It Has Begun.

As many of you know, part of my DNA for many years now has been to start a church. Well as of tonight it is official. Dawn and I have begun a church in our home. We actually started several weeks ago but were trying to wait to speak to our current church board to make it "official". Our pastor has known about it the whole time, as well as, several people in our community, thanks to the Nazarene grapevine. We spent about an hour and an half trying to share and explain what we were up to with the board. The majority were very supportive. There is some obvious anxiety as this town is littered with past church splits. We are doing our best to communicate with those who around us that this is not a split, but rather a birth. We are actually discouraging people from joining us as we are attempting to not be a twin of the modern church but rather something else. The toughest part, however, is figuring out that elseness. To get an idea of our vision for this ministry (I prefer that name over church as we are all part of the church) take a couple of minutes to read Isiah 58. It lays out what we are to be like as followers of God.

The reality is we don't really know what we are supposed to do which is actually quite freeing. It's freeing as we realize that if we are to be "successful" in God's eyes, the only eyes that matter, we need to be totally dependent upon Him and His leadership. (success: someone making one step closer to God) It takes all the stress off of me. I simply am trying to take God at his word and trust him. My prayer used to be "God give me the vision" implying the big picture, but it is now "God, just give me the next step" I won't move until until I know it. Our small ministry group is meeting once a week and is spending the majority of our time in prayer and testimony of what God has been doing during the week. By the way, it's pretty sweet being this simple.

Some reasons for starting another church(George Barna):
1991- 35,000,000 people in U.S. not attending weekend church service. 2004- 75,000,000 not attending. 2007- 100,000,000

53% of American Adults do not attend church (means that around 8,000-10,000 people in our town do not attend if stats carry over to here

By 2035 half of current churches in current form will be closed.

These are some of the stats, but the main reason is I'm one of them. Though I grew up in the church and it's current form, I find myself wanting more from the body of Christ and knowing that the church should be more. I began noticing the changes in ministry 10-15 years ago but could not figure out what was happening. I still don't really know, but am willing to allow God to help me figure it out.

I will keep you all up-to-date on what is happening but earnestly plead for your prayers.

Anyway if you for some reason thought, I wonder what God's been up to? Have no fear, He's still working!

Blessings on you!