Wednesday Update

Wednesday means it's time for an update on the progress of the Northeast campus. Here goes ...

- The main project I've been working on this past week is a ministry plan for the Northeast campus. It's basically a business plan for the campus, with goals, processes, timelines, etc. in it. It's amazing how stretching this journey to become multi-site is; I'm doing things I've never done before, like the ministry plan, and job descriptions, and that sort of thing. It's pretty interesting, stressful, and exciting doing this as we go. It's kind of like not knowing how to swim and bring thrown in the pool and learning how to swim while you're flailing around in the water. It's very interesting.

- As part of that ministry plan, I've been reworking a launch budget I'd been given. The budget was around $260,000 and I really want to stay at $100,000 or less for start up costs. I was able to pare it down today to just about $130,000 for launch expenses, but that's still too much. I really feel that we can do it for $100,000 or less, and it's just a matter of figuring out what a barebones budget would be, what we need and what we can do without, and how we can still facilitate an excellent worship experience with what we have. Again, I've never done this before, but I believe God is leading me as I think it through and rework it.

- On Sunday, March 22nd I had met with a couple to ask them to pray about the wife joining as the kids ministry director. This past Sunday, the wife called me to let me know that they had prayed about it and felt God leading them in a different direction, so now I've gotta talk with the next person on my list and give them time to pray. Honestly, I'm kind of discouraged about that right now. I know God has someone perfect in place for us, but I just want to know who it is right now. It's amazing how God seems to know where I'm at emotionally and knows how to bring encouragement to me. Today, Buddy posted a single sentence that really helped put thing in perspective for me; I'm still kind of discouraged, but I'm encouraged knowing that (as Buddy said): "Before your greatest victory comes your greatest discouragement." So that means a great victory is just around the corner, and I'm claiming it now and thanking God in advance for what He's doing.


So here's how you can pray for me and for the Northeast campus this week:

1. This weekend, Rick, Kristin, and I are going to the NewThing Network's "Hitchhiker's Guide to Multi-Site" event in a suburb of Chicago. We leave mid-day Friday and come back Sunday night. Pray for us for safe travel of course, but also pray that God will open our eyes and our minds to process our experience, to learn whatever it is there is to learn there, and to really hear from God about what the next steps are.

2. Like I mentioned above, I'm reworking a budget and it's pretty mentally intense work. Please pray for God to show us exactly what our budget needs to look like and to provide the money we still need to cover our launch expenses.

3. Also pray for God to bring to us the person He has in store for us to lead our kids' ministry. Like I said, even though God is in control, it can still be pretty discouraging to be turned down by person after person when you really need someone to join your team. God's in control, but still I'd appreciate your prayers about that.