Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Here is a well done video that tells of a tragic story but leaves you with hope. The narrator is a pastor friend of mine named Todd Scoles from Marysville Grace Brethren Church.

Have a very Merry Christmas and give a big hug to those close to you.


The Christmas Bells from Clay Productions on Vimeo.

Our Final Meeting at the YMCA

This morning ended what was five months of launch team meetings. I'm sure our 17 families are ready to quit talk'n theory and start living out the practical.

Here are some pics. from this mornings meeting. We had an extended time of prayer together and then talked through the next few weeks

Beth Fields pictured below also led a discussion on spiritual gifts. It's late into December so many of our people were not at the meeting but those who were there participated well. This coming Wednesday is our mother churches Christmas Eve service which many of our people will attend as well as the 10:00AM service on the 28th. After that our launch team will be onsite at our rental facility Eli Pinney Elementary getting used to the building before services start in February.

ENCOUNTER CHURCH Christmas Party

Last night was really fun. Our mother church allowed us to use their very nice basement for our Christmas party. It allowed the perfect combination for connecting, playing games, enjoying desserts and listening to to a couple share about how they came to follow Jesus Christ. We had a number of visitors and almost the entire launch team present. There was much laughter and some deep conversations. Melissa, my sweetheart, led a very fun game for the whole group. Here's how it is played: -three people sit on stools, something is read allowed that is only true about one of them but they all have to answer questions from the crowd as though it is true of all of them -then the crowd votes on who they think it is and then the person it is true about stands up.
View the pictures from Sunday night by CLICKING HERE, then read the captions and then vote yourself about who the statement is about.

Personal Finances and Church Budget

It's been two weeks since the Encounter Church launch team has been together. That seemed like an eternity since many of us usually see each other two, three or more times in a normal week. As usual we had a couple give their testimony. Today we heard from Jeff & Sheila Persall.

Then Sheila informed the group about Antioch Adoption Agency out of Washington State. It's an organization that helps families adopt American children for little to no cost. This may be a group we partner with in some way in the future because many of our launch team families have a heart to foster or adopt.

With the time that remained we had an open discussion about Biblical giving and many people shared openly their thoughts and personal experiences as God has grown them in this area.

I was able to share my heart in a number of ways and lead the group through the six key of the book, "The Treasure Principle", by Randy Alcorn.

The meeting ended with Kyle Mielke laying out the vision for our offerings once we begin to recieve them in January 2009. The simple breakdown by percentages is as follows:

40% Personnell (my salary, future staff, interns)

20% Operations (office and ministry supplies)

20% Facilities (rental, future land/building)

20% Give Away (15%-missionaries,5%-church plant)

Ultimately it is all for ministry and all the Lord's. We are HIS stewards.

Since We Last Met

This is the longest I've gone without an entry in months. With the normal busyness of life and then going to a mountain in West Virginia for Thanksgiving that was out of cell phone and internet range, I simply haven't been able to write. Sorry to make the three of you who read this blog wait so long:-)

Since we last met...I've moved into an office in Dublin, the launch team visited Marysville Grace Brethren Church on a Sunday morning, we bought an 18 foot trailer to store all our church supplies, our family went to WV and met up with all of Melissa's immediate family, I got my jeep covered in mud off-roading and we attended Grace Church, our mother church this past Sunday morning.

Here's a few pics. of our time in WV.