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:
- it would be out of the desert
- it would not be in the mid-west
- 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.
leadership articles now at: www.REDBIKELEADER.com
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we have more info. on the WHEN? part of our transition into starting a brand new church. it is coming in 2 steps.
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at the end of Oct. i am ‘officially’ drawing to a close my 11 year staff ministry @ Central. (for those of you on staff I will be at the Nov. staff meeting to say good-bye and give you an in person scoop on these things to come.) as i have said before, our entire family has been richly blessed by our experiences and relationships while i have been on staff. although we are closing the chapter in our ‘employement’ era with Central, it is by no means an end to our relationship. Cal, myself and the key leaders at Central will be working to develop an ongoing partnership in ministry as we step into the future.
first step | this leg of the journey will last between 6-18 months. during this time, i will place a leading priority of my efforts with the start of a brand new ministry in las vegas with my long time friend Craig Gross [Fireproof Ministries | aka. XXXchurch]. Craig has always been at the center of ministry pursuits that seek to reach those farthest from God. his new effort is an outreach ministry on the strip in vegas targeting key conventions (you will get to hear more about if you keep checking back here).
the second priority of my time I will be pouring into my business pursuits with Factor1Studios. Matt & I have had a very enjoyable working & creative friendship over the last few years. this last year we joined forces ‘officially’ to team up in bringing to life the dreams that others have for their businesses and ministries via web & marketing services.
the hope jen & i have for this period of time is for God to bring us a peace about WHERE? he is leading us and also allow for some additional study and preparation for starting a brand new church. to that end i aim to get some hands on experience by assisting Dean Kuest with his work at Pathways Church in the Seattle area as time allows.
step two | i will continue to work with the Orchard group in our investigation period for WHERE? we will be landing. also, jen & i will be heading off to assessment at the end of Jan. (anyone want to watch the boys?) as soon as the WHERE? is decided upon, we will move there and get settled. Our new goal is to be there (where ever it is) no later than the middle of next summer and have the kids enrolled in school for the new year. the new church will open no later than sept. 2010 (that sounds really far away as i type it) but we would go on staff with Orchard 9 months prior to that. who knows though… it could happen sooner depending on how everything comes together. TONS of things go into developing a brand new church community. i will keep you connected to this journey here so that you can be a part of the prayer process.
thanks for your interest!
~ ryan & jen.
leadership articles now at: www.REDBIKELEADER.com
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these are the four questions that Jen & I have been wrestling with after we landed on it being time to take a next step in faith and ministry leadership.
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as i noted in my last updated, we believe WHAT God has lead us to plant a new church. for those of you unfamiliar with the terminology, it means to start a brand new church (from scratch so to speak) in an area in need of God’s word and presence of his people.
since filling in this piece of the journey, we have been in the research/interview stage of selecting an organization to head out with. it is possible to just move somewhere and get going, but this is a very, very difficult way to start a church. in this modern era, there are christian organizations that specialize in starting brand new churches by partnering with mission minded churches and pastors. so we have been looking for WHO we would go with and now have a peace about our new relationship with the ORCHARD GROUP. I could write several blogs about why we have selected this organization as our lead partner, but let me summarize it simply by saying “we fit in” with them. they have incredible leadership (Paul Williams & Brent Storms), an eye for developing top notch partners, an aim for attracting high caliber lead pastors and a determination to focus on the essentials (+ they are pretty cool cats).
now what most of you have been waiting for—> WHERE are we going and WHEN are we going to be there? well…. you will have to wait a tad bit longer for that. i should be able to post info. on the WHEN some time next week, but as for the WHERE that probably won’t be answered until spring. check back here next wednesday and my next update should have something for you on these fronts.
thanks for your prayers and support.
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