We Passed Another Hurdle

Last week my wife and I sat down with Charles Campbell and Eddie Pullen, members of the Illinois Baptist State Association Church Planting Team, to discuss the results of our recent Invest assessment for church planters. When we went began the assessment process I spent a lot of time working through a book and preparing documents. Then we went through the actual assessment, which was a series of interviews with assessment teams. They asked a lot of questions, and either wrote notes on paper or entered notes in a computer. We had no idea what they wrote. But the process was good.

So when we sat down with Charles Campbell and Eddie Pullen we were looking forward to finding out if we had “passed.” The good news is that we have passed that stage. The results will be passed on to the North American Mission Board. We are trusting that God will lead us through this next stage.

We are still moving forward. While we wait to hear from NAMB we are in the process of seeking a church to serve as our sending church. I am looking for a job, and we are looking for a place to live. We are also praying that God will lead us to the “person of peace” that we need to discover in order to begin the planting process.

We will be planting a “house church” in East Alton, Illinois. House churches are small, with an attendance that usually is between ten and thirty people. East Alton is a town in the metro-east area of St. Louis. The population of East Alton is just a little over 10,000 people. The town mimics the U.S. average with a third of the population uninvolved in a faith experience, one-third somewhat involved, and one-third actively involved. The average age of the people is 41 years old.

Right now we are looking for prayer support. Here is a list of our prayer needs:

• Pray for our approval from the North American Mission Board.
•  Pray for a sending church to come alongside us.
•  Pray that God will provide employment for me.
•   Pray that God will provide a place for us to live.
•   Pray for a “person of peace” as we begin to plant a church in East Alton.