Monthly Archive for December, 2008

just show up

Published
by
ryan russell
on December 13, 2008
in new church and projects
. 4 Comments
Just show up… the Biblical reference is “GO!“      

it sounds so much easier than it is. to get started on ‘going’ requires risk. with this mandate laid on my heart, I have been pushing through a bit of anxiety and fear to move out from an arena where i am comfortable and confident into new opportunities and ministry where i actually need God.
Partnering with Craig on StripChurch has refueled my passion to “GO!” where God is leading or making opportunities. Craig, starting with debates and the AVN show, has struck up a friendship with Ron Jeremy, most notably for me (and hopefully for you) from the Surreal Life, season II.  Yesterday, we linked up with Ron in Hollywood and spent the afternoon eating, talking, laughing and sharing perspectives on God, sex & eternity. It was interesting, weird and refreshing.
I am adopting one of Craig’s axiom’s - ‘Show up where people don’t expect you to be’. To that I would like to add that when you do, ‘God will do what you don’t expect him to do’. This isn’t as hard as it sounds, but it really has become something that most of us as followers of Christ really struggle to do. We are more in the church (buildings) than out there sharing grace with the world as a Church (followers bound together in Christ). We struggle to “GO!” and would rather make programs @ our churches for people to ‘COME’.
I am planning that my new efforts for Christ will be ones where I have opportunities to be friends with people like Ron. May God use us all to bring grace and love to the world. May GRACE always be held just in front of TRUTH.

edging closer

Published
by
ryan russell
on December 7, 2008
in church plant and new church
. 3 Comments

well… i can officially say we are getting closer to making a city choice for our next phase of life & ministry. (i know that isn’t quite a certainty.) I spent tuesday through friday am in Seattle with Brent from Orchard Group. Since Seattle would be new territory for Orchard, he & Paul Williams met with George [CEA] & Jim [E. 91st St.] developing a potential partnership for this new work. The 5 of us plus Dean sat and talked Wed. morning about ministry, churches and the area. After that Brent & I (some with Dean too) spent the better part of 2 days looking at the city neighborhoods for potential locations.

Jen & I have been praying for God’s peace & direction. We began this journey with a real desire to be open to where he would have us to go. The only real parameters that we put on our prayers were that:

  1. it would be out of the desert
  2. it would not be in the mid-west
  3. it would be a city in need of new churches
we will spend more time in prayer, but we are edging closer to landing on Seattle. We still plan to move at the end of the school year and hope to have the whole summer to explore our new land before the kids start their new schools and we buckle down to the new church biz.
keep checking back here; i hope to have some updates on the partners involved and the people who will be joining us in this endeavor.