Thank you for being a prayer partner for Gateway Church at Kamm’s.  We now have over 400 people who have committed to praying for us.  That is very encouraging.  We still need more so feel free to invite your friends.  The more, the merrier.  Through prayer, we’re tilling the soil and planting seeds for a great harvest this fall.

Here’s how you can pray:

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been brainstorming and thinking carefully through how we want to serve the city this spring and summer through servant evangelism, family events, construction projects, prayerwalking, etc.  Dan has some key meetings this week to nail down some of the plans, especially as we prepare for a number of missions teams to come help us. Please pray that this plan is clear and that it is God’s plan so he can bless it fully.

We are also taking the next detailed steps in raising support.  Please pray that God would open the right doors for us to find partners.  Would you like to help us?  Do you know of anyone who has a heart for church planting and with whom it would be good to share our vision?  Just let us know.

One of our team members made a number of calls to begin setting up appointments for Dan to meet with community leaders.  We now have several scheduled but she had to leave lots of messages.  Please pray that those leaders are prompted by the Spirit to return our calls and be willing to set up times for the interviews.

For our launch team, please pray for unity and momentum.  We’ve got a great team but need to continue to grow together in community.  Some specific requests for the team are: Angelys is having gall bladder surgery this week, Carl’s grandfather has some serious medical conditions, Lottie has several family members with serious medical concerns as well, and Dean’s wife Mya is due with their third baby any day now.  Please bring these before the Lord on our behalf.

Thanks again for being our prayer partners.  We’d also like to be praying for you, so send us your requests.

If we are using God’s people entering the Promise Land as a metaphor for church planting, then Numbers 33 would be equivalent to www.mychurchlaunch.org.

God has put Numbers 13 and 14 in front of me a “number” of times in the last few months (play on words intended).  I know you can take it too far but I do believe that the promised land is a great picture of what we are doing with starting a new church.  God gave the new land to his people in the Old Testament just like he wants us to start a new church here in the New Testament.  So, in a sense we are in the “spying” stage.  We are getting to know that community that we live in better.

We have talked both as a launch team but also with the group of college students who walked the neighborhoods last week, “What do we see that is milk, honey, and fruit and what do we see that are the giants?”  To list all that out here would distract from the point I want to make.  Let me get to that.

Remember that Moses sent 12 spies into the land.  Each one of them saw the great things AND the challenges but in their report to the people, 10 of the spies emphasizing only the negative.  They spread a bad report that ended up causing a great deal of fear among the people.  That fear lead to complaining and wanting to go back to Egypt.  Joshua and Caleb get on their case and challenge them to not rebel against the Lord and to not be afraid.

There’s a lot to digest in what Joshua and Caleb told the people but the phrase that grabbed me this morning was what God said just after that, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them?”  Ouch!

While I might not use the term “miraculous signs,” I’ve seen over and over again, God’s hand doing some pretty cool stuff as we prepare to launch Gateway:Kamm’s.  The way a friend put it the other day was “God is showing you favor.”  For that I am grateful.  But I must keep on believing.  There’s a big part of me that wonders if we can really do it!

I’ve been really down this week.  I feel like I’m spinning my wheels and not getting much done.  I’m “putting in the time” but I’m overwhelmed by the task list.  I’m starting to worry about the money.  I feel like I’m not doing a good job in a number of areas.

And so, this morning God and I had a little chat.  He reminded me that I’ve got to believe.  It’s that simple right now.  We haven’t entered the land yet but I’ve got to believe that he will take care of the giants for us.  I must not be rebellious and complain.  I’ve got to trust in God and be obedient.

Will you pray for me and our team?

Movement: What is it?  Can we create it?  If so, how?  What about it draws people?

One of my favorite “technical” definitions of movement is “effort by many to achieve something.”

I see two big implications.  One is that something is achieved.  It’s not just movement like children running in circles.  It’s a movement towards an end.  In church planting, the ultimate goal is God’s glory, which is accomplished when people give their lives to Christ and gather with other believers to enjoy God and do life together.  The movement in this discussion is toward God’s purposes not just movement for movement sake.

The other implication is that multiple persons are involved – movement does not happen by itself.  For our discussion, it’s not just people but God himself.  I believe that movement happens when God reaches out to people and those individuals respond.  By extension, a movement involves individuals but also groups of people, often churches.

The question of “can we create it and if so, how” brings up the issue of leadership.  I do not believe that a leader or group of leaders can create spiritual movement but can prepare the way for it.  I liken it to a farmer who tills the soil, plants the seed, waters the seeds, and pulls the weeds but he’s not actually doing the growing.  That’s a God thing.

I have seen probably more people in my circles be against movement than for it.  Movement by definition requires change and obviously, many people and groups of people do not like change, even if it is good change.  On the flip side, there are others who constantly like change and are more naturally drawn to movement.

I believe that the key to keep personalities out of it.  It’s about individuals, especially leaders, who see the need for God’s purposes to be done whether or they are comfortable with it.  That kind of movement is attractive to both believers and unbelievers.

Very frustrating.  I got into the championship game again tonight but lost in three games.  Lost the first one, won the second one, but fell apart in the third.  I better win it next week or I’m going to quit.

Not really.  I actually was able to have some very good conversations about church and spiritual things with several of the guys.  That’s the main reaosn I go.

But… I’d sure like to win one week so I can get into the final at the end of the 10 weeks!

Later…

I’m trying to at least do weekly updates on everything that’s happening with the launch.  Here’s a few highlights from last week.

We had a our first launch team meeting last Tuesday night.  Had 13 adults, 3 teens, and 8 kids.  2 spouses and 4 other team members couldn’t make it due to work and sickness. Good meeting had lots to talk about!

On Wednesday afternoon, I attended a church planting seminar sponsored by NEO360.  Dr. Tom Nebel walked us through how to connect with the various influencers in our community.  Good, practical stuff.

On Thursday, had lunch with a good friend who is playing more of an advisory role with the launch.  He’s been a big help.

On Friday afternoon, we had a team of 9 students from Georgia (along with 2 local collegiate missionaries) come help us do some prayer walking and some on the street interviews.  The team spent most of the week doing some campus ministries with Trinity Baptist Church on the other side of town.

The team did a great job.  Frankly, I didn’t expect to get us much helpful information as I did.  We had given them some very intentional questions to ask people and it worked.  We got some very thoughtful answers.  They actually made some really good contacts that we can follow up with as well.  It was fun for some of our launch team to debrief them at West Park Station.  I’ll post some pictures shortly!

Thanks to the team from Georgia, to Ty, Sarah, and Kevin, and to our own launch team.  Good job!

Last night, we had our second launch team meeting.  (Sunday’s are going to be our regular meeting times.)  Again, good interaction.  Our two biggest discussions centered on what we saw was milk, honey, and fruit as well as giants in West Cleveland — obviously a reference to the spies in Numbers.  The other big discussion was a brainstorming of all the ways that we can connect with and serve the community — a ton of great ideas!  Very encouraging!

That’s about it for now.  I’ve got a ton to do this week.

Thanks for reading!

Dear Prayer Partners,

Let me again say a huge thanks for your willingness to pray.  I have never been more aware of our need for prayer as I have with this new adventure.  God has taught me a lot about dependence over the last 9 months and I’m sure I have a lot more to learn, too.

Here are a few updates and requests that you can bring before the Lord on our behalf:

Our launch team has had two meetings so far.  Please pray that we really gel.  We all have different backgrounds and life situations.  Pray that God will give us a special unity as we begin this church together.  We are scheduled to meet every Sunday night from 6-8 pm.

Connections in the community continue to be some of our primary emphases.  Please pray that community leaders will be receptive to meeting with us and seeing/hearing our (actually, God’s) heart for the city.  Pray that we will have wisdom as we sort out all of various events, projects, and activities to be involved in with the community.  We could do so much but we need discernment to know which are the best.  Also, pray that God will give me great conversations as I play table tennis at the West Park Station and at the barbershop. 

Please pray for the Nexus fundraiser that Gateway:Downtown is doing this coming Sunday.  In fact, if you can come, we’d love to have stop by.  Visit www.nexuscleveland.com for more information.

This weekend, the Cleveland diocese released their list of church closings and mergers.  This definitely affects our community.  Please pray that we will wisely and carefully respond to these decisions.  It could be an open door in many ways.

Thanks again for praying.  Don’t forget that we’d love to pray for you as well.  Just tell us how!

Until next week,

Dan (for the whole team)

PS.  If you know me very well, you know that I’m not always a good delegator.  You’d be proud of me.  I’ve delegate a lot of our prayer team updating to my good friend and launch team member, Scott Amann.  He’ll be sending you the future updates.

Rego’s to close West Park supermarket, fifth of seven

CLEVELAND — Rego’s Fresh Markets, one of the last family-owned supermarkets on the West Side, says it will close its store in Cleveland’s West Park neighborhood next week — the fifth of its seven stores it has closed in the last four months.

The news comes just a few weeks after Rego’s closed a store in Westlake.

Rego’s said about 30 people will lose their jobs at the Cleveland location at Kamm’s Corners. The store will close on Wednesday, leaving Rego’s with only two remaining stores, in Strongsville and Rocky River.

The Rego family gave no information about why the West Park store was closing but had previously blamed the recession for the grocer’s struggles.

“We have been affected greatly during these rough economic times, something we would never have predicted,” the family said in a statement last week. “We hope that our customers hang in there with us and understand that better times are to come.”

The Rego family had bought three of its now-closed stores from Tops Markets in 2006 and 2007: Westlake, Kamm’s Corners and North Royalton. They were among the 46 stores Tops sold off in Ohio to concentrate on its core markets in western New York and Pennsylvania.

Experts have guessed that increasingly tight lending conditions may have hurt Rego’s, which probably went into substantial debt to purchase the Tops stores.Rego’s also closed locations in Brunswick and on Lakewood Heights Boulevard in Cleveland.

Longtime shoppers say that Rego’s prices are a bit higher than at Giant Eagle, the region’s largest supermarket chain. But the family-owned store carries items they can’t find elsewhere, such as Rego’s homemade sausages, deli salads and take-and-bake pizzas. The store tends to favor local brands over national products.

“I think the prices are very fair for the high quality,” said Christina Seeley of Westlake, who began shopping at the Kamm’s Corners store after the Westlake location shut down.

A dedicated shopper, Seeley said she’ll now go to the Rocky River location.

But Doris Fiorelli, who lives near the Kamm’s Corners store, said last week that she can’t imagine having to find another place to shop.

“They need this store here,” she said.

Martin Keane, the Cleveland city councilman for the Kamm’s Corners area, said losing the store is a blow to the neighborhood. “It really is a family-run organization. I don’t think there was ever a time I went in there and there wasn’t a family member working,” Keane said. “It was just a great, friendly place. Right now it’s sad for the employees, the family and the community.”

Click on the link for an updated quick sheet outlining our vision for Gateway Church at Kamm’s.

Quick Sheet for Gateway Church at Kamm’s

Good stuff happening at NEO360. I’m glad to be a part of this network. Check out their end of the year update from 2008.