"For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6

Thank you!
You've been praying!
God is working!

Church Planting Update

Advent is a season of hope. A time of waiting. Waiting for Christmas presents, as Michael does longingly. Waiting for Christ's return to set a broken world to rights. Waiting on God to show up in this or that area of our lives.

The amazing thing is to be able to look back and see that God was there all along, how He worked and moved despite our feeble efforts, how He took care of the details in ways we never thought imaginable.

This is that season for us — Advent. And we are seeing God moving in ways we had only hoped for.

What are those ways?

I'm glad you asked!

One of our struggles has been the nature of our call to church planting. Last Wednesday, December 5th, Stacey and I went to dinner with Rev. Shane and Jean Sunn. Shane is the new Executive Director of Aspen Grove Church Planting Network. The Board of AGCPN voted to call me as a Church Planter (on the basis my ordination transfers to the Presbytery of the West in February). This is very encouraging for Stacey and me. On Monday I talked with the Chair of the Committee that handles these matters and he invited me to their committee meeting on January 9th to present our church planting plan and get the call and transfer squared away with our Presbyterian polity. On some levels this seems very dry and formal, but it is a huge encouragement and endorsement for us — a tangible and measurable step in this work God is doing.

Another conversation I have had recently is with Cherry Hills Community Church. They are a large EPC church on the Southside of the Denver metro area. In October, I applied for their church planting boot camp that they do annually. We've sent some application questions, personality tests, etc. back and forth to one another — mainly them to me. On Tuesday of this week, they emailed me to ask if I could do a phone interview on Wednesday. We did and it went very well. We are currently trying to schedule a follow up in-person interview. This would be a great learning connection to make as well as a great potential partnership.

Moreover, as I look back over the past four months here, I can see connections all over the city. In fact, in the four months here, I have meet, eaten with, networked with more pastors than I did for the five years I was in Atlanta. Some of these pastors are: Jared Mackey (The Sacred Grace), Stephen Redden (New Denver), Eugene Scott (Wellspring), Billy Waters (Wellspring), Dave Meserve (Highline), Nathan Hoag (The Sacred Grace), Joe Lloyd (The Sacred Grace), Ruben Rodriguez (The Sacred Grace), Shane Sunn (St. Patrick's), Brandon Addison (The Neighborhood Church), and there are many more. They are excited about the work we have been called here for and have been essential to our networking, our place, and camaraderie in this work. Please pray for them and their churches.

Many of you know of our moving difficulties. Well, God has provided in that area also. We filed a credit card dispute because we did not receive all of our items. They had molded due to improper storage. And to our amazement, we received nearly all of the disputed amount. On top of that, two of the items were my grandmother's college chairs that held sentimental value and we received those chairs on Monday of this week, cleaned and restored. Little things like this go a long way.

We are blown away right now by what God is doing. He is moving this vision He has given us forward. We're being made official, church partnerships are forming, and bad experiences are being redeemed.

In all this, our hearts are being stirred to see what God is going to do next. Our hope is to begin regular, weekly meetings in the next 2-3 months, to begin serving in our neighborhood, loving our neighbors and city, and to reach a people for Christ and form a community that worships and serves together.

Partnership

Denver is a city that prides itself on being a place where people come and make themselves anew. We believe that in Christ, God makes all things new. God's deep desire is to see more and more people in the city of Denver come to know His mercy and grace through the person and work of Jesus Christ and be empowered by the Holy Spirit to manifest the city of God in the city of Denver. We believe planting churches is the most effective way to make this a reality. And we would like you to partner with us.

By being a part of this email, you have partnered with us in prayer. Further, some of you have expressed interest in partnering with us financially, some of you have already begun to partner. Even from the beginning when we weren't sure how this was going to happen, your support has been a huge encouragement to us. For that we are extremely grateful.

For those of you have have been waiting, we would ask that you would consider us a part of your year-end giving, and begin to pray about what an ongoing partnership would entail.

We believe that it will take $150,000 a year over 5 years, or $750,000 total. One way to think about this is: we have 176 people on this prayer list. If all of you gave $71/month ($853/year) we would be fully funded. Already, some of you have given well beyond that amount, and some of you are giving what you are able. What I want you to know is: every amount helps.

But we know this is a big decision, so we ask that you would please pray about it and ask God what it would look like for you to be co-laborers with us in Christ.

Please let me know if you have any specific questions. I would love to share more with you over the phone or in person. In the meantime, I have created some pages on my website about vision and mission. Please head over there and take a look.

The Table Project

Giving

We are incredibly grateful for your financial support. We have an account set up with the Aspen Grove Church Planting Network (AGCPN), based in Denver. You can click the button below and use the "Fund" drop down box to select "Grapengater Support Fund".

Note: Check and ACH gifts bypass credit/debit card fees. AGCPN is a tax-exempt non-profit, which means your donations will be tax deductible. Thank you very much!

Give Now

One More Thing

You may have seen t it above, but as Apple always has one more thing, so do we in this email.

Names are an interesting thing. God named Adam and Eve, Adam in turn named the creatures. Names give life and meaning. We each have names. And now our church planting endeavor has a name.

I'd like you to meet: The Table Project.

We do life around the table. At work, we call it a desk, at home it's our dining table, in front of our couch it's our coffee table. Life happens around the table. We invite our families and friends to join us around our tables.

In worship, we call it a communion table. At the Eucharist, we are invited to fellowship with God by the power of the Holy Spirit through the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is our mission to find those God is calling to Himself, invite them to our table with the hope that they find themselves around God's table.

I call it a Project, because this is just the initial phase of what God is doing. As we formalize, shift and mold to the next phase, as the church forms and becomes more formal, our name may need to change. We want to be flexible and open to what God may have for us in the next steps.

Prayer Requests

Please pray for: