Report from Global Church Advancement and more

I want to follow up on our trip to Orlando for the Global Church Advancement Conference.  First, it was great for me and Erin to be able to get away for a few days without the kids, especially to sunny Florida.  The weather was great, we enjoyed being with each other, and we had a great time.

Now, on to what happened.  We went through what is known as the Foundations Track.  This track is geared towards those on the front end of a church plant.  Each day we had three sessions (each an hour and half long).  In these sessions we had experienced planters speak on: vision, focus, prayer, philosophy, purpose, values, styles, models, finances, launching/planning, and finally on the "main thing" (which was essentially a confessional of the top 8 mistakes made by one guy that he didn't want us to fall into--which was very encouraging).  In each session there was room for much discussion (though not much time given) and much fodder for planning.  Actually, this Thursday I will be getting away in the afternoon for the night to a retreat center to try and process more of what was talked about.  The information was so extremely helpful that it was probably one of the best conferences I have ever attended.  Mainly, it scratched exactly where I have been itching and it gave tremendous vision to the couple that came with us.

I would like to have Erin share as well and hopefully I can get her on this so she can.  We are so thankful for men and women in ministry who have gone before us and can give us counsel.  Not only this conference, but for this past year as I have been interning at North Cincinnati Community Church and rubbing shoulders with church planters in the area and learning from our pastor here who has many years of experience.

I also want to thank all of you who as well have a vision for church planting and specifically for where the Lord has called us.  Your support, both in finances and prayer, is invaluable.  We are still raising further funds and have about $1150/month left to raise to be a full support (that includes our family and the young church plant expenses), as well as the cost of the conference (which was well worth it!).  If you feel so led you can easily give by following the link to the right "Join us in Ministry" or by clicking here.

Thank you again and I look forward to sharing more about this conference as I continue to process and to be able to share the life of our young church plant.

Global Church Advancement

Erin and I are back in the Sunshine State.  Our kids are in Indy with my parents and we are attending the Global Church Advancement Conference for church planters.  We had our first day of meetings yesterday and quite often it felt like drinking from a fire hose.  Good stuff, but a lot to digest.  It is really exciting to be here, especially because we have a couple from our core group down here with us as well.  We would love to have you all praying for us while we are here: that God would make things clear to us, that we would long for His Spirit to be at work in the Fairfield Township area (as well as in our hearts), and that He would use this time to prepare us better for what lies ahead. 

Just a quick update on the house front.  Apparently work is getting done and we could possibly close sometime next week or the week after.  It has been a bit of an ordeal, but we are trusting that sometime this coming month we will get into the house.  Still happy for your prayers on this.  Thanks.  

Not horrible news...but a delay nonetheless

It's been a bit of a busy weekend and I haven't had much time to update our blog.  We were supposed to close on Friday at 10am.  However, we got news that an "unacceptable" report came back from a third party test that was done by the relocation company and we did not close.  The test was over some mold remediation that was done by the homeowners and it was not done well.  They now have been given a list of acceptable and licensed contractors to address the problem.  Though we were not excited to have our closing delayed, we are grateful that this company had it tested and we now it will be done correctly in the end. 
At this point we don't know when we will close now.  The last time the independent test was done it took 7 days to get the results and report back and I seriously doubt any work will be done before Monday.  We also leave on the 23rd to head to Florida for a church planting conference for the week.  I would be surprised if we closed before February.
Thank you for your prayers and I'll do my best to keep you all updated. 

Closing Day

Yes, I realize it has been a while since I last posted anything.  Life has been a bit busy, but that is really not a great excuse.  From the day we signed the contract we have been in a bit of an up and down situation with who we were dealing with on the home.  We have negotiated with the sellers, but somehow there is a relocation company involved that has a tendency to muddy the waters.  We are actually scheduled to close on the house tomorrow morning at 10 a.m., but we don't have a final addendum back from some mold work that was done (very minor but needed remediated).
We would love some prayer that the house would close tomorrow.  If we have to wait until next week it won't be the end of the world, but we do have some help lined up this week to work on the house with cleaning and changing locks, etc...
I promise, soon I will do much better at (hopefully) weekly updates on this site.   Thanks for your prayers.