

What if you are someone God has given the foresight and passion to start something new in the name of his Kingdom in order that more people will know what it is to be called ’sons and daughters of God’?  Will you step out of what is comfortable to cross cultural, generational, and conventional boundaries?

They did.

Will you?

To find out more about church planting in Western PA, check out theydidwewill.org and theydidwewill.blogspot.com.

–
Image courtesy of slonecker

By JeremiahGomez | Posted in church planting | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

CPAC Reflection: Fear

August 28, 2009
282917665_ea0e711add (1)<image courtesy of oddstock>

As I’ve spoken to people who have experienced the Assessment Center, and to people who are a little timid about going—I’ve been struck by the discussion on how nervous they were in coming into Assessment.  You can count me among them: part of being nervous is the fear of the unknown, and part of it has to do with a misconception of ‘how much is riding’ on a person’s performance.  Here are some things which might help in settle your own nerves if you’re thinking of attending.

First of all, the Assessment Center is not the end-all of church planting. There’s a fear that enters when we think of being assessed as pass/fail or somehow having to perform well in order to ‘advance.’  The assessors make it very clear that their assessment is simply a recommendation; whatever agency the potential planter will be working with still has to make the call about who will be planting and what that will look like within their own paradigm.  As said before, I personally think your best bet is to view any kind of assessment as a tool for discerning how God wired you… so a ‘red light’ shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Secondarily, only the potential lead planter is being assessed.  Sarah (my wife) and the spouse of another potential planter both expressed a fear that they might some how ‘wreck’ the experience for their husbands, “What if he gets approved, but I don’t?”  Now, part of Assessment is an evaluation of relationship health if you’re married, and that evaluation is important.  But Sarah’s ‘role’ in all of this was definitely to participate, to answer some questions, and for this to be ‘our’ thing rather than ‘mine’… but she was not the one being assessed.  Spouses, if you are not the one feeling led to be a lead planter, there’s no sense of ANY pressure on you.  Just be there, love your husband/wife, and walk through it together.

Finally, there is no sense that if you assess well then you MUST plant a church.  As the title of this site indicates, I’m aware we’re all on a journey; maybe CPAC or something like it is part of your journey, but even a strongly positive assessment doesn’t mean you must do something.  As with anything, though, be open… and be ready for God to blow the lid off whatever box you’ve been operating within.  He likes doing that; and he’s very, very good at it.

By JeremiahGomez | Posted in Assessment Center | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

CPAC Reflection: Priorities

August 26, 2009
Check<image courtesy of iprole>

As promised, I’m posting some general (or maybe specific?) reflections about my recent experience at the Church Planter Assessment Center last week.

The first thing I think each of us were struck by was the sense of ‘priority’ communicated: early on in the experience, the potential planters were told the focus of CPAC is on advancing the Cause of the Kingdom.  Because no tool in our ministry arsenal is as effective at reaching those who don’t know Christ as a new church,  great emphasis is being placed on planting new churches.  While the more cynical among us might assume that a denominational emphasis on starting new churches is a solely self-sustaining move (The Wesleyan Church currently closes more churches in a year than it opens), there was never any sense of ‘we must plant new churches or the denomination will die.’  There was great urgency in planting new churches so thousands of people will enter into relationship with Christ.

Because church planting is a bit of a different animal when it comes to ministry, the purpose of the Assessment Center is to evaluate potential planters on their likelihood for church planting succes.  But this was explained to demonstrate the desire of the assessors and denomination to help people find their ’sweet spot’ in the life of the Kingdom, because when everything is in the right place, the Body functions much more effectively.

This immediately took pressure off to see CPAC as a pass/fail scenario.  Instead, it is meant to be a discernment tool in understanding how God has wired an individual.  I have a friend who very much disliked the whole Assessment experience because they saw it as pass/fail and nothing else.  When you understand it as a tool to help find where you best ‘fit,’ it becomes a very freeing, informative experience.

The idea of ‘priority’ is also seen in the way Assessment is paid for—if a potential planter is given a green or conditional-green (yellow) light, the denomination sends a grant to the home district of the assessed party in order to significantly defray the cost.  CPAC costs about $1500 to attend, on top of travel, lodging, some meals, and about $80 worth of pre-assessment personality and strengths finding tools.  Speaking for our own district, they placed such a high priority on all of this, they went out of their way so the folks from WPA wouldn’t have to incur any of the cost associated with attending.

I’m definitely not into the ‘my-denomination/district-is-better-than-yours’ discussion, but I can say I feel privileged serve in a district and denomination which puts such a hugh priority in reaching people disconnected from Jesus and helping its ministers find the place they can be most effective.

Next time, I’ll share some of why a lot of the nervousness people feel going into Assessment is unfounded.

By JeremiahGomez | Posted in Assessment Center | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

CPAC, Day One

August 18, 2009

36963900_4106e91ed1<Image courtesy of Clearly Ambiguous>

Today was a great ‘introduction’ day—the three couples here for Assessment got a chance to get to know each other, and we were given a glimpse of the process involved in CPAC before jumping in headlong.  Before we go any further, though, it’s worth noting that it was communicated time and time again that this process is much more about discovering who God has created us to be and to find the best ministry fit than it is about any kind of pass-or-fail scenario.  The advice given to us: have fun and enjoy the incredible gift of having three days full of people taking the time to help us understand who we are and how God may be leading us.  Sounds like very wise advice to me.

We began with each potential planter delivering two messages: five minutes to a ‘room of unchurched people’ on why they should consider Jesus, and five minutes attempting to convince someone to join you in a ministry endeavor.  Following their ‘talks,’ each couple had a few minutes answering questions in front of the group.

That led to our first interview time—each couple was assigned an assessor and was privately interviewed for about two and half hours (there will be more interviewing tomorrow).  The ‘interview’ was a lot like filling out a verbal questionnaire about past experiences.  What is likely to be is best found by what has already been; in other words, how someone will act/react/perform can be pretty well predicted by how they’ve acted/reacted/performed in the past; so the assessors use questions that help identify themes and constants throughout the life of the potential planter.  The times of interview, so far at least, haven’t been overly uncomfortable or super invasive, but very conversational in tone.

After our interview sessions, everybody regrouped for supper (us ‘assessees’ all sat together to enjoy some more get-to-know-you time and conversation—it’s amazing to spend time with people who are so passionate about what God not only can do but desires to do in our world.

But now it’s time to get some rest—tomorrow will be a long, full day.  All of us are excited to see how God uses this time to prepare our ‘next steps.’  But before I head to bed, I would like to make a request of those who may happen to be reading this—all of our talk today has been focused on being used by God to advance his Kingdom and the glory of his Great Name, and I’m reminded of one of Jesus’ commands in terms of what we should pray for.

Matthew 9:

35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.“

So, my request is that you would ask the Lord of harvest to send out workers into his field.  A bit of warning before you do that, though: you just might find yourself being sent into that very field… across the street or across the globe.  And maybe part of that journey for you is taking part in an assessment much like this one…

–
This entry is also posted at theydidwewill.blogspot.com, the blog of the Church Multiplication Task Force of the WPA District of the Wesleyan Church.

By JeremiahGomez | Posted in Assessment Center | Tagged , , , | Comment (1)

C.P.A.C.

August 17, 2009
146353219_172777c489<image courtesy of billy verdin>

Beginning Tuesday, Sarah and I will be attending the Church Planter Assessment Center as part of a potential ‘next step’  (a special thanks Western PA District of The Wesleyan Church, who is investing the cost of attending CPAC in Sarah and me); we’ll be there with two other couples, including Rick and Eunice Cox, who are also from the WPA District.   If time and energy allow, I’ll be posting reflections of the day’s activities each evening (be warned, it may be nonsensical gobbeldy-gook or nothing more than a terse sentence); hopefully, if you’re thinking of being assessed, it will help answer some of the questions you may have.  It will also be a good read (I’m hoping!) for those of you who are curious about the planting and pre-planting processes we use.

In the meantime, it might be helpful to know what the Assessment is all about.  Here’s how the Assessment Center describes itself:

We are confident that this will be a powerful and highly worthwhile personal experience that will provide you with greater self-awareness about your ministry strengths and gifts, as well as your potential for church planting success. You and your sponsoring district or parent church will receive an objective, team-based evaluation to help you both make the wisest possible decisions about your church planting leadership.

In other words, the people of the Center look at the likely success of an individual or couple as the ‘lead planter(s)’ in a new church.  The result of a fairly intense, multi-day process is an evaluation focused simply on the likely success of the potential planter articulated as a “Green Light,” “Yellow Light” or “Red Light.”

Red Light… is an indicator that the potential planter is not likely to find themselves effective in a planting environment right now.

Yellow Light… indicates the potential planter is more likely to find success in a planting environment if certain growth areas are given due attention.

Green Light… indicates that the evaluators feel the planter is likely to find success/effectiveness in their endeavors.

It’s important to note, again, this relates just to church planting  and isn’t a judgment on people, personalities or ministry calling; it is meant to help potential church planters and the districts, churches, and individuals which invest in new churches to thrive.  A ‘Red Light’ shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing, but more as an aid in discerning whether or not planting is the right ministry path for someone right now.  A ‘Green Light’ doesn’t mean one person/couple is ‘better’ than another, but that they seem to have the gifts and personal traits that tend to be found in effective church planters.  A ‘Green Light’ isn’t a guarantee of ’success’, either.

This all helps to make sure that someone isn’t setting themselves up for failure, and that they are designed for/capable of handling the unique stresses, pressures, and situations that are involved in attempting to launch a new, Kingdom advancing church.  From the outside, it looks like a great opportunity for someone with potential to be a planter to find out if planting really is the right step for them.

If YOU feel like God might be leading you into the direction of planting a church, you should connect with Shawn Cossin and surf on over to Uought2.org.  And, maybe one day, we’ll see YOU at assessment!

–
This entry also posted at theydidwewill.blogspot.com, the blog of the Church Multiplication Task Force of the WPA District of the Wesleyan Church.

By JeremiahGomez | Posted in church | Tagged , , | Comments (0)