arieljvan.com

One exciting aspect of church planting is taking a big picture vision and adding detail and color so that it begins to take shape for other people. Case in point: Now you can download a Prospectus for Crossroads Church (working title).

This file, which reads somewhat like an adventure story, gives background on our purpose, our plan, our passion, and our partners. (How do you like that alliteration?) The file is a little large (11 MB) since we couldn’t resist adding pictures, but no one uses dial-up anymore, right?

If you want to know more about what we’re doing, grab this PDF, scan it, and shoot us your thoughts or questions. We’re talking with as many potential partners in person as we can–if something on the “partners” page grabs you, be sure and let us know.

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.

We’re coming off a couple of great interactions with pastors and people at young church plants. Early last week, I had the opportunity to grab coffee with Troy Campbell, who pastors New Life in the middle of the Crossroads District in downtown Kansas City. Troy told me about his church planting journey and gave me a tour of the remarkable loft-like space currently being developed for New Life on the fourth floor of an office building.

New Life already has its share of stories, as they’ve served in one of KC’s worst neighborhoods, seen people come to Jesus, and essentially worked and prayed their way into the ideal new location, despite the sky-high costs of real estate downtown. I deeply appreciated Troy’s willingness to share his experience (and prayers) with a young buck he doesn’t know from Adam.

Then, this past weekend, Lindsay and I enjoyed a similar experience, as we packed up Asher (travels well), dropped off Aidan at his grandparents’ (travels like a caged Rottweiler), and drove north to Ottumwa, Iowa. A couple months ago, Marty Schmidt, who pastors a young church plant in Ottumwa, had asked me if I’d think about coming to preach at thebridge. When I asked Marty what had possessed him to invite me, he said it was more of a Holy Spirit thing, at which point I clearly couldn’t say no.

Kidding aside, it was an almost surreal opportunity to go preach at a growing church, talk with Marty and others (thanks Brandon and Johna!) about their stories, and get a good look at what these Christians are doing in Ottumwa, which is the drug capital of Iowa, an urban/suburban hybrid city where the two sides of the tracks are pretty clearly marked. Once again, I was amazed at the generosity and graciousness of Marty and others in welcoming us, praying for us, and investing in us during the time we were there.

These types of meetings remind me what an alien, illogical things the faith, hope, and love of Jesus are. Apart from the gospel and grace of Christ, there’s no reason for busy, established leaders to take the time to pour into a dude they’ve never met before. As well, only Jesus makes a lasting difference in neighborhoods riddled with drugs and guns.

Experiences like these will help form our vision as we move forward. As I talked with Lindsay about the last week, we were refreshed by the rare goodness of grace, as people who have been loved against all odds by God extend that same love generously to people they hardly know.

We want to see the same grace of Jesus take root as we serve Kansas City.

(If you missed it, here’s our first update.)

This weekend Lindsay, Asher and I will be heading to thebridge in Iowa, where I’ve been given the opportunity to preach. We’re pumped about this. Making the weekend even more exciting is the fact that this is the preaching equivalent to a substitute teaching assignment or a blind date. Here’s how pastor Marty Schmidt explains it:

Back in March we brought Lon Wong in as a guest teacher at thebridge. Prior to Lon’s visit I had only known him through his blog. I was energized by how his mind worked and thought he would be a great catalyst for us at thebridge. We were not disappointed. Lon flew in dropped an awesome message on us and went back to that small city in Canada known as Toronto (which by the way will be hosting an NFL game this year!).

I wasn’t all that sure we would do something like this again. It felt like it was one of those God ordained moments that was a one and done. But over the past few months the promptings reemerged and I was again led to toss an invitation to teach at thebridge to someone I had never met before. After some prayer on both sides, AJ has agreed to drive up from his small city of Kansas City (which by the way will be hosting 8 NFL games this year - no playoffs for you Chiefs fans) to visit us in Ottumwa and guest teach next week. We have been praying for him and his family the past few weeks and are super stoked about what he has for us.

I haven’t apprised Marty of the fact that I’m a militant KU hoops fan, a fact I plan to unveil about halfway through the message. More seriously, we really appreciate the generosity and faith behind this invitation. If you think of it, pray for me. I’ll let you know how my shtick goes over.