Building a Temple

In 1 Chronicles 28 David gathers his officials, leaders and sons together. He tells them that Solomon has been chosen by God to build the temple. When he encourages Solomon in the task set before him, I couldn’t help but imagine those words being spoken to a modern-day church planter.

 Beginning at verse 20 (my revised version) - "Be strong and courageous and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the church plant of the Lord is finished. The mature Christians are ready for all work on the church plant of God, and every willing man skilled in any craft will help you in all the work."

 As a church planter I have many times been afraid and discouraged. I’ve doubted whether we are being effective and fulfilling God’s plans. I’ve questioned if what we are doing is worth it. I’ve needed the people in my life who have encouraged me and told me to keep on going. I’ve needed to be reminded that God is with me and for me.

In times of fear or discouragement, allow encouragers to speak into your life. As you build team, seek mature Christians who will assist you in accomplishing the task. Continue to pray for mature Christians long after launch. Pray for WILLING people to share their gifts and abilities to build the church. You may not need people able to wield a hammer, but you will need people who are willing to set up, willing to teach a class, willing to play on the worship team, willing to invite friends and neighbors to church, etc. 

David reminded Solomon of two very important things in this passage. First, God is with him. Second, Solomon can’t do it alone.

Have you felt forsaken by God in your church plant? 

Who are you allowing to build the church with you?

Amber and Scott Woller planted Corner Church and started a successful coffee shop (Corner Coffee) in the Northwest Loop of Minneapolis.  Amber grew up in a Christian home and accepted Christ at an early age. After graduation from Evangel University, she worked as a public school teacher in Texas before moving to Minneapolis to plant the church. Amber is a mother of two girls, coffee barista, Life Coach and writer. 

My Timing vs. Wild Animals

Exodus 23:28-30 “I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.” 

When we first started the church plant process, I was under the misguided notion that if we were ready to start, then everything would fall quickly into place according to our timetable. My husband and I quickly learned that our timing is not God’s timing. The fundraising didn’t happen as quickly as we anticipated. We weren’t able to move into our community as soon as we hoped. Growth, leading to our multi-site dreams, has come slowly, instead of explosively. 

The extended time frames have at times discouraged me. I have questioned our calling, wondering if it is God’s way of trying to say that we’ve missed the mark or if we’re the wrong people for the job. Surely the quicker everything happens, the faster more people can be reached for Him, right?

When I read the passage from Exodus 23, I am reminded of God’s perfect timing. God was bringing His people to the Promised Land. He told them He would hand over the people, yet in these verses He also says that He would not drive the enemies out in a single year. The Israelites probably wanted everyone gone immediately. I’m sure I would have felt that way! 

God, in His infinite wisdom, knew that it was better to drive the enemies out slowly. The Israelites needed that time to establish themselves. They needed time to settle. Otherwise, the land would have grown wild while they were busy picking out curtains for their first homes!

I can look back on our own journey and see that God didn’t allow things in our timing because we would not have been able to handle it. God needed to prepare us, so that we would be ready to do all that He has called us to do and “to take possession of the land”.

Amber and Scott Woller planted Corner Church and started a successful coffee shop (Corner Coffee) in the Northwest Loop of Minneapolis.  Amber grew up in a Christian home and accepted Christ at an early age. After graduation from Evangel University, she worked as a public school teacher in Texas before moving to Minneapolis to plant the church. Amber is a mother of two girls, coffee barista, Life Coach and writer. 

Reaching the World...Right Across the Street

Back in October we hosted a CMN START Conference at North Central University.  It was a great time of connecting with students and inspiring them to consider being involved in starting a new faith community.  In fact many of them signed up to continue the conversation at additional events throughout the year.

Last night we held the second follow up event.  We were joined by over 20 students and a couple of our church planters.  The focus of the evening was cross-cultural church planting or ethnic church plants.  Dr. Lee Allison spoke on the need for cross cultural church planting in our nation.  He used an example that compared ethnic church plants and "emergent" or "post modern" church plants over the last several years.  In the time that 175 post-modern or emergent churches were planted over 700 Asian churches were planted.  Which begs the question which one is a "movement".  We need people to reach out to the world that has come to our doorstep.  The reality is that people from closed countries, where it is illegal to proselytize, are now here in the US where we are free to share with them the love of Christ and they are free to respond to His call.  This is an incredible opportunity to reach people who have never been reached before.  I was reading yesterday that the US is the second-largest spanish speaking country in the world and is estimated to take over the first place spot by the year 2050.  It is no wonder that our hispanic districts are exploding with new churches.  People from all over the world are pouring into our country and we have the opportunity, like never before, to reach the world right here at home with the Gospel of Christ.  Growing up my pastor used to say “find a need and fill it” look around you.  There are over 130 different language groups in Minnesota and they all need to hear about the love of Christ.  That is a pretty big need.  Now, who is going to fill it.  It could be you!

If you are interested in reaching any one of the diverse ethnic groups here in Minnesota please contact our office at mdwyer@mnaog.org or call 612-332-2400.

ProPresenter by Renewed Vision

 

ProPresenter is a lyric and media presentation package built from the ground up to help make powerful worship productions easy. Taking full advantage of the latest technologies, ProPresenter allows an operator to control a presentation on one screen, while dynamically affecting the visuals and lyrics experienced by an audience on one or more screens. Used by ministries all over the world for years, we have taken our valued users' feedback to create ProPresenter version 4. Boasting over 100 new features, it is our most expansive upgrade to date.

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New Graphics resource-Creationswap.com

Let's be honest.  Most of us want to have someone in the church who is a ridiculous graphic designer.  You know, the person that comes up with the sermon series graphics or the logo for the church but will do it for FREE, because after all it is ministry.  Yeah, that doesn't happen very often.  So, for all of us who don't have a marketing department we have another site that will help you out.  Even if you do have some people who handling the "marketing" of your church, this site will give you a good start on coming up with some ideas.  The amazing team at Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC have created creationswap.com.  Creationswap (formerly CreativeMYK) is a site where graphic artists can post their work for your church to use for free. Now there are a lot of sites that do this, but some of them are... let's be honest, awful.  Creationswap has stuff you will actually use.  Much of it is created by their own team but other artists can upload their content for others to use as well.  There is a "pay side" to the site as well where you can purchase stuff but the free content is extensive and pretty good.  While you might not find exactly what you are looking for, it is a great start and will get the creative juices flowing.  They also have profiles for all their artists and a platform for artists to connect and share ideas.  

Check them out at www.creationswap.com