2010 State of the Union

It has been a crazy year but God had done some amazing stuff. This is a brief blog post to let the few who read this know where we are at.

1).We are continuing to pray for Deb Morehart (Dez’s Mom). We pray everyday for her healing and God’s peace and support for the whole family. Please pray with us.

2). It is heart breaking for us to be away from our family and friends at this time. Moving to El Paso has been difficult but we believe God has called us here. Lord willing, we are staying in the South West.

3). God is providing resources for us to go home for a visit soon. We are really looking forward to seeing our family and friends back in TN.

4). The Biggie! We are currently discerning and exploring the possibility of planting a new church or a second Paseo campus. If we feel that God wants us to plant a church we are looking at Las Cruces NM. Cruces is 32 miles west of El Paso and boasts a population of around 90,000. It is home to New Mexico State University and is also the future home of the first commercial space port ( if you can buy a ticket for $200,000 you can go to space. Any takers!). 90% of the population of New Mexico is unchurched. If we plant a new church it will be a hybrid model. We will focus our attention on planting house churches that meet throughout the week in homes and then gather together every Sunday for a laid back, highly participatory, and simple/minimalist Sunday gathering. Our Sunday gathering will be heavy on relationship and light on production. If we & the leadership of Paseo feel that God wants Paseo to expand Desiree and I will continue to plant more house churches in El Paso and start a second Sunday gathering on the northeast or east side of town. These are the two choices we are considering. As we dream and pray we ask that you dream and pray with us.

5). We are continuing to establish new partners and raise more funds. God is providing but we have a long way to go. Fundraising will be a huge part of our life as we move toward planting.

Blew me away

This is taken from Exponential page 101. It is from research done by Joel Comiskey in the book Home Cell Group Explosion. He researched the fastest growing small group based churches in the world.

Factors That Do Not Affect Small Group Reproduction

The leader’s gender, social class, age, marital status, & education.

The leader’s personality type.

The leader’s spiritual gifting.

Factors That Do Affect Small Group Reproduction

The leader’s prayer life.

The leader’s setting goals to multiply

The leader’s receiving effective training.

The group’s evangelistic efforts.

The group’s “outside” meetings.

What I’m doing about it

Prayer life: At my previous ministry I was used to having an office and spending hours a week preparing for a sermon. When I first arrived at Paseo it threw me off not having to preach every week and having no study space in the house. Since then I have come to love finding places in my city where I can study and pray. It has been great for me to study and pray just to be close to God and not just to churn out another sermon. When I pray for the members of our Paseo homes our group does great! Our group goes deeper in the word, builds stronger bonds with one another, and looks for ways to serve our city. Simple prayer is what is needed in house churches.

Setting goals: Everyone in our group has been told that I think they would be a great leader and I want them to start a Paseo home in the future. Some people will reach this goal sooner then others but this is the goal for everyone. No matter where they are at in their walk.

Effective Training: If you want to plant a church do a Residency, period. Being mentored and coached has been great for me and I love learning how to do that for others. Meeting with fellow Paseo home leaders one on one and in our annual Leadership Communities (where all of our leaders get together) our two of my favorite things.

Evangelistic Efforts: I love meeting new people in El Paso but our group needs to do better at bringing new people in. Now that our group has formed we need to bring others in so we can multiply.

Outside Meetings: Hiking, eating out, & watching movies. I love hanging with my Paseo home anytime, not just Thursday night. This has been the key to building a close community fast.

Short Term Goals

I pray that our current Paseo home continues to grow and mature in all three aspects of house church DNA.

I pray that our current Paseo home multiplies into several homes.

I pray that we are able to plant a second Paseo home in the first part of next year.

Redo

I am going to change the nature of this blog. It will be my very brief thoughts on stuff I am learning. It will mainly be for me but if someone else get something out of it great. It will not be long or profound.

Here goes……

If you want to connect with people close and far from God you should eat with them. You should eat with them a lot. Jesus was smart like that.

People really want a family. If you open your family to strangers and invite them into your family life you will have no trouble reaching people. I don’t care how talented or untalented you are. It doesn’t matter. Be smart, be careful, but be open and inclusive all the time.

Grace takes time. It took me ten years after becoming a Christian to even begin to understand it. It will take people time to understand it and even longer to accept it. They will test you to see if you really are loving. You must be consistently graceful.

Coaching, mentoring, & equipping leaders is the most important skill in church planting and Bible college will teach you nothing about it. Maybe they do now but they didn’t when I was in school. I really don’t know how I survived in ministry without this skill for so long.

You should find someone who knows what they are doing in regards to church planting and actually listen to them. It will save you a big headache. Learning this as I speak.

Deers & Depression

42:1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God? [2]
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation [3] 6 and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”

11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

This Psalm has been speaking to me lately. I love how David is honest about how crappy he feels sometimes but he know his perception is flawed. He continually reminds himself of how good God is. My favorite part is when he speaks to his soul and says, “Why are you depressed?”. He doesn’t repent of his depression (because there is nothing to repent of) but he simply acknowledges it. He realizes that his feelings do not determine the character of God. God is good all the time.