notes from may 16th meeting

hey folks,
this is VERY late, but these are the notes from last Wednesday's (May 16th) meeting.

General schedule is that our plans are to meet 1-2x/wk thru June and the latter half of July. (the beginning of July is free and clear from meetings). Come August, we might be meeting as often as every night during the week. While this might sound crazy right now, we will probably need that kind of frequency to make things happen come September.

Immediate schedule is to meet
May 22nd (yesterday, i know), 5pm for a prayer walk through Mt. Vernon. We wanted to begin walking the area where the church is intended to reach, covering it with prayer. I have a feeling it will be the first of many, so if you missed it, be on the lookout for more! woohoo! I'm officially inviting those who participated to share their thoughts and prayers and impressions on the blog. (alison, i'll help you do that, if you want!)
May 24th - Thursday, 7:30-9pm Core Group meeting at my house
May 29th - 9pm Prayer meeting, place: TBA
June 5th - 9pm Prayer meeting, place: TBA
(since the mission team is going to Peru, our meetings resume on:)
June 6th - Wednesday, 7:30-9pm Core Group meeting at my house
*June 16-17 - Church visit - looking more and more like Mars Hill in Mich.
(*note this is a change from my last missive, later by one week.)
June 22-24, we are planning to go away as a group on a team-building retreat
June 28, 29 the Buzz Conference.in DC. turns out discounts are a little tough to come by, but if you register as a church planter, it's $140. There are some funds available to help subsidize your registration, but see the notes on our funding discussion below. The 28th (Thurs) is 9am-4:30, while the 29th (Fri) is 9am-12:30pm. The registration deadline is June 15th.

We did spend some of the time talking about seminars we are planning. The more i have been thinking and praying about it and talking with PR, the more i/we have realized that we want to make sure that y'all have an intellectually grounded theological basis to work from. To be honest, my assessment of y'all overall is that y'all are grounded individuals, at least in terms of your faith. But i don't know that the popular opinion of artists is that they are grounded. So, we would like to give/teach y'all a biblical basis so that no one has any reason to doubt your groundedness. Thus we did a brief seminar on prayer walking in anticipation of our prayer walk on tuesday. there is a handout if you would like a copy. :) we will also be scheduling a seminar on Spiritual Gifts, so that we can teach specifically on what are termed the "charismatic" giftings (includes, isn't restricted to: tongues, prophecy, healing, discernment, etc.)

In line with this, PR shared that he has been questioning why him and why now as far as his involvement, considering that there are others who are more gifted than himself in the area of arts and pastoring the artist. While we still need someone who is gifted in that way, God has been showing him that his role is to provide that theological/doctrinal stability, which has reassured him, i believe. (correct me if i'm wrong, PR)

Funding: We are getting some funding from Mississippi, but we need to do some fund-raising of our own. Frankly, if we are willing to spend someone else's money, but aren't willing to lift a finger to raise some ourselves, or to give sacrificially, i'd call that irresponsible at best, and downright despicable at worst. And Mississippi probably won't give for long if we don't do our part. This is less about amounts than it is effort and heart (think: the parable of the widow's mite).

Likewise, there are some things that we are asking you to invest in personally in preparation for the church plant. Things like the trips to visit churches and the Buzz conference. We are not intent on wasting your money, but rather are trying to choose wisely the things that will prepare us all the best. We know that few, if any of y'all are rolling in cash, and are prepared to help subsidize some of these expenses. But we can't bankroll the whole thing. If you can afford an aspect of this, please don't rely on the church just because we have the funds right now. Instead, spend when you can, and let us know honestly when you cannot. As our relationships grow, we will learn better when we are asking too much and when we are not. Dialogue on this is the most helpful.

We want to encourage you to raise funds for yourself for these endeavors as well as for this church plant. Do you have artwork you could sell (i'm not asking you to sell out, here!)? Do you know of ways to or want to group up and raise money? brainstorm on this, folks! :)

ok, i think that's all. :) i'll see y'all tomorrow, 7:30pm, my house!