Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Del Sol Northeast prayer update, 08/26/09

Here's the latest update on the Northeast campus:


- I apologize that I didn’t send out an update last week; it was a very busy week though, with some important developments concerning Del Sol’s Northeast location.


- Two weeks ago I mentioned a possibility of some shopping center space that had recently opened up and that we were looking into that option. Just around that time, another facility – a former church in the Northeast, on a road called Angora Loop – became available as another possible option for us to meet at. There are some major pros and cons to both the shopping center and to the former church property, so we took some time to go look at both properties and then pray, think, and discuss what the wisest option for us would be.


- After lots of prayer, thought, discussion, and several late nights staying up thinking and praying, we’ve come to the conclusion that though the shopping center I mentioned two weeks ago is a great option and a great opportunity, it just would not be the wisest use of our financial resources at this time – so it looks like we’ll be renting the property on Angora Loop for awhile to get things started. It’ll be a “starter home” if you will, a place for us to get things started and then grow out of after a little while.


- This property will require some minor improvements, mostly things like painting, carpeting, landscaping, etc. – things to make it an environment that’s more welcoming, friendly, and functional for what we’ll be doing. Location is important, but what’s more important is what goes on at a location so even though this property is not the best location, it’s a great opportunity for us to step things up and create environments on Sunday mornings that people are excited about coming to and are willing to go out of their way to invite their friends, neighbors, and coworkers to. It’s also an opportunity for us to do something that will hopefully improve the neighborhood a bit by making improvements to this facility.


- So there are two major ways in which God has guided us lately: first, in providing a location for us to meet at and second, providing a location where we can be a fixed church campus rather than one where would be portable. It would have been a huge and very difficult feat to ask people to drive 30 minutes on Sunday mornings to the other side of town, get there 2 hours before the worship celebration service, set everything up, have an hour long worship celebration service, then spend another hour and a half putting everything back before being able to drive another 30 minutes back home. That would have made for long, tiring Sundays and an immense amount of wear & tear on our people and equipment, so I’m very glad that we won’t have to do that for now.


- Two weeks ago I also mentioned some dates of Sunday morning worship celebration services that we were preparing for; I’d like to keep that schedule if at all possible, but it’ll depend on how quickly we’re able to prepare the property for our gatherings, so that’s a matter of prayer as well.


- God has given us incredible amounts of clarity and direction in these past couple of weeks, in large part due to your prayers, so thank you SO much for praying faithfully.




Here's how you can pray this week:


1. Thank God for the clarity and direction He’s given, and ask Him to continue leading the way by showing us exactly what we need to do with the Angora Loop property in order to make it a more welcoming, friendly, and functional environment for people to come to.


2. Please ask God to show us His pace – meaning that we want to move along at the speed He wants us to go at, not going so fast that we get ahead of what He’s doing and not moving so slow that we lag behind and miss out on God-given opportunities.


3. Please ask God to continue giving us guidance and wisdom about programming matters like kids ministry activities, GrowGroups, the preaching schedule, etc.


Thanks for your prayers - I truly believe they make a big difference.

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