The Beginning of the End

Today is the first day of my last semester of Seminary. It marks not only that end, but the, at least for a time, an end to my academic career which has spanned over the past 22 years of my life.

It was rather surreal sitting in class as I was thinking about this twice over Odyssey of mine. The end finally in sight, praying about what I'm going to be doing in the future. At the current moment I'm praying about moving to Kansas City in June to plant Redeemer Fellowship. A two year prospectus was sent to me about 2 weeks ago from Kevin Cawley and Kris McGee. It appears to be exactly what I want to do, but I'm trying to take my time making that decision-- something I'm not normally known for doing. I hope to have a decision in the next 2 weeks.

Until then I have the following classes to focus on during my last semester:

• Christian Ethics and the Church
• Living Responsibly in the Realm of God
• Embodiment

The final requirement is my Chaplaincy at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (CPE). It takes up around 30 hours a week altogether. It has been much better than what I thought it would be though. To best illustrate how I've enjoyed it, I thought I'd give a top ten.

Top 10 Things I've enjoyed about CPE so far:

10. Cute nurses
9. Commuting via the EL
8. Waking up very early (surprising I know)
7. Talking with patients
6. Cute nurses
5. Praying with patients
4. Moving my understanding of Scripture from an academic knowledge to a pastoral wisdom.
3. Practicing Dual Citizenship
2. Cute nurses
1. Being there for people in times of hurt and need

Top 10 Reasons to Plant Churches

Taken from: David T. Olson, The American Church in Crisis, 155-156.

10. New Churches lower the age profile of the American church, increase its multi-ethnicity, and better position the whole church for future changes.

9. New churches provide synergistic benefits to established churches. Research shows that denominations that plant many strong churches have more healthy, growing, established churches than those who plant few churches.

8. The continued growth of new churches will extend up to 40 years after their start.

7. New churches provide a channel to express the energy and ideas of passionate, innovative young pastors.

6. New churches are the research and development unit of God's kingdom. Healthy cultural adaptations and theological vitality occur more often in a denomination that excels at church planting, because the ferment of new ideas and ministry solutions is more robust.

5. New churches are the test laboratory for lay leadership development. In new church plants that do well, most lay members report that being part of the beginning of the new church was one of the defining spiritual events in their life.

4. New churches are historically the best method for reaching each emerging new generation.

3. New churches are the only truly effective means to reach the growing ethnic populations coming to America. Church planting can effectively create both ethnic-specific and multi-ethnic congregations.

2. New churches are more effective than established churches at conversion growth. Studies show that new churches have three to four times the conversion rate per attendee than established churches.

1. Because the large majority of Americans do not attend a local church, many more new churches are needed. In 2005, 17.5% of Americans attended a local church on any given Sunday. The best and most effective way for the Christian church to keep up with populations growth is to start new churches.

I guess I'll blog

I mean, I have enough to write about. About 90% of the things I do throughout the day have blog potential. Take the overly loud high school girls at Starbucks today. I could blog about them and how I had to enact the noise-canceling headphones to begin to drown them out while I tried to study. Wasn't a complete success.

I could blog about class and how Klyne talked about what it would mean for us to start to think about ourselves as "in Christ" instead of Christ being in us. How it might make us look at evangelism differently and the Church differently, if we were inviting people into Christ, rather than pushing them to invite Christ into their lives. Just beginning to peel back the wrapper on that chocolate bar.

I could talk about Grace on Sunday, how my roommate Chris came with me and that hearing the "you are forgiven" almost drove me to tears at confession, drawing me into a deeper appreciation for what Christ has done for me and the subsequent communion that I was able to partake.

I could point you here.

I could talk about how I only attend class for 4.5 hours a week because I have on class that only meets for a weekend and another directed study.

I think most exciting for me to talk about, however, is my Saturday. After talking to Kevin on Wednesday, he called me again late Saturday morning and we planned to meet up downtown around 4. We did and proceeded to walk around the entirety of the loop-- on the outside of the loop. We walked for about 2 hours and were late getting back to the train station for him to get out of town. But we shared what was on our hearts about where God is calling us and what our desire is for that call. About Kansas City and how the Gospel isn't reaching the city. About how we don't want to be on the outskirts of the town, off in the suburbs-- no matter how many people would come. We talked about what ministry would/could look like together and how we could continue in that conversation and move forward in further discussion on getting to KC.

In the end, I was able to meet his 6 month pregnant wife and a couple other friends. I'm beyond excited and joyed about the future possibilities and potentialities where God is leading both of us. Please continue to pray for God's will in both of our lives as we plan to enter into ministry in the following year.

(Day) Dreaming

I just know I'm not going to sleep for about the next 3 nights and after that only God will be able to shut my mind off from dreaming so that I'll be able to get to sleep and get some actual dreaming done.

I just got off the phone with this guy named Kevin Cawley. We made a connection through the blog world, but mainly on Flickr-- that photo sharing site that consumes too much of my time. And after being within about 200 miles of him in early August, missing the connection, we just now were able to catch some air time with each other.

Right now, he's spending a year praying and planning in preparation to go to Kansas City to plant a church. He has a real vision, much of which I haven't heard yet, to have a church that really reaches the city for Christ.

I, in my bubble, have been praying for God to give me direction and lead me to a place to church plant. I feel like I could do ministry anywhere, but I want to be in the place that he would send me. So I've taken my time in prayer and consideration hoping that he would lead me not only to a place, but that he would bring people into my life that have a desire to plant also.

Back to my insomnia:

After missing connections in Tulsa, Kevin's coming up to Chicago this weekend. He had mentioned this in a email he sent me, but some how I overlooked it. Finally we'll be in the same city and have an opportunity to sit down and talk about our visions that God has given us. My issue is that I'll dream about everything as I lie down to go to sleep and my mind will race about all the possibilities.

All five of you that read this, please pray for the next couple of days that I'd be able to get to sleep and for the time that Kevin and I will have together. Also pray that both of us would be led to know what God has for us and to where/what he is leading us.

A (Banned) Word For Church Planters

From what I've read this video was shot for a church planting conference, but didn't get distributed because of some remarks made by a pastor of a certain church in South Barrington. Of course being contraband makes it much more prized and interesting than if it had been passed out to begin with. In it, Pastor Mark Driscoll talks about what it takes to be a church planter today.