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Northwood/Global Faith Forum Recap

Well, the goal was to write a post every evening after the day’s events were over, but by the time we got back to the hotel room and regained some form of a functioning brain, we were too tired to try to recap. So, for the sake of tiredness and not wanting to bore you with unnecessary detail, I will just mention some of the highlights of the remainder of our time in TX.

1- Met Al Weiss, current president of Walt Disney Parks (including those in other countries). What’s the connection to Al Weiss? He works with Vision 360 on the financial and development side of things. His father was a pastor/church planter and because of that he has two passions in life 1- Disney and 2- Church Planting. This guy is crazy busy and crazy smart, but he took several minutes to talk with each of us church planting couples.

2- Heard from Prince Turki, the youngest son of the deceased King Faisel of Saudi Arabia. He has become a personal friend of Pastor Bob Roberts and he too has a desire to see people of different faiths come together for the common good of humanity. He also extended an invitation to the congregation and us as church planters to visit Saudi Arabia to continue a cooperative movement among different faiths.

3- Heard from Vietnamese Ambassador to the U.S. To be honest, I couldn’t understand much of what he said, but he was there with several other Vietnamese dignitaries also promoting religious cooperation. He too is personal friends with Pastor Bob Roberts. The Northwood Church has been working with the Vietnamese government for 14 years now helping them with any and all areas of need and also hosting kids of Vietnamese dignitaries as exchange students.

4- Ate dinner and had a great discussion with Ray Bakke- Without knowing exactly what he was doing, David somehow got himself into a situation where he and I were eating dinner with Ray Bakke and had him all to ourselves. Ray is a well-known missiologist in the Christian community and has pioneered something called Theology of the City. When he was young, he and his wife moved to a poverty-stricken neighborhood in Chicago for the purpose of reaching the community. I could go into a lot more detail, but just know that this guy has done and helps others do exactly what David and I hope to do- not so much about moving into the poverty-stricken neighborhood. I haven’t felt that call yet, although I don’t put anything past God. But he referred us to an organization called Christian Community Development Association. This is going to be a huge resource for us as we move forward.

5- David’s parents decided to fly in on Saturday to be able to attend the Sunday service at Northwood in which we were commissioned as church planters in front of the Prince of Saudi Arabia and the Vietnamese Ambassador. Pretty cool, huh?

All in all it was a great week and we are so thankful to have had this experience.

Lindsey

Worst Blog Ever!!!

So, I feel like this is turning out to be the worst blog ever and I'm so sorry to all of you who have been checking in on it regularly! I still have a few posts that need to go up from TX which was... ummm... three weeks ago? Seriously pathetic, I know.

I have been so busy lately with all kinds of preparations for baby, finishing up year end photography stuff, starting a new SW position in Columbia, getting ready for Christmas, and then of course all of the regular every day life stuff like grocery shopping, keeping a house clean, etc. I'm not trying to make excuses. I just want you to know where my brain has been.

David has been busy doing what he does... meeting with people, networking, phone calls, emails, helping put together the millions of baby contraptions that we have received : ) Thank you for all of the thoughtful gifts! I think we are more than ready for Emerson to arrive (in terms of equipment that is, not physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, or financially : ).

Lately, David and I have both been reading a book called, A Theology As Big As The City by Ray Bakke. This is a gentleman that we had the privelege of eating dinner with one-on-one while we were in TX. God made a serious connection for us when we ate dinner with this guy. He has been doing and continues to do exactly what we hope to do. What do we hope to do you might be wondering... well in a nutshell: We hope to establish a group of people who love Christ personally and passionately and from the overflow of Christ's love comes a love for the city of Columbia in such a way that spiritually transforms people and socially transforms places. This book puts to words things that have been in our hearts and minds. I would highly recommend getting this book and reading through it. OR you can subscribe to his podcasts if you aren't the reading type and would prefer audio.

Happy Friday! We will try to be better about updating this blog!

Lindsey

Day 2 of Modular Training Part 2

Phew! Another day of hearing from some incredible minds and discussing ideas and dreams with other church planters. Personally, I am exhausted and I'm not sure I can go much longer sitting in chairs that clearly weren't made for pregnant people, but it has been worth it! We were up early again this morning and head deep in note taking by about 8:30 a.m. Pastor Bob Roberts shared with us again this morning, this time on the topic of "The Church that Changes Communities." David and I loved this lecture because that is exactly what we want to be. The last thing Columbia, SC needs is another church building that fills itself with white, middle-upper class Christians for two hours every Sunday to do the church thing. We desperately desire to establish a group of people, Christians and non-Christians who are genuinely and primarily concerned with the state of the community we live in. In fact, it might be more appropriate to say that we want to become community developers. Anyways, we loved this lecture.

The remainder of the day was spent hearing from a guy by the name of Todd MicMichen. Todd is a consultant for churches in crisis, but he is also a church planter and currently the lead pastor of The People's Church in Birmingham, AL. Side note- I love Birmingham - end side note. This man is incredibly gifted in decision-making and directing. He is very strategic and pragmatic. We loved hearing from him. David and I are praying that God will connect us with someone with his kind of decisiveness and pragmatism in Columbia as we continue to develop our vision and strategy for this church plant. We could really use this kind of giftedness.

After this, we did a few activities that involved each individual person developing a one page summary of what our church plant will look like in 3 years if everything goes perfectly. David and I presented separately and got some really great and affirming feedback from the group about our strategy. Little did we know that this was actually Northwood's way of having us present our Prospectuses? Prospecti? We had been dreading what we thought was going to be a formal presentation of our Church Planting Prospectus and it turned out to be a 3 minute explanation of a 10 minute sketch... ha!

At the end of the day, we all headed out to dinner at a local restaurant to unwind and relax... no church planting talk!

Day 1 of Modular Training Part 2

The church planting training is broken up into two sections- Modular Training Part 1, which David attended in August, and Modular Training Part 2 which is what we attended today (Tues., Nov. 9th) and will attend Wednesday and Thursday as well.

We loaded up the van this morning along with our 5 new Australian friends... I just love their accents! They all work together at an established church in Melbourne and are looking at leading their church in an effort to begin planting churches both in Australia and other nations- possibly the Philippines or India.

At Northwood, there were about 20-25 of us (church planters or Northwood staff) gathered in a room together for about eight hours of training and discussion. Northwood Pastor, Bob Roberts, started off talking with us about "Starting Right." Basically talking about being a church that focuses on a Sunday event vs. being a church that focuses on transformation of people, cities, and countries. We want to be the latter. He encouraged us as church planters to think of ourselves as community developers instead of church planters. He was fascinating to listen to... totally a unique Christian. He has alot on his plate this week as he prepares for the Global Faith Forum that is taking place over the weekend. Go to the website to learn more about it.

The remainder of the training we discussed small groups that take place in homes, otherwise know as discipleship groups, home groups, cell groups, etc. David and I have both been huge believers in the power and purpose of "small group" meetings and are definitely wanting to see this done, and done well, in the church. After the discussion on small groups, we heard from a guy by the name of Todd McMichen. He talked with us about stewardship and the financial piece of church planting. He was another dynamic and informative speaker. What I liked most about him though was that he lives in Birmingham, AL! He is the pastor of a church plant there called The People's Church at Oak Mountain. Oh how I love Birmingham!!! Finally, after a day of soaking up information, they put us to work with something called Wild Works. This is a series of small group activities centered on brainstorming, problem-solving, and vision-casting. At the end of it all, each person had to take 15 minutes to draw or write out how their church plant would look in three years if everything was perfect and then present it to the group. David and I did ours independent of each other and we both got some great feedback and affirmation from the group. Thankfully, we both had a very similar vision! After this, everyone's brains were fried and stomachs were hungry. So, we went to a fabulous Mexican restaurant to solve one of the problems : ) So far, I think the best part has been being with and talking with other people who are in the same boat as us. It's nice to know that there are other crazy couples who are also raising support, starting families, moving to new cities, and trusting God. It's nice to not feel alone.

Lindsey

Trip To Texas

We've mentioned before about a church called Northwood in Keller, TX. Well, these next few posts you will be getting an earful about them because we have just spent a week in Keller, TX for Part 2 of a church planting training as well as an incredible once in a lifetime event called the Global Faith Forum. We didn't post much about the training and forum leading up to it because we didn't want "weird people" knowing we were going to be out of town for a week. We tried to write a blog post after each day so that the day's events would be fresh in our mind.

Monday was mainly a travel day for us. We left Columbia around 8:30. Dropped our Sugar Baby off at a new kennel for the week and drove up to Charlotte to catch our flight. We have really been looking forward to this trip not just for the training and Global Faith Forum that we would be attending, but also looking at this like our "babymoon" or last little travel adventure for awhile anyways. Of course we would've loved to revisit our honeymoon site of Cancun, Mexico and Hotel Le Blanc but I suppose that will just have to wait.

I have to tell you one story from our flight that day. David and I had just boarded the plane- last I might say because we didn't hear our zones being called, and we sat down in our window and middle seats. There was a woman seated on the aisle seat of our row. David, in a very loud and unfiltered manner says, "What is that smell? It smells like popcorn and butt." What a combination, huh? Disgusting, I know, but that was his description of this smell. As the word "butt" was coming out of his mouth he turns his head and realizes that the lady next to us has just pulled out a small bag of popcorn from her purse. Awesome. Well, I start laughing uncontrollably which leads to tears streaming down my face which then leads to me having to cross my legs tightly so as not to spill my bladder. Its the strangest thing, in the past couple of months of being pregnant I cannot even moderately laugh without crying and then of course their is the bladder issue. So, David is now laughing uncontrollably at me in my ridiculous state and he is crying and we are just a mess. We just can't go anywhere together anymore without causing a scene.

Three hours later we land at DFW airport and Brian Hook of Vision 360 and Northwood is waiting to pick us up to take us to the church. David and Brian have been communicating for some time now and he has been a major source of encouragement and guidance for David. I was glad to finally meet him. He took us to the church where he entrusted to David a 15 passenger van that David was put in charge of to help transport people between the airport, hotel, and church. We also learned that a group of 5 church planters from Australia would be staying at the same hotel as us and we would be transporting them back in forth. David met 3 of them at the Part 1 training and really enjoyed them.

After that, David and I headed over to our hotel for dinner and sleep since we knew it was going to be a busy week ahead.

Mother Teresa and Pumpkin Carving

So far, we've mainly been sharing with you the "serious" and formal side of church planting- the planning, brainstorming, the Prospectus, etc. Well, there is this whole other side of church planting that we have been simultaneously engaging in and yet not sharing with you... apologies!

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS!

One thing David and I are hearing over and over again is, "get out there and meet people." Well, for those of you who don't know, David and I have been living in a very small town for the past three years with a limited number of people our age or people we have anything in common with. God blessed us with a few couples and individuals who we were able to enjoy friendships with (and continue to enjoy friendships with) but most of them were either older than us with children or younger than us- high school and college. Moving to Columbia and getting involved with Crossroads has been alittle bit overwhelming to say the least because of the sheer number of couples and individuals our age who are in the same phase of life as us and enjoy doing alot of the things we enjoy doing. We had to pull our social skills back out and stop being hermits really quickly! It has been an incredible answer to prayer and we have met some amazing people.

Our mentor, John Reeves, talked with us a few weeks ago about setting goals to meet a certain number of new people each week. The purpose being to start new friendships, but to also potentially find people who share passions, desires, and skills that match and complement ours and who would be interested in helping us start this church. For anyone who knows David, you know that this charge is no problem for him. I think his goal for last week was to meet 10 people (I don't just mean introduce yourself, but actually have a genuine conversation and get to know a person). I'm pretty sure he hit this number and then some. For me, this kind of a task is alittle bit more difficult. I'm just not as outgoing and friendly as he is and it takes much more of an effort on my part. But, I am doing it and I am so thankful for the results!

Just last week, David met with people in a cigar store (yes, he is in heaven with a cigar store down the road and the excuse that he has to go there to meet people) and he went to a new men's small group. Friday night, I organized for some couples to come over for a chili and pumpkin carving party (pumpkin carving is an annual Pace tradition). Sunday we met with a group of people who are affiliated with a local church called Radius for a work day in a run down apartment complex. We were there from about 10-3 doing things like planting flowers, patching holes in walls, fixing windows, and making a big lunch/feast. It was really cool to be a part of this. It is something they do twice a month instead of attending a church service. It was obvious that they have already made a huge difference in the community. We also met a modern day Mother Teresa. She introduced herself as the oldest living virgin- ha! She is a feisty, single lady who has invested years into the community and eventually developed a non-profit after school program for the children there. She also has a story identical to the family portrayed in the movie the Blind Side. Sunday night we attended a small group that is affiliated with Crossroads and afterwards I headed out to a late night dinner with another couple while David went to meet with several guys who are definitely expressing interest in doing some of the same things we are interested in doing. Who knows where God will take it, but he is definitely bringing some BIG coincidences into our path lately.

We have been overwhelmed, humbled and just overjoyed by the people we have been meeting and the different opportunities/connections that have come our way. So, I just wanted to share this really fun and exciting side of our life with you since we have been sharing the more daunting, a serious part with you lately.

Here are some pictures from our Chili and Pumpkin Carving Party. I didn't get pics of everyone that was there : ( I'll do better next time.

-Lindsey

unimpressive looking

much more impressive : ) Tiger, a gargoyle thing, ET, and Lightning McQueen