Archives For church planting

Favor: Post 1 (of 5)

January 24, 2011 — 4 Comments

The Bridge is having a Grand Opening Celebration this weekend (it’s our ‘official launch’ for those of you who prefer church-planty lingo) and we are incredibly excited. It’s hard to believe the day will actually be here — especially when you stop to consider that a year ago neither the Coxes nor the Gomezes had yet become residents of Pittsburgh and our Launch Team could have been described as ‘embryonic’ at best! In preparation for and celebration of this weekend, I am making it a point to share some of the ways we have seen God’s favor in the adventure of launching The Bridge. So, I’ll be posting one example of this each day from now to Sunday. Here’s today’s:

The Park

Image: Timothy Cox

At the end of August, The Bridge was hosting a “Family Fun Day” as a way to connect with the community. More details about the day will be included in tomorrow’s post, but the biggest hurdle early on was securing a location to hold the event. The park we needed to use didn’t have any openings for the reserved areas; in fact, in the process of looking for open dates, we were told that the park needs to be booked a year in advance and someone else already had the date we needed.  We prayed for God to open a door for us to meet at the right place on the right date, thinking this meant somewhere else, maybe at some other time.

But God moved in an unexpected way: the park opened up for the last Saturday of August and we were able to step right in. Even more exciting, the favor shown to us didn’t end there; more than having one pavilion at one end of the park, we were invited to make use of a much larger recreation area including two pavilions and the land between them; we were invited to use large playing courts and given run of the place from water to electricity, from ample parking (when the offer came to have a league softball game rescheduled) to extra trash receptacles. In a moment we went from ‘impossibility’ to ‘blessed beyond measure’ as a path was made for us which we could not have cut ourselves.

As we have sought to be where God is moving, he has demonstrated his exceeding faithfulness. I can’t wait to share more with you in the days ahead!

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The Rest of January

January 15, 2011 — 1 Comment

The rest of this month is going to be pretty busy as we prepare for our official launch/”Grand Opening” of The Bridge and spend time serving our community.  We will be hosting preview services, topping-off washer fluid for motorists at local gas stations, hosting a blanket giveaway, and, of course, launching!  In between we’ll be canvassing neighborhoods, inviting friends and neighbors, sending out postcards, and doing whatever else we can to get the word out to the community.

We have seen the Holy Spirit go before us in amazing ways, and in the next post, I’ll share some of the highlights of how he’s shown us his favor (it’s probably going to leave you speechless). In the meantime, we are asking you to keep the following events as points of serious prayer throughout the month:

  • Saturday, January 15 — Washer Fluid Top-Off (Exxon @ 7409 Saltsburg Rd, Penn Hills — click for map) from 10 am – 1 pm
  • Sunday, January 16 — 10:30 am preview service in our new meeting location (Grand Ballroom of 3 Lakes Golf Course)
  • Saturday, January 22 — Washer Fluid Top-Off (Sunoco @ 280 Hulton Rd, Verona — click for map) from 10 am-1 pm
  • Sunday, January 23
    – Final preview service (10:30am @ 3 Lakes Golf Course)
    – “Commissioning service” at Sandy Lake Wesleyan Church
  • Saturday, January 29
    – Washer FluidTop-Off (Sunoco @ 6500 Saltsburg Rd, Penn Hills — click for map) from 10 am-1 pm
    –  Blanket, Scarf, Glove & Hat Giveaway (@ Penn Hills YMCA — click for map) from 10 am – 1pm
  • Sunday, January 30th — LAUNCH SUNDAY! (1o:3o am @ 3 Lakes Golf Course Grand Ballroom, 6700 Saltsburg Rd, Penn Hills (click for map)).

Thanks for praying.  And thanks to to our committed launch team members who are taking an active role in seeing Greater Things coming to Pittsburgh.  This wouldn’t be happening without you!

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Preview!

September 13, 2010 — Leave a comment

The Penn Hills Library: Our Meeting Place

Part of our process in launching The Bridge involves a series of monthly ‘preview’ celebrations.  We’re hoping these monthly gatherings help build momentum while setting the tone for what will be once things are officially up-and-running.  They also help to figure out what connects well and what doesn’t work so well given the culture and context of Penn Hills.

Yesterday, we had our first monthly celebration–our very first public worship gathering, and it was a phenomenal experience.  Thanks to those of you who were praying for us before and during the gathering; we know that it is God’s Spirit who is doing the real work in Penn Hills and that he honors the prayers of his people.  We had a pretty healthy crowd of just over 50 (not bad for a first-go on a Steelers’ Home-Game Sunday!), but of the greatest points of excitement for us is that we’re beginning to see the answer to our prayer for a multiethnic, multicultural local church.  When your launch team is made up of a group of anglos from Western Pennsylvania, it can be difficult to help people see that though we may not look multiethnic or multicultural yet, we are.  It was awesome to see a great deal of diversity in our gathering yesterday.

Reflecting on what happened yesterday got me thinking about our future, as well.  Even though I know that The Bridge won’t stay in ‘church plant mode’ forever, there are a couple things I hope we never lose from these early days:

  • The sense–inherently part of a ‘preview’ service–that we haven’t ‘arrived’ yet: we’re moving toward something greater.
  • A culture of change: Elements of this month’s celebration, timing, and order may never happen the same way again–and that’s okay because we’re attempting a variety of things to connect with those far from God, help people get to know Jesus better, and send followers of Christ out to live as Jesus.
  • Permission to fail: as mentioned above, we’re experimenting to see what works, connects, communicates, and builds the Kingdom of Christ; the beauty of ‘experimentation’ is the freedom to fail at something but keep pressing on.
  • The safety to dream big: the more I journey, the more convinced I am that God calls us to dream big, as long as they are his dreams and not our own fabrications.  The dreams we have for what God can use The Bridge to do in Pittsburgh and the world are. huge.  At least to us.  And in these early stages it is still ‘safe’ to cast gigantic vision and grow in excitement about how ginormous our God is and what he can do, even with broken vessels like us.
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Beauty in the Cluster.

August 31, 2010 — Leave a comment

image: NASA

One of the points of conversation following our FunDay the other day was the beauty of a cluster of churches working together with a missional focus.

We know that there’s no way The Bridge could have, by herself, provided the kind of quality event that people experienced this past Saturday during the Family Fun Day.  We could not have handled the expense, procured the necessary supplies, or raised the army of volunteers needed on our own.  One of the the things that made the day great was seeing so many of our District churches, all with different histories and of varying sizes, partnering together to love on the people of Penn Hills and demonstrate solidarity with us.

The same is true for church planting: for some churches, there’s no way they could, by themselves, daughter a healthy, multiplying church; at least not yet.  For all kinds of reasons, raising up a church planter and sending them out with a healthy team of co-laborers and maybe a good chunk of financial backing (not to mention the prayer support and cheerleading of a mother church) is not really plausible given the present reality of some churches .  But that doesn’t mean they are exempted from the call of church planting or living as missionaries in their spheres of influence.

The beauty of planting and working as a cluster is that the ‘churches that couldn’t’ suddenly CAN find themselves making a tremendous difference and planting healthy churches through partnership.

Sure, there are the needs to make sure there’s a shared vision and sacrifice and maybe someone to give point-leadership during the process… and I know it wouldn’t be easy or clean (but I haven’t yet found the easy, clean parts of following Jesus), but what I saw this past weekend is a small glimmer of what a few connected churches and groups of committed people can do when working in harmony.  It really could change the world.

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That way!

August 24, 2010 — Leave a comment

image: internets_dairy @ flickr

As Sarah and I seek clarity on the ‘where’ of our next ministry endeavor (planting The Bridge’s first daughter church in Pittsburgh), the cry of our spirits to God’s has been, “Show us where you are moving and how to join you there.”

A few years ago, in zeal and even greater  immaturity than I now possess, I probably would have forced an exciting vision to bubble up, created a strategic plan, and then charged after what I had fabricated.  But that isn’t right, and it isn’t at all what we want.  We are praying, “show us when and where to move,” and will develop our plan based on the open doors and sense of God’s leading.  In some ways, it feels like that means “let’s make this whole thing up as we move along,” but it’s the best way I know to heed what the Spirit directs rather than chase and build my own cardboard kingdom.

So, we wait for clarity and believe when the time is right we’ll find a passion for a specific people/area growing within us along with an undeniable sense of where we must be.  It is in the waiting and silence, however, when I am most tempted to pursue my own design.  I have a feeling waiting isn’t nearly as hard as the alternative of moving on our own terms and then expecting God’s blessing to follow…

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