notes from May 5th: Looking Ahead

this Saturday, May 12th, we have another meeting, 10am, my house.

just a couple of notes from our meeting last Saturday (may 5th):

There are several things we talked about:
PR's trip to Mississippi (MS) went well.
He made several contacts, and has several pledges-of-support. The older couple with whom he stayed have a son and daughter-in-law (i believe) who are artists and Christian, in about their 30's. He would like to bring them (or one of them) up to talk with our group at some point about their navigation through and wrestling with being a Christian in the art world.

Incoming Missions Teams, Artscape
There will be 3 times in the summer (July/August) in which missions teams will be coming up from MS to help with the church plant. Two groups will do a few prayer walks in MtV and BHill (early July and early August). The 3rd group will come in time to participate in Artscape (July 20-22). We have applied for a booth at Artscape, and assuming we get it, we will need folks to man (person?) the booth, as well as participate as volunteers in the actual festival (through official channels. we just need to apply by the end of June to be volunteers). We will also need to brainstorm things to do with/at the booth at Artscape.

October 7th Launch
We are planning an October 7th launch, as of now. That means that we will have "closed service" through September. Closed service means that we will hold services for ourselves, and those who are interested and supporters of the church plant (but who perhaps are not on a "core-group-level"). This is not the time to invite non-Christians, the-casually-interested, or general folks. This time of "closed services" is meant to give us time to hone the practicalities of running a service (set up, sound, logistics, the look, etc) as well as tailoring the content to us, the serving community, rather than seekers.

Meeting Space
We are beginning to pray and look for a meeting space. It will most likely be in MtV, since there seems to be more commercial space there (which is more likely to have rooms large enough to fit more people).

Training, Research Road Trips, Fun Trips
In the meantime, this summer will be a time of intensive training and research. We are looking at taking a few road-trips (in the quasi-local area) to look at other churches and how they engage in the creative. These would be weekend trips, probably leaving on a friday and returning on a monday, in order to catch their sunday services. If you know of any churches we should look at (i'm already talking to The Well, in PA - a classmate of mine went there), let me know.

We are also planning a couple of "fun" weekend trips - probably to the beach, or something. The purpose of these trips is to help solidify and build cohesiveness in the group. In our years of churchplanting, we've found that sharing "fun" time really helps to deepen relationships. We are already a group that prays and meets together, and individuals within the group all have different connections with each other. Really enjoying one another outside of the ministry context does so much to ease various tensions within the group and helps to guard against the enemy's ability to divide us against ourselves.

Make Contacts
There are a lot of things to do, but more than anything right now, it's crucial to start talking to people about the coming church plant. Whether they are Christian, non-Christian, new/old Christian, let them know that the Light is coming. Maybe start a small Bible Study at your place? Engage with folks and pray pray pray!

Scheduling
There are 2 things to think about with scheduling this summer. Our heaviest scheduling will be in June, late July, and all of August (esp. August). If you are looking to go on a vacation, or home, or something, the best time would be July 1-13th.

Also, with the semester over, we hopefully will have a free-er schedule for meetings. i'd like to hear what y'all's schedules look like for now. Let me know when you know you will be away, as well as when y'all work, evenings that are free, etc. After PR, Jason, and John get back from their PERU trip, it would be nice to see if we can re-arrange the meeting schedule (so that folks like Andy Horng and Sarah Nix don't miss every single meeting).

THINGS TO DO:
Pray for the church plant, for a space
Look for a space
Make contacts
Get your schedules to me
Research churches that are doing what we want to do.
Brainstorm for Artscape