Church Plant Retreat

It’s a melancholy day today. I’m sitting in a room by myself, it’s raining outside and I’ve been away from my family for 5 days now. Granted, being here, in a well funded (free) retreat center on the shore of Lake George in the Adirondack State Park is certainly nothing to complain about. Add to that the fact that the purpose of my retreat is to seek God, plan and strategize for our upcoming move to plant a church in Sarasota, Florida. Nothing could be more exciting than that and I count this time as a great blessing and privilege from the Lord – even though I do miss my family in a big way.

I wanted to catch you up on all that’s been happening. From the time I announced the church plant, it seems that activity and time have suddenly picked up the pace. I can hardly believe that today is November 1st and our last Sunday at GCC is just six weeks away. But with so much to do the days seem to fly by.

One of the themes of the last few months for us has been travel. In September, Siobhan and I traveled to Orange County, California to attend an Acts 29 Network Church Planting Boot Camp. It was so encouraging to meet new people with the same burden to plant churches and hear teaching focused on gospel transformation that leads to gospel transfer.

Three weeks later we were on our way to Sarasota. The first order of business was to meet with three Acts 29 pastors from our region for the final stage of my Acts 29 church planter assessment process. It is my hope to partner with the Acts 29 Church Planting Network because of their love for truth, their emphasis on discipleship and their commitment to church planting. Our meeting went well and we left very encouraged. I look forward to learning from and serving beside those men in the months and years to come. Any day now I will be receiving a report from Acts 29 with the results of their assessment and recommendations. We also signed a lease on a house and met with a few families interested in joining the church plant.

And of course, here I am on another trip. But as tired as I may be or as melancholy as I may feel, the Lord has a way of gripping my heart and giving me a vision of something greater. It’s a vision of Him. It’s a vision that fills my heart with passion and motivates me with joy to press on. Let me give you one example. This is a paragraph from something I was working on this morning.

Answering the question, “What does our name mean?” (In case you haven’t heard its BRIDGEWAY)

The gospel is where we get our name. Because of the great chasm that sin had created between God and man it was necessary for us to have a mediator to represent both God and man; someone who could bridge the gap. That someone is Jesus. He came to earth as both fully God and fully man. He fulfilled the law perfectly yet He took our sin upon Himself. He was nailed to a cross and, like us, was separated from the Father. He bore the full fury of the wrath of God and died the sinner's death in our place, paying the penalty for our sin.

There is only One who was able to bridge the gap between God’s holiness and our sinfulness. There is only one way to be forgiven of our sin and restored to God. Jesus is the Way. This is amazing grace, and makes us want to worship Him and tell everyone about Him. At BRIDGEWAY we’re all about Jesus.

My heart is freshly reminded of how much He has loved me and I'm filled with joy that I get to be a part His work of restoration on the earth!