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Last night Lindsay and I had the privilege of hosting Scott and Sharlain Donahue for dinner at our place, and talking ad nauseum about church planting. Scott and Charlane are currently living in Oklahoma, and are seriously thinking about moving back to KC, MO to plant a church somewhere in the metro area. Their journey toward church planting has some similarities to our own, and it was great to hear the story.

Aside: I’m realizing this is one reason people involved in church planting like to hang out together—it’s kind of like listening to yourself talk and then saying, “Yeah, that’s exactly right, dude.”

With 5.2 billion invested in development, over 500,000 people in the metro area and 2 million in greater KC, this area needs dozens of new churches. The cool thing is, I’m aware of at least a half dozen working to get off the ground right now. Off the top of my head, I can think of 3 Southern Baptist plants, a couple non-denominational, one Lutheran, and one Acts 29.

One thing that gets me pumped is the prospect of cooperating with like-minded people who get the gospel, love Jesus, love the city, to help KC get a renewed vision for who Christ is. There’s every reason that should be a group effort.

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.]

We’re waiting to get the “official” results of our church planter assessment with the Missouri Baptist Convention, which took place over the weekend. However, a couple of hired informants have told us that the results are “very good.” More details when we get the write-up in the mail, but we’re encouraged and continuing to move forward.

Just in case any of you were waiting on pins and needles.

In a few minutes, Lindsay and I are headed to Jefferson City, Missouri for a church planter assessment with the Missouri Baptist Convention. The assessment extends through Saturday, and if things go well, this will open doors for an internship and planting partnership down the road, as we take step to plant a church in urban Kansas City.

We’re both a little sleep-deprived (Aidan, Asher, Olympics) and I’m battling a summer cold. But if there’s sufficient coffee on hand, we should be OK.

If you think of it, pray for us this weekend. We want to discern God’s will clearly as we try to build bridges for planting.

I’ve been meaning to link this post forever. J. Dodson at Church Planting Novice (a title I thought about stealing for this blog) looks at the episode where Jesus deals with a demon possessed man, and asks what we can learn about Christ. Great thoughts, and here’s an excerpt from his conclusions:

The Masculinity of Jesus: Jesus was radical but not because he was Van Helsing–vanquishing only evil and preserving good. Jesus conquered evil through counter-cultural redemption. In an age of emasculated, Fight Club, Ultimate Fighting voyerism, men do well to learn from the actions of Jesus. His masculinity was shaped, not by violent outbursts or the destruction of weird and wicked foes, but by mercy and redemption. He encountered the evil and suffering of this world with otherworldly wisdom and bold compassion. Is your Jesus this kind of manly?