Last night was our leadership Christmas dinner. A lovely time was had by all, by appearances. It looks like we may have a new couple joining us - more hands make lighter work!

So, going into the holidays, I can feel momentum beginning to build with my wife and I, and also with my pastor, Philip, about what needs to be done to move our dream of planting in Alberta forward. I thought you might be curious, so I’ll let you into the next few months.

First on the plate, I will be seeking licensure with the Grace Brethren. This means I will be able to marry people! Ooooo… However, being quite rigorous, theologically, I have some study to do to pass it. I have a major written test to write, then based on that, they do an oral review as well. I hope to complete that before spring.

After that, my wife and I are beginning to plan a trip to tour about 5 or 6 different communities in Alberta with regards to seeking God’s will in which community to target. At this time the list includes Cochrane, Okotoks, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat (Redcliff), Spruce Grove/Stony Plain and perhaps St. Albert. We want to do this in the May/June time frame.

This fall we hope to form a small group made up entirely of prospective team members who will accompany us to Alberta. We are praying that some people are stirred by God to join us.

This fall there is a church planting conference in Calgary - details on speakers and such have yet to be finalizedd but we are already in agreement that we should go. That will be a great learning experience.

So, that is a big picture snapshot of what 2009 will look like for us. We still need to colour it in, but Lord willing, our future will take a much clearer shape as we go next year.

It’s a good thing that I have some good friends who are causing me to think about things.  If they weren’t around I wonder how much would simply flow past me without realizing how fast time marches on.

I was talking with a friend of mine yesterday, and he started talking about what next year would look like at Community of Hope.  We look forward to passing the leadership of Awana on to somebody else (we’re already moving him in that direction - he’s already been taking huge stides along that path).  But the question was asked for us, what next?

Well, I told him I hope to take Freedom Session next fall, an intensive class to help people struggle with and overcome past issues in a Biblical framework.  Both Community of Hope and my previous church, Cedar Grove run this program, and I have had a lot of contact with both the people who run it and people who have taken it.  It is very good at what it does, helping people to recognize what hurts they have caused or experienced in the past, and how they affect their lives today, and act to resolve them.  I realized in my many interactions with people involved, that while I function pretty well, like most other people I have some hurts that definitely affect how I relate to people.  I wouldn’t mind dealing with those.

But, that’s not all by a long shot.  The vision that Cheryl and I have is to begin the process of planting a church in Alberta in the fall of 2010.  That is not far away at all!  Working back from a fall 2010 departure, that means we need to make a final decision about a destination city/town probably by the beginning of summer 2010, and before that we need to be building our team if there will be one.  It would probably make sense if we are going to have a team that our small group in the fall of 2009 be made up of those who are interested in planting with us.  We will need that fall and winter and spring to make decisions and pray and vision together what that new church will look like.

Fall 2009 seems so far away, but a quick check of the calendar is only 9 months!

On the bright side, if all these dates come too fast they are always subject to revision.  And on the brighter side, with every passing week, I do feel we are being prepared more and more for the task ahead.  There is still so much to do, but I still think we can get there.

Again, while reading Essential Church, I have experienced a gelling of ideas from several other places about mission and vision statements for a church.  This passage jumped out at me, speaking about why young adults leave the church in droves between the ages of 16-20:

Their parents assumed that the teachings of the church would be well received via religious osmosis. But the Great Commission explicitly commands us to teach and disciple. Neglecting this element of the gospel imperative creates an atmosphere of spiritual and doctrinal atrophy resulting in a nonessential church.

The passage about the assumption made by parents and leaders that their kids would “just get it” by coming to church stuck out at me.  I was struck that training people to follow Jesus needs to be central to the purpose of any church.  This made me think of Matthew 28:18-20.  I am seeing a framework for a vision coming out of that verse.

“(18b) All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (19) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I see in this passage bookends of worship: looking to God for our authority “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” and his promise to be present with us “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”.  Worshipping God for who he is and seeking his presence is the first and last thing a church stands for.

Then we have the mission of the church - to make disciples and baptize “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”.  We are here to bring lost souls to Jesus.

Then we have a mandate to train up the disciples we have been entrusted with.  “…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,”.

So a suggested mission statement of our future church plant could be, “To worship God, first and last, and guide his followers to him.”

A suggested vision:

Using Matthew 28 as our guide, we desire to pursue the mission that Jesus entrusts us with:

• To acknowledge our Lord Jesus as King, and worship him together;
• To guide our neighbours to be baptized as followers of Jesus;
• To teach and encourage each other in the love that Jesus has for us and the world;
• To raise up new leaders to pursue this mission everywhere;

What excites me about this is that it is short and sweet. It is not overly complicated with layers of process and form. It feels clean and simple, and that is what church should be, it seems to me. You look at any great movement, and it had a distilled message that was simple to grasp and follow. Like our faith. All God really asks of us is to love God and love our neighbour. That’s it. And the structure we are to use to accomplish this is the church.

Leading up to the big Awana meetin’ tonight, I was burning some cel phone minutes last night letting all my people know about the location and time of the meeting.  I wound up talking to the father of one of my leaders.  We both have been handed quite substantial responsibilites this fall, and are both being challenged by them.  But it was interesting to realize that we both share a couple other things.  We both feel that God is leading us to full-time ministry, perhaps even in a few years.  Yet, we both recognize that we have weaknesses that we need to address in our own eyes.  Not Achilles’ Heel type weaknesses, but just an absence of skill or practice in certain areas that are kind of important to do what we want to do.

Namely, like I was talking about yesterday, evangelism.

I’m banging that drum here so much, it might even be getting repetitive.  But all I wanted to say today about it is that it is good to share this struggle with someone, because we can then lift each other up and pray for each other in this area.  It is one thing to have a mentor encouraging you, but it is good to have an iron sharpening iron type guy with the same aims.