September ‘08 Church Planting Update (3)
If a mountain lion wants into your family picture, there's not much you can do to keep him out.
A lot has happened since our last church planting update.
Near the end of August, Lindsay and I drove out to Jefferson City for a “church planter assessment” with the Southern Baptist Convention. The basic idea with an assessment is to evaluate prospective planters and their wives via a series of interviews with seasoned planters and an extensive written questionnaire (over 400 questions). This process yields a profile that evaluates character, personality type, spiritual gifting, etc.-in short, the ingredients that the Bible says are crucial in leaders, combined with indicators that decades of research have shown are important in church planting. (One of the tools used is the Ridley Characteristics.)
We finished the assessment on Saturday, stopped by Jeff City’s main attraction, the amazing Central Dairy, and headed home to watch movies, play tic-tac-toe, and do crosswords while we waited for our results. About two weeks later, we got the official report: “Go for it!” Or, in church planting parlance, “It is the recommendation of the Church Planting Assessing Team that the candidate will be most effective as a Founding Church Planter.”
This opens doors for us to partner with the Missouri Baptist Convention and receive access to training, a local strategist, an internship, and some funding. This is our first substantial partnership, and something that excites me is God’s people getting together to advance the gospel, so I’m pumped about this.
In a few days, we’ll be heading back to Jefferson City for church planter “Basic Training” and some more incredible ice cream, if I get my way. We’re looking forward to jumping into the nuts & bolts of all this, and beginning to put specific plans together. In addition, we’ve also kicked off an internship partnership with a
young church plant in Independence, Missouri, LifeConnection. This will allow us to get our hands dirty in the day-to-day operations of a church plant and gain some invaluable experience while we work with the great team pastor Jason Allen has put together.
Over the weekend, Lindsay and I were walking the streets of KC’s Crossroads art district, feeling a sense of excitement as we toured the galleries open on “First Fridays” and did some people-watching. We feel like things are (finally) beginning to accelerate after a long summer of thinking and waiting. We have a ton of work ahead of us, but it’s good to be meaningfully busy. Here are some things we’d love for you to pray for us:
- That we’d find the right house. KC’s Westside neighborhood, just outside downtown, seems perfect, but housing there is not cheap. We’re also considering moving to Independence for the duration of the internship. Pray that God will open the right door.
- That we’d find the right core team members. We’re beginning to put together the team God will use to get a downtown church plant off the ground. Pray that we’ll find the right people.
- That we’d discover the right partners. Not everyone can be part of a church plant in a core team, hands-on way, but God puts it on some people’s hearts to support new gospel work by donating volunteer time, prayer, or money, or some combination thereof. Pray that we’ll discover the right partners, both churches and individuals.
As always, feel free to send us your thoughts or questions. Thanks for reading our updates!
Peace,
Ariel (AJ), Lindsay, Aidan, and Asher
[If you'd like to get these monthly updates in your emailbox, join our downtown KC church plant Google group.]
September 8th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
How very exciting! We will certainly be praying for you! We’ve been involved in a church plant (RPCNA) for a few years - it became an organized church in Oct. 2006. It’s been such a blessing.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Thanks for the prayers! I didn’t realize you guys were part of a plant, that’s really cool. Don’t suppose your church is looking to partner with a new plant in KC, MO?