So I am a slacker, I haven't published in forever!!!!
Anyway, lots of stuff going on in the FCC world. We have secured and finalized all our paperwork with the SBCV and Sonlight Church (www.sonlightchurch.org), what a blessing! We are excited to keep plowing ahead on our journey together!
We are also moving through the final phases of purpose development. Next core meeting we will take to task the writing of our purpose statement. Once that is done I will post that, our mission statement, and our core principle on this site.
One note unrelated to the church came out of our men's accountability group this morning and I wanted to post a link to a website:
http://www.bravehearts.net
This is a site whose entire purpose is to ending pornography addictions and helping people to deal with them. Take a look and see the ministry these folks have and pray for their ministry to touch millions who need it.
God bless.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
Core Group Reflections 7/17
Hey!
With moving it has been awhile since I updated the BLOG, but I wanted to post a quick entry about our meeting Wednesday night. What a great time, two of our dearest and closest friends in the world are HHs of Christian Surfers in Virignia Beach (HH = head honchos)! They came and gave us a presentation about what C.S. is all about and how they are reaching a large unreached people group in our community. What is awesome about the way the Surfers are organized is that they are based on building real relationships with Jesus for the purpose of evangelism. This strategy aligns with ours about being real with the people we are ministering to!
I don't know how this will plug into our ministry scope yet, but it will plug in!
Check out the surfers @ www.christiansurfers.com, pray for them in this area, and for our church to be able to get involved with missions. The great part is that we are planning missions while we are still organizing so we will make sure it is a core value we never forget!
Blessings!
With moving it has been awhile since I updated the BLOG, but I wanted to post a quick entry about our meeting Wednesday night. What a great time, two of our dearest and closest friends in the world are HHs of Christian Surfers in Virignia Beach (HH = head honchos)! They came and gave us a presentation about what C.S. is all about and how they are reaching a large unreached people group in our community. What is awesome about the way the Surfers are organized is that they are based on building real relationships with Jesus for the purpose of evangelism. This strategy aligns with ours about being real with the people we are ministering to!
I don't know how this will plug into our ministry scope yet, but it will plug in!
Check out the surfers @ www.christiansurfers.com, pray for them in this area, and for our church to be able to get involved with missions. The great part is that we are planning missions while we are still organizing so we will make sure it is a core value we never forget!
Blessings!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Assorted Stuff
Its been a while since I have updated the blog bascially because Rachel and I have been moving for EVER it seems like! We are getting close!!!!
Couple tidbits of information:
Foundations Community Church now has two domain names that we own:
http://www.foundationscommunitychurch.org/ and http://www.foundationschurch.net/. The second is autoforwarded to the first so that we will only have one real website. I haven't gotten too indepth into creation of the site, due to of course moving!
Secondly, the church has an address that we will use for all communication via snail mail for now:
Foundations Community Church
732 Eden Way North
#135, Suite E
Chesapeake, VA 23320
Thirdly, Rachel's brother has been awesome at helping us out by working on some church logo's. Please look and see what (if anything) you like. And serouisly, he is only like 6'4" and 240, so don't be scared to make fun of him and stuff, I am sure he will love it.....has that anger problem too...:)
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Reflections on Insanity
I have been reading through the Gospels in my devotions lately, and I am in Mark. Yesterday morning I read the following:
Mark 3:20-21
Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."
Jesus was so "out there" for God that his own family thought He was insane. I had completely forgotten that those closest to Him wanted to have Him committed. I can imagine how they felt: "There goes our brother again, ticking off all our friends. Thinks He can heal people, yeah right...." It would be pretty difficult to see the same young man you knew on a completely different "track" for his life than you would have thought. Most sons followed their fathers in business back then, and his family didn't recognize that Jesus was following his Father.
I have been thinking about this for the past day or so and I wonder how "insane" I am to those who have known me for so long but don't know the change Jesus brings into the lives of those who are His redeemed. Do they think I am crazy? I sure hope so!
What about you?
Blessings!
Mark 3:20-21
Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."
Jesus was so "out there" for God that his own family thought He was insane. I had completely forgotten that those closest to Him wanted to have Him committed. I can imagine how they felt: "There goes our brother again, ticking off all our friends. Thinks He can heal people, yeah right...." It would be pretty difficult to see the same young man you knew on a completely different "track" for his life than you would have thought. Most sons followed their fathers in business back then, and his family didn't recognize that Jesus was following his Father.
I have been thinking about this for the past day or so and I wonder how "insane" I am to those who have known me for so long but don't know the change Jesus brings into the lives of those who are His redeemed. Do they think I am crazy? I sure hope so!
What about you?
Blessings!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Core Group Reflections
WEDNESDAY NIGHT IS IT!
Starting Wednesday June 18, Core Group meeting will be on Wednesday nights. This will allow us a firm meeting time and be a day that we can translate into Leadership Community Meetings, once we are established!
We talked indepth about intimacy and the importance it plays in ministering to a hurting, lost, and dying community. As Rick Warren, and only slightly less famous Craig Boyer say: "People won't care how much you know, until they know how much you care."
We are going to be walking through the Purpose Driven Church in our first series of "study" sessions, discussing what we like and dislike and how we can incorporate them into our minsitry!
Everyone have a great rest of the week!
Starting Wednesday June 18, Core Group meeting will be on Wednesday nights. This will allow us a firm meeting time and be a day that we can translate into Leadership Community Meetings, once we are established!
We talked indepth about intimacy and the importance it plays in ministering to a hurting, lost, and dying community. As Rick Warren, and only slightly less famous Craig Boyer say: "People won't care how much you know, until they know how much you care."
We are going to be walking through the Purpose Driven Church in our first series of "study" sessions, discussing what we like and dislike and how we can incorporate them into our minsitry!
Everyone have a great rest of the week!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Intimacy Musings (Acts 2)
Next Core meeting we will be examining the biblical mandate that we see for our core values. The value that we have identified as being number one and really driving the other values for the church is intimacy.
Intimacy is something that we as a culture are trending away from, but we as individuals desperately need. One of our tasks is to discover how we as a body can make intimacy real to our core, and also to the community as a whole. The big caveat in that statement is not only how to maintain intimacy when we are just starting, but how to permeate our church with a culture of intimacy.
The chief scripture passage that comes to mind is that of Acts 2:42-47. The first church in Jerusalem was an intimate church. Our challange as a core group is to determine what principles we can glean from this church, and how we can apply those principles to modern ministry.
This will be the discussion for most of Sunday's meeting!
Later!
Intimacy is something that we as a culture are trending away from, but we as individuals desperately need. One of our tasks is to discover how we as a body can make intimacy real to our core, and also to the community as a whole. The big caveat in that statement is not only how to maintain intimacy when we are just starting, but how to permeate our church with a culture of intimacy.
The chief scripture passage that comes to mind is that of Acts 2:42-47. The first church in Jerusalem was an intimate church. Our challange as a core group is to determine what principles we can glean from this church, and how we can apply those principles to modern ministry.
This will be the discussion for most of Sunday's meeting!
Later!
Tuesday Update
Hey all:
Since we have been hosting our Core meetings on Monday nights I will be updating this blog Tuesdays with some of the stuff we have talked about.
Last night was an awesome meeting, we really nailed down and discussed the Core Values we believe God has instilled in our hearts which are Intimacy, Community, and Family. We believe that these three items will drive the ministries that we undertake to reach people in our community with the Gospel.
It was also an exciting time because we were able to review some of the spiritual gift assessments and start identifying where people felt God was calling them to minister. It is going to be awesome to take our "ideas" now and sit back in a year or so and see how God actually used us.
We also solidified the name of our church as "Foundations Community Church" and are working on develping a mission/vision statement, as well as a mission slogan so all ideas are welcome! :)
Be in prayer for Rachel and I as we move towards closing on our house in the community, it is a few weeks off and there are one or two things that need to come together for a smooth operation.
God bless!
Since we have been hosting our Core meetings on Monday nights I will be updating this blog Tuesdays with some of the stuff we have talked about.
Last night was an awesome meeting, we really nailed down and discussed the Core Values we believe God has instilled in our hearts which are Intimacy, Community, and Family. We believe that these three items will drive the ministries that we undertake to reach people in our community with the Gospel.
It was also an exciting time because we were able to review some of the spiritual gift assessments and start identifying where people felt God was calling them to minister. It is going to be awesome to take our "ideas" now and sit back in a year or so and see how God actually used us.
We also solidified the name of our church as "Foundations Community Church" and are working on develping a mission/vision statement, as well as a mission slogan so all ideas are welcome! :)
Be in prayer for Rachel and I as we move towards closing on our house in the community, it is a few weeks off and there are one or two things that need to come together for a smooth operation.
God bless!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Reports
Hey All:
I have visited a few local churches in the area that are plants in later years of plant-life. Both churches are a little south of where we are locating in Greenbrier, however there was much to learn at each. I have at least one or two more I would like to visit in the immediate Greenbrier area to check out what's up in the vicinity.
I have taken notes on both churches and I will share at Core Group meeting anything relevant.
Today is Memorial Day, so take time to pray for loved ones who have served or are serving in the armed forces. If you see a military man, say thank you!
God bless!
I have visited a few local churches in the area that are plants in later years of plant-life. Both churches are a little south of where we are locating in Greenbrier, however there was much to learn at each. I have at least one or two more I would like to visit in the immediate Greenbrier area to check out what's up in the vicinity.
I have taken notes on both churches and I will share at Core Group meeting anything relevant.
Today is Memorial Day, so take time to pray for loved ones who have served or are serving in the armed forces. If you see a military man, say thank you!
God bless!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Meeting Minute Recap 5/16
Here is a brief review of our meeting on Friday Night.
Meeting Review
A) I reviewed the goings on of a meeting I had with a local pastor about possible sponsership for our church plant.
B) We discussed church names again, and didn't whittle any out, we actually added a few:
Foundations Community Church (Craig)
Truth Community Church (Dana)
Foundational Truth Community Church (Rachel)
C) We had a great discussion on the Core Values we believe our church will want to be.
a) Community Oriented:
We want to be in the community, making an impact for Christ and bringing people to Jesus.
b) Discipleship Oriented:
We want to build the body for ministry. Taking people from spiritual birth, to physical death.
c) Family Oriented:
We believe that the family is under heavy attack in the world today, and we will strive to build strong familes for Christ. We believe that "so goes the family, so goes the church; so goes the church, so goes the nation."
We discussed each of these in great detail and each of those present felt extremely passionate about these areas. I will be incorporating these into our proposal document and trying to expand out what we mean when we say them.
These values will ultimately drive the purpose statement for the church.
God bless!
Meeting Review
A) I reviewed the goings on of a meeting I had with a local pastor about possible sponsership for our church plant.
B) We discussed church names again, and didn't whittle any out, we actually added a few:
Foundations Community Church (Craig)
Truth Community Church (Dana)
Foundational Truth Community Church (Rachel)
C) We had a great discussion on the Core Values we believe our church will want to be.
a) Community Oriented:
We want to be in the community, making an impact for Christ and bringing people to Jesus.
b) Discipleship Oriented:
We want to build the body for ministry. Taking people from spiritual birth, to physical death.
c) Family Oriented:
We believe that the family is under heavy attack in the world today, and we will strive to build strong familes for Christ. We believe that "so goes the family, so goes the church; so goes the church, so goes the nation."
We discussed each of these in great detail and each of those present felt extremely passionate about these areas. I will be incorporating these into our proposal document and trying to expand out what we mean when we say them.
These values will ultimately drive the purpose statement for the church.
God bless!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Pray for this family and church!
Got an email a few days ago from our former church in Lynchburg, that a Pastor from a church that they had connections with had been missing in a plane crash. The pastor and his 13 year old boy did not survive the crash in Ashville, NC.
Please pray for the church, the Mom and her five surviving children, and for God's comfort.
here is a link to the webpage story: http://bellshoals.com/pages/page.asp?page_id=35862
Blessings,
Jim
Please pray for the church, the Mom and her five surviving children, and for God's comfort.
here is a link to the webpage story: http://bellshoals.com/pages/page.asp?page_id=35862
Blessings,
Jim
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Back from vacation, finally!
Hey all:
Rachel and I are finally home from our vacation and my graduation from Liberty Baptist Seminary (www.lbts.edu). Rachel and I are hopeful that means everything is getting ready to kick into full gear with our church plant.
The next meeting of the core group is going to be Friday night. We will miss the Englers, but I will post an agenda and meeting minutes on here after the meeting.
One of the key points I think we need to spend some time on is clarifying a name for this church plant. Once we have a name it will focus us more on what we are going to be about. Rachel and I both feel that the name for our church should reflect our core values and who we are going to be. Pray about the three names I posted a few weeks ago, and any others that may strike your fancy.
I also want each of us to plan on spending some time on determining the core values for this church; these will ultimately derive into a vision & mission statement that all our ministries will flow through. This very much along the PDC model, and as we talked about before, that is what we seemed to like best. :)
God bless you all today, and pray for us.....we put a fourth offer on a house and this one we like a lot!
Rachel and I are finally home from our vacation and my graduation from Liberty Baptist Seminary (www.lbts.edu). Rachel and I are hopeful that means everything is getting ready to kick into full gear with our church plant.
The next meeting of the core group is going to be Friday night. We will miss the Englers, but I will post an agenda and meeting minutes on here after the meeting.
One of the key points I think we need to spend some time on is clarifying a name for this church plant. Once we have a name it will focus us more on what we are going to be about. Rachel and I both feel that the name for our church should reflect our core values and who we are going to be. Pray about the three names I posted a few weeks ago, and any others that may strike your fancy.
I also want each of us to plan on spending some time on determining the core values for this church; these will ultimately derive into a vision & mission statement that all our ministries will flow through. This very much along the PDC model, and as we talked about before, that is what we seemed to like best. :)
God bless you all today, and pray for us.....we put a fourth offer on a house and this one we like a lot!
Friday, April 25, 2008
South Florida is Great!
Just a post to say hi from Sunny South Florida......its 85 and the beaches have been great. We are off to Aquatica in Orlando, and then Disney World!
Rachel and I are praying over the names for the church, and ask that you be as well. Post any comments with other suggestions to the blog or email me.
Blessings to all!
Rachel and I are praying over the names for the church, and ask that you be as well. Post any comments with other suggestions to the blog or email me.
Blessings to all!
Friday, April 18, 2008
What's in a name?
Hey all:
So we have been trying to come up with a name for the chuch, and have been kicking around two or three different names. I think it took us less time to name all of our children than to name a church, but there is much consideration that have to be taken into account. The Johnston's and Rachel and I spent like 1.5 hours working on names one night, and we are still considering what to do.
Below are three names (2 by the Johnstons, 1 by Rachel and Jim) for consideration. We are also looking for more, comment on what you like/don't like!
God bless!
Names:
Three Cords Community Church
Lifesong Community Church
Living Faith Community Church
So we have been trying to come up with a name for the chuch, and have been kicking around two or three different names. I think it took us less time to name all of our children than to name a church, but there is much consideration that have to be taken into account. The Johnston's and Rachel and I spent like 1.5 hours working on names one night, and we are still considering what to do.
Below are three names (2 by the Johnstons, 1 by Rachel and Jim) for consideration. We are also looking for more, comment on what you like/don't like!
God bless!
Names:
Three Cords Community Church
Lifesong Community Church
Living Faith Community Church
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Creation!
Greetings to all!
This blog exists to chronicle the birth of a new work of God in Chesapeake, VA. This new work has yet to be named, but will exist here as the Greenbrier Project.
Please pray for us as we begin this endeavor, and there will be much more to follow soon.
God bless,
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This blog exists to chronicle the birth of a new work of God in Chesapeake, VA. This new work has yet to be named, but will exist here as the Greenbrier Project.
Please pray for us as we begin this endeavor, and there will be much more to follow soon.
God bless,
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