Our next gathering about TAP will be on June 6 at the Hanke house 5013 17th st N. If you can rsvp, that would be helpful to us. If you would like to bring a dessert to share, that would be delightful, but feel no obligation. We’ll brew coffee as fast as our little coffee maker can go. Here are some thoughts on our time together:
- this is THE time to discern God’s heart together. This is where we will do the hard work of praying, listening, and dreaming. If you want to be a part of shaping this new community, this prayer gathering is where you need to be. Feel free to pass on the invite to anyone you know who is interested in a new church in Arlington.
- Many of you have done a ‘storyboard’ exercise (aka death by post-it note) in which you take a stack of notecards and write one idea, thought, or dream about a project on each one. You write until you are out of ideas. We will engage in this process together as we dream about a new church. You can either do it on your own over the next ten days (bring your stack of cards with you) or you can do it during our first 10 minutes together. We will share some of our best ideas on-site that night, and then I will sort through them over the next month. It is an effort to record our brainstorms, ideas, and Holy Spirit nudges. Come either prepared to write or having already written. You can have 5 ideas or you can have 250. Just put one idea per card.
- Laurel and I would like to pray for you and your family. Please bring one prayer request for you and your family that you can leave with us on June 6. It can be a sentence, it can be a 10 page missive… we want to pray for you.
- Our plan was to do these prayer gatherings on the first Friday of each month. You will notice that the first Friday of July is July 4th and the Hankes will be out of town celebrating Macrae’s birthday! So, what do you think about doing the prayer meeting on the 6th of each month?? It shuffles it around on different days of the week that work better for some people. So: 7/6 (Sun), Aug (Wed), Sep (Sat-- after the service), Oct (Mon), Nov (Thursday), Dec (Sat after the service). Always on the 6th. It might not be a good idea, but I thought I’d ask. Feedback?
TAP Updates
1. Funding Plan: we have an initial funding plan that has been reviewed by TFC leadership. They have affirmed the idea and our passing it around the finance committee and vestry. I will share the idea when we gather on 6/6. I am encouraged by the generosity and partnership of our TFC leaders.
2. Worship site: Tom Downie has been a huge help as we seek out a worship site in Arlington. We are in initial conversations with Trinity Baptist Church on Quincy at 17th. They have been very open to us using their facility. For this reason, I am VERY encouraged. It is small, but it is in a great location (2 blocks north of Washington and Lee HS). As I said in our informational meeting, my dream was to give this project to a team and have them come back with the keys. I just didn’t expect it to happen so fast. ☺ Yet we are definitely not done. We will be looking at other sites and trying to discern God’s best for us. But I am encouraged by this initial news. Thanks for praying.
3. Church Planting Coach: I am encouraged by 2 meetings I have had this week. Yesterday I met with a man who coaches church planters in the DC area. His role is to come alongside the cp pastor, ask questions, pray, hold him accountable, ask questions… He would be a good gift to me as we go through the nitty-gritty details of starting a new church. I am grateful to God for this potential provision. Today I had lunch with Scott Seaton, the pastor of Emmanual Pres (PCA) which is a church plant meeting at the Ballston Hilton. Scott is a great guy, so collegial, so generous. I am excited about having such fine colleagues in Arlington who are contending for God’s Kingdom and the local church.
Ways to pray…
1. we need discernment on a worship site, wisdom as to speed of process, maturity as we build our community. May God be the governor of how fast our church comes together. May God set our pace and our direction. Give us ears to hear, courage to obey, and humility to depend on Him.
2. Please pray for your neighbors who do not have a relationship with the Lord or the church. Begin a prayer journal where you list their names and the things for them for which you are praying. Ask for God to give you a soft heart towards them.
3. pray for Arlington county-- that this would be a place where families are strengthened, Godly character is built, justice is done for people of all ethnicity and social class.
4. Pray for the Hankes-- finding a rhythm of ministry that is at a pace appropriate to our family. Patience and margin for David and Laurel. Security and intentional instruction for Macrae, Bennett, and Helen.
We are thankful for you and excited about what God is doing.
