Month: October 2011

Workshop Dates Set

Our discernment team will be participating in a “Starting New Churches” workshop at Mountain View Presbyterian Church, hosted by Craig Williams. Craig is an associate with the Western Office of Church Development with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The workshop dates are January 4 – 7, 2012. We will be meeting in the evenings Wednesday through Friday, and all day on Saturday.

Dandelion in Sunset

The workshop will serve as a kind of “pre-gathering” for our discernment team. During the workshop we will go through everything that we will be doing in our discernment process and begin to anticipate what it will take.  The goal is that after the workshop the “Starting New Churches” process will not only makes sense, but our team will have experience from the training that will speed up the process and make it more thorough. We will begin the 17 Gatherings in the second or third week of January.

Team Progress

If you’ve taken a look at the “Roadmap” page you know that we are in the process of gathering together a discernment team that will lead us through the initial process of determining what kind of community/church we are called to begin. On that team we want to have representative members from each of the following: Mountain View Presbyterian Church, North Puget Sound Presbytery, and Stanwood/Camano Island community. Our goal is to have a team with about 8 – 12 members. Already we have had four really amazing people say “yes” to being a part of that team. When you include Kristina and me that brings our team total up to 6 so far! We are on our way! Once we get the entire team together and they are approved by Mountain View’s session and the Presbytery Executive Board I will let you all know who they are. Please continue to pray that God will lead the right people to this team and this new adventure.

‘A wave of the Spirit’

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury (left), recently attended the launch of a fresh expression known as The Order of the Black Sheep for those who feel they don’t fit in with society. —courtesy of the Diocese of Derby

But the traditional church must also “realize that sometimes something comes along that is new, and of God, and such is the interest and the sheer take-up of it that you have to listen to what is going on,” he said. “It is, of course, easy to say, but can be difficult to do.”

via Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – News & Announcements – ‘A wave of the Spirit’.

This is a great article about what the Spirit is doing in some traditional churches in the UK. It has a lot of relevance for what we are talking about with our plans for a “daughter church.” Thanks for sharing it Corey!

Take a look at our “Roadmap” Page

I just added a page called “Roadmap.” If you click on it in the above menu you will find a picture that we are using to display where we are at in the process. As I mention on that page, the process we are using is based on a document called “Planting New Churches.” This will be our guide as we begin to put together a “Discernment Team” and move through 17 gatherings together. During those gatherings we will begin to have more clarity about what we believe God is calling us to do. We will answer question like: Are we really being called to Stanwood/Camano Island? If so, why? What is our mission? How do we engage in the mission? Do we need meeting space? What do we call ourselves?

As we move through the process I will be updating the blog with what we discern. Currently, we are beginning to put together the Discernment Team that will have representatives of Mountain View Presbyterian Church, the Stanwood/Camano community, and the Presbytery of North Puget Sound.

If you have questions, be sure to post a comment and I will respond. If you want to know more details about the process, be sure to download the document and take a look.

The beginning of?

This is the beginning of something brand new! Hopefully not just a new blog, but the beginning of a new missional community. This blog will be a tool for communicating with all of you that are interested in the process. As you read, I hope that you will pray. As you pray, I hope that you will be encouraged to move to further the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Updates to follow.