I am so excited and encouraged by our prayer gathering last Friday. We had about 65 folks packed into our home and backyard. Great church planting lessons in flexibility! Many thanks to all who attended, brought dessert, brought coffee. What fun! It was clear that many of us did not know each other well, but we pressed in to prayer and listening to God together for the sake of the community he is building. I am excited to see how our prayers bring us together in mission. I wanted to update you on a few things:
Handouts
At the end of the evening I gave you 2 handouts: “The Unbusy Pastor” by Eugene Peterson and “a short history of Redeemer Church’ by Tim Keller. I gave the Peterson article because I want us to dialogue and wrestle together about my job description as your pastor. We are together in mission but you are calling me to lead the charge. I look forward to our conversations about Peterson’s insights and what we think is best for Arlington. The Keller article provides a case study of a church plant. What things do you like about Redeemer’s history? What gets you excited? What would you do differently? Redeemer has done so many things well, what can we learn from the values that shaped their choices? It is important to me that we have core values that shape our choices.
The handouts will be posted on the outside of the window of Southgate 108. If you did not get them, stop by and pick one up! Please read the handouts before our next gathering. If you have thoughts or responses, feel free to email them at any time or to post them on my blog (more later).
July 9
Our next prayer gathering will be July 9, 7:30pm, Trinity Baptist Church 1815 N. Quincy Street. I will give more info on the format when we get closer. Just wanted you to be able to save the date!!
Trinity Baptist Church
Yesterday Tom and Patty Downie, Laurel and I attended the 11am service at Trinity Baptist Church. We were warmly received. I was asked to give the pastoral prayer-- on the spot. (Ian Hassell asked if I can pray when I haven’t had time to write it out first-- love those Anglican jokes J). They are very open to us renting their building. It is nice, but small (probably seats ~100). We will gather there to pray and talk about it on July 9. Please pray for wisdom and discernment. It is a wonderful open door. We need to know if God wants us to walk through it.
Blog
I am trying out lots of different media as we think about telling our story. You can find a podcast of Saturday night sermons on the TFC website. There is a page on the TFC website dedicated to info on The Arlington Project which is found under ‘connect and serve’ then ‘satellite congregations’. I will try and keep letters like this posted on that page. I also have a very small blog at davidmartinhanke.blogspot.com On it I will try and post info about TAP and also other snippets. I have created a facebook group called ‘The Arlington Project’ but it has no information on it right now. I would appreciate your prayers as we think about telling our story well-- to those inside the church and even more, those outside of it. Thoughts? Post ‘em on the blog!!
Saturday Night Potluck
This Saturday night is our monthly potluck dinner. It starts right after the service-- 6:15pm. I would like to invite you to attend. We need to take advantage of every opportunity we have to connect, talk, and get to know each other. This structure is already in place and is lots of fun. Bring a dish to share. I buy 15 or 20 pizzas for the kids. We’ll provide lemonade and water. This is a great chance to see what we are doing on Saturday night and to get to know our community a little better.
I am excited about the journey we are on together: soon to be good friends, taking on an impossible task, watching the power of God. Pretty fun.
Showing posts with label The Arlington Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Arlington Project. Show all posts
Monday, June 9, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
The Arlington Project Update
June 6 at 7:30pm
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:
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.
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.
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