February Already?!!

Time is going by so fast!  I can't believe it has already been a month since we launched Church@The Square.  This new season of life is so different than the other ones we have experienced before.  Diving full-time into church planting on a part-time salary, we have had to rearrange schedules and rework how to make life happen right now.  Lots of change.  Lots of pressure.  Lots of prayers.  Lots of growth.

Here's what is happening.  We are still running Peripety Designs, our web design business, as part-time "tentmakers" to supplement Bryan's pastoral salary, until the church is able to support us all the way.  God has brought Scott Capers onto our church leadership team to head up leading worship.  We are still praying that God would provide the right people to lead our children's ministry and youth ministry.

As for our launch in January, it was what we would consider a "soft" launch, because we didn't do any advertising to let people know where we were and when we were starting.  We wanted to have the opportunity to work out any kinks in our service before we started letting people know we were meeting.  Even still, God has been bringing new families to join the mission since our first week.  In attendance, we average about 40... sometimes having more and sometimes having less.  The energy and excitement of being part of the Body on mission in your city and area is a beautiful thing.

We are very aware that when people attend a church plant that they are willingly giving up other conveniences that larger churches have to offer.  They are coming because they want to be part of something new and make a difference for Jesus with something simple.  Seeing so many families give their time to make this happen is incredible.  Seeing these same serving families meet throughout the week in our community groups to flesh out each week's sermons in their personal lives is refreshing.  Instead of warming pews (which we don't have to begin with), we are seeing believers rediscover God's purpose for their lives and become excited about about the mission of Jesus all over again.

I love being part of Church@The Square.  I love how God is working through it and in it.  I am praying big prayers for our future, because God is a really big God.

Here are five ways you can pray with us for Church@The Square:

1) Pray that our church would grow where Bryan could receive a full-time salary soon.  It's a huge balancing act to manage a new church and a home business at the same time.  While we are thankful for God's provision through Peripety, we would love to see Bryan be able to fully devote his attention and energy into our church.  After all, his life's calling is to be a pastor, not a web developer (even if he is really good at that too!).

2) Pray that God would bring the right people into our leadership team to serve Jesus in our church and community.  Pray that God would provide for their needs so they would be financially able to serve in a new church where all of the staff is bivocational.

3) Pray that God would continue to bring solid families into our church to strengthen our core group, so we will have the volunteer base we need to minister to our families and the unchurched families that are coming in.

4) Pray that God would be gracious and allow us to reach out to people who don't know Jesus and bring them into our church family.  Our goal is to be a multiracial, multigenerational church that loves Jesus faithfully in diversity.  We don't want to replicate cookie cutter images of ourselves.  We want to see the Gospel impact people where they are and change them into the image of Jesus in their own context.

5) Pray that our upcoming outreach events would be fruitful in our community.  Pray that God would open doors for us to connect to hurting people that need Jesus and that their hearts would be primed for the Gospel.  I can think of nothing more exciting than seeing Jesus move in Gautier in the areas that have been unpenetrated by the Word.

Thanks in advance for your prayers.  Our God hears them and answers them.  Our church wouldn't exist now if not for them.  In the end, it's all about Jesus!  Check out our new church website if you'd like to learn more about us at http://www.churchatthesquare.com.