We Have Arrived in St Charles...
After a 13 month sojourn in South Florida, we have finally made it back to St. Louis! The past month has been a whirlwind of unpacking, getting settled, getting to know the new area we are living in and meeting all sorts of new people.
I (Noah) started the church planting internship the Monday after we arrived. I didn’t want to waste any time. Heather started digging out all of our things that had been in storage for the past year. We forgot that we had some of it! Check out the pictures below...
If you didn’t hear, our move was quite adventurous. An hour down the road, on the Florida turnpike, two of our suitcases flew off the top of the car onto the highway in the midst of rush hour traffic. Both suitcases were destroyed and Heather and I watched one of them literally explode while being run over by a semi. We salvaged what we could, called Heather’s mom and started over the next morning…this time with a UHaul trailer.
The total trip was 3 full days as we had to stop in Southern Illinois to get our things out of storage. Exhausted, we pulled into St. Charles dreading the final leg of the move. But when we arrived, 33 people form Matthias’ Lot (the church I am interning with) were here to move us in. They finished the task in 34 minutes!
Right now I am pulling double duty. I am working with Matthias’ Lot, creating and supporting ministry for them, as well as taking the steps for a new church plant. My Matthias responsibilities include developing ministry to Lindenwood University (less than a mile from our office), overseeing the load in and load out of equipment each week, helping with graphics and video, leading a “Lot Family” and sharing time on the teaching team. It is not hard to see how valuable this next year is going to be in the planting process.
Preparing to Plant...
We call it church “planting” and not “starting” or “building” because of the nature of the Church as described in Scripture. The Church is not a building and the Church is not an organization. The Church is a living organism that grows and spreads. It is a body made up of a diverse group of people with Jesus as the head.
Our biggest prayer need right now is location.
As we prepare to plant we need God to show us an area in the St. Louis region that needs a Gospel-centered, missional church that He has equipped us to reach. We know that every area in every region needs such a church, but we believe God is going to strategically place us in an area so that we can bear the most fruit. Over the next couple months I will be meeting with other church planters as well as leaders of church planting networks to discuss location. Pray that God would give us wisdom and insight to be where He wants us to be.
Pray for Our Team...
For any work like this to be successful, you have to be able to gather like minded people around you. Three are already here. Many of you know Josh Jones, my roommate from college. He and his wife, Kim, have committed to planting with us, as well as Todd Genteman. Todd is another friend from college who moved from Texas to come join us when we heard we were moving back. Both of these guys have been in full time ministry and feel called to church planting as we do. Pray for their finances as in the next year they will have to raise support to give themselves full time to this vision.
We are also praying for 14 people to come along side us as a core team for this plant. Some of the people may be here; some may have to uproot and move. Pray that God would burden hearts for the mission of the Gospel.
Also, please pray for finances as we raise money to give ourselves to this work full-time and prepare for the planting of a new church. We thank you all for your prayers and support.
