Either this is a sign of Shane and I being so connected that we know each other’s thoughts, or it is a sign that we don’t communicate. He just stole my topic for today’s blog entry. Now I have no idea what to write about.

I guess I’ll start rambling until I come up with something…

Looking at our blog today I was just struck by the difference in our writing styles. Shane loves words. There’s nothing wrong with being a word nerd. He loves to talk about books and theology while I am a relationship and feelings kind of gal. My blogs aren’t as long as his (don’t worry, that will change) and they definately don’t sound as scholarly. Maybe it is just my need to be casual and relational.

I guess our blogs demonstrate how we compliment each other. We do flip back and forth between who’s relational and who’s the scholarly type. In fact when one of us is having an off day the other is generally optimistic and calm. It never fails. So, our differences compliment each other as you’ll see over time.

As Shane mentioned we are doing Awana. Right now I am doing the budgeting for that. I’ve been going through the catalogue trying to piece together what startup materials we’ll need and estimate what our costs will be for the year. I’m used to budgeting for our personal finances but when it comes to church money, I’m feeling my anxiety level rising. I want to be absolutely sure that I am ordering what we need when I’m not 100% sure what we need. Thank goodness Awana has missionaries who we can consult with and help us prioritize our supplies.

This Thursday we will be meeting with our Awana team for the first time, clarifying roles and getting them excited about what the Fall will look like. I am hoping I’ll be able to bake some tasty treats for our leaders. Treats might be a good incentive for them to stick around…

There really is so much to cover in our journey to this point, but I imagine it will all come out in time.

Giftedness is such a huge part of planting churches.  There are things that have to come naturally to you.  What excites me about our long-term goal is that God will bring alongside us people who have complementary gifts to us to make our church plant successful.

But one thing that must be tackled head-on is our commitment to meeting challenges independently, and learning to organize and lead.  My wonderful wife is farther ahead in this than I am - she is more naturally organized than myself.

To that end, our pastor has handed us a significant responsibility.  He has put us in charge of starting Awana on Sunday nights, to complement the church’s investment in discipleship classes for adults.  It gives us a chance to attract parents who otherwise would not be free to attend because of their kids, and at the same time becomes a great community outreach tool as Awana is designed to teach the gospel - who Jesus is and what we do with that, but in a fun, challenging atmosphere.

We have been left to do it all - publicize, staff, organize, train, equip, and inventory the enterprise.  Our preliminary estimates appear to indicate we will have somewhere close to 50 kids to start, and that’s assuming that our advertising does not attract any children from the surrounding community.  We’re going to need at least 18 leaders including ourselves to start.  That is a significantly sized organization!

I am excited for the opportunity.  This is something I have never done or even attempted.  It is a challenge, and is forcing me to think very differently from what I am used to.  It is also encouraging my wife and I to work even closer together, which is never a bad thing.  It is also driving me to pursue God even more diligently, because I see clearly where he will have to be to make up for what we lack.

The first area of this is in staffing.  Last week, our church had a call for volunteers, and only a handful put their names down.  After adding them to a couple of other couples I knew were committed, we had a list of about 12-14 (with only 10 firmly committed).  We needed God to step in and do something.  This weekend, I made it my goal to speak to everyone on that list and firm up our first meeting this Thursday (please pray for that if you read this!).  I did that, and I also talked to several others who I thought might not be committed to anything who might be interested.  I got contact information and I am going to send out an email today.  We’re going to need God to firm up the ide aof Awana in these people’s hearts.  We need God to give me the words and the presentation this Thursday to inspire them with my own excitement for Awana.  Without these things, this program will go nowhere.

In addition to the huge workload I have this summer just for the church, I have this paper to write.  I am completing a graduation essay to attain my Master’s of Arts in Christian Studies from ACTS Seminaries at Trinity Western University.  My chosen area of study is church planting in resort communities.  I am actually at a bit of a disadvantage because my program does actually have a church planting specialty, but because I have a whole pile of credit from when I was pursuing a church history master’s, I didn’t have room to take those courses from the Seminary.  However, I don’t know how many people who take that course area actually involved in the leadership of a brand new church plant either, so maybe that balances it out.

Anyway, I have a ton of reading to do to research this paper.  I am probably reading slower than I should.  Normally when I write a paper, I find resources and skim them until I hit upon the areas that I need to include for my paper’s subject.  Instead, I am actually reading the whole book as I know that ultimately, it will serve me better as we think about planting our own church one day.

So, currently I am chewing through the 360 page Ed Stetzer tome, “Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age”.  Although the resort community seems to be a microcosm or an ultradense monoculture of postmodernism, there is no question that the overall societal trend is towards this philosophy or worldview.  It is good stuff.  I am just looking at the “generation” question right now and he made a very good point - with postmodern cultures it is almost irrelevant to speak of ages as having anything to do with their worldview anymore.  A postmodern could be of any age and they will have more in common in that case than with anyone just close in age to them.  Limiting oneself to a “generation” will not serve the cause of Christ when it comes to these people.

I’d write more but a) I have to actually work on the paper, and b) I have to ride my bike over to get the van out of the shop.  Bye for now.

Shane brought up the idea of starting a blog to discuss our adventure as it unfolds. I thought it would be a good idea and so he got it up and running. I think my eyes are now hurting from looking at pages of wordpress themes. On one website alone there were 300 pages of themes with 5 themes were page. So I have viewed over 1,500 wordpress themes and we’re still not sure if we’ll stick with this one.

I’m wondering if this is a sign of things to come with church planting. What are we going to see or try until we find something that fits? And will we actually agree on whatever we find? Is guess we’ll find out as we go along and we’ll put it here for your reading pleasure and learning of course.

Shane was a boy from the Edmonton area, just moved to the coast to follow his roots and keep a promise to God that he would take Bible College for a year.  He liked the outdoors, but also computers.  He joked before he left Alberta behind that he was “going to the coast to meet his wife”.  It turned out it wasn’t a joke.

Cheryl was a girl who grew up on the coast.  She’d been an award-winning vocalist as a child, and had been to film production school.  Her family had run a BBS so she too was a computer person.  She had grown up helping her mother with special needs foster children in their home.

We met on the internet in October, 1997.  By Christmas we were engaged.

In the summer of 1998, we got married.  She thought she was going to be a nurse.  He thought he would work in Forestry.

In 2000, we had our first child, while she was in her 3rd year of University.  He decided to change careers to computers.

In 2003 we went to Mexico.  We both realized we never wanted to vacation on the backs of 3rd world poverty.

In 2004 He nearly quit his job, but realized that God was teaching him something.  He decided to stick it out.

In 2005 we decided to go on another trip, but this time to do something to serve God while we enjoyed someplace warm.  We didn’t leave until 2006 - to Rwanda.  We didn’t realize it, but that changed everything.

Upon returning from Rwanda, we met a couple of church planters.  We ignored them until the fall, when Shane met with them for the first time.  He tried to get Cheryl interested, but she said no.  Two months later, out of the blue, Cheryl asked to meet them too.  We joined their nascent planting core and began our education of what a church plant is.  In 2007 that core grew to forty by the end of summer.  Community of Hope launched September 9, 2007.

By early 2007, we recognized that God wanted more from us than floating along wherever life takes us.  We decided to aim our lives for something - planting a church of our own in five years.  We are now on that journey - walking with an open hand, waiting for God to take the lead.

God has lots of work ahead of us to prepare us for this.  We have skills and gifts, but no experience.  But that too will be brought to us with time.  Join us on our journey.  Subscribe to the blog via RSS or via email updates (see sidebar).  Encourage us along the way in the comments.  But most of all, if you feel God calling, use us to begin your journey.  We will add resources and information as we find it to help those who come after us.

God bless you on your journey.