Church planting doesn't mean that we are leaving our church because we are unhappy there.
Church planting doesn't mean that we think we can start a "better" church.
Church planting doesn't mean that we will try to lure all our friends away from Hope Fellowship.
Church planting means that we see a need for more churches in our area.
Church planting means that there are still so many lost people in our city.
But ultimately, church planting means following God's leading.
If you are wondering why we want to start a new church instead of building up an existing church you're not alone. I asked Chris that question many times in the beginning. For a GREAT answer to all the "Why Plant Churches?" questions, see this response by Tim Keller. The idea is to start a church and have that church ready to plant another church in 3-5 years. It's multiplication.
We will leave for South Dakota during the first week of May and stay there for 5-6 weeks while Chris does a short "internship" with an NAB church that has planted other churches in the area. We will spend some time visiting our families in Colorado and Arkansas and come back to Kansas City in late June. Chris will start his residency (like an internship) with Cedar Ridge Christian Church in Lenexa, KS on July 1st. We plan to stay in our current home while Chris makes the 30 minute commute to Lenexa. This residency will last approximately 9 months. Chris will be able to learn a lot about church planting from Cedar Ridge and will get to interact with other church planters in the Kansas City metro area. During this time of residency, we will be praying about where to plant a new church. That is the question I get asked most often -- "Where will your church be located?" -- and the answer is we simply don't know yet. Ask God, maybe He'll tell you!
We will also be raising support during this residency period as it is not a paid position. Many of you will be getting letters from us in the next few weeks. This is the part that totally freaks me out but I'm trying to stay calm and trust God to work everything out for us. I don't like the idea of asking for money. Chris says it's just my pride (and he's right) but it's also the security that comes from a regular job with a regular paycheck. I'm still trying to give that fear/worry over to God and place my security solely in him. We will need to fund-raise our salary and money to launch the future church plant. The goal is to officially "launch" a new church in Fall 2013 and for that church to be self-supported in about two years.
So, where did all this come from??
We know some of you were/are very surprised by our announcement but this has been in the works for several years with the leadership at Hope Fellowship and within the SWA being included in the entire process. I was afraid that some people might feel blindsided since it was not made public until Chris' resignation on March 4th. While a few people knew what was going on most of you were surprised when Chris announced his resignation (or when you read this blog post!).
It all started four years ago when Chris was encouraged to attend a Church Planters' Retreat by the Regional Minister of our church's association (our association = SWA). Chris was excited and ready to plant right away but I was pregnant with Scout and not ready to even think about such a huge life change. He continued reading everything he could find about church planting and talking to people about it. Finally, after we were done having kids, we pulled it off the back burner and started taking more serious steps to make it happen. We had to take several personality/IQ/mental stability tests for the SWA's church planting committee and eventually met with them for a formal assessment. We were approved and our name was added to a list of potential SWA church planters.
Chris also formed a relationship with the Vision 360 Kansas City catalyst and began pursuing a relationship with them. Vision 360 is basically a church planting organization that plants churches all over the world. You can read much more about Vision 360 on their website. We took even more personality-type tests for them and met with a group of their Kansas City representatives who recommended us for a formal Vision 360 assessment. Whereas the SWA assessment process took about 8 hours, the Vision 360 assessment was 4 intense days! We were sent to their assessment center in Orlando, Florida this past October (not a bad place to be sent!) to participate in an assessment with 10 other couples from around the country. The end result was that we were "conditionally recommended" for partnership with Vision 360 with the primary condition being that we complete a 9-12 month church planting residency. We were tremendously encouraged during our time in Florida. Discerning, professional, godly men and women thoroughly assessed us and were very excited about us planting a church! They confirmed that this was God's calling and were very optimistic about our church planting future. We didn't talk to all of the couples after our official "yea" or "nay" meeting on the last day of assessment but we heard that not all of them were approved. I just add that information so it's clear that we didn't just go down there for a pat on the back. They could have told us we were not right for church planting and we were prepared for the possibility of hearing that.
Vision 360 continues to offer encouragement and invaluable knowledge and experience for our church planting journey and we are excited about our relationship with them moving forward. Hope Fellowship is not in a place to be able to support us financially in this venture but we hope to leave there blessed with the moral support of the church family we have grown to love over these past 7 1/2 years. We will certainly miss seeing the people of Hope Fellowship every week but are also excited to start the next chapter of our lives. Please remember our family in your prayers as we step out into this Great Adventure!
So, there it is. I'm sure I left some stuff out so feel free to ask Chris or me any questions you still have. I think I will start a church planting blog soon to keep everyone updated on everything that's going on without cluttering up the family blog. I'll post that web address when I get it up and running!
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