Conserving a Day’s Work

Yesterday’s Summary:

Thanks for your prayers. Yesterday was a very productive day. I overestimated the miles I would drive, 265 not 300, and underestimated the number of meetings I would have, 5 not 4, plus a couple of impromptu brief encounters with other leaders I was able to encourage. Finally, the class in Vernon Hills was a chance to make 10 new contacts with residents with whom I can share the gospel. Great day. Thanks for your prayers.

Here’s a couple of ideas that come out of yesterday’s travels:

If you are a reader here and have any desire or inclination to be a part of the new church we are planting in Mundelein/Vernon Hills, please subscribe to this blog. Over the next few months, I will be fleshing out more and more of the philosophy of ministry that we are developing for the new church plant. You will want (and I want you) to be be a part of that conversation. [How: Top right hand column opposite Marty’s Mug. Simply type in your email address and the updates to the blog will come to you automatically in your email inbox.]

Please pray for me and my classmates in the Citizen Police Academy Class. Pray for boldness and opportunity for me. Pray for openness and grace for my classmates and the police officers with whom I interact. Pray too for the class “graduation BBQ” I am beginning to plan for them. More on this later.

I need to find a way to encourage the pastors who are contacting me for help, that is more efficient and more communal. Many of theses pastors need more than a “church planting guru” (how one of them refers to me). They need a community of like-minded Christian leaders with whom they can gain the new discoveries they need for ministry leadership in the 21st century.

The development of the St. John’s Study Center will be a big part of encouraging pastors. In the last three days I have had conversations with pastors in four states who desperately need what we are developing with the St. John’s network. It is exciting and sobering. Pray that details related to funding, organization, locations and personnel would all come together and that the first public steps forward might happen by the end of May.

Got to go. Keep thinking about what it means to live missionally in the 21st Century.

2 thoughts on “Conserving a Day’s Work”

There is an organization, The Fellowship of Ailbe,(website above) that is dedicated to supporting and encouraging church leadership. We are seeking to utilize the concepts of community and Kingdom that were central to the work of the Celtic monks as they spread Christianity throughout the British Isles and Europe from the 5th century into the next millennium.

It is interesting that underlying Celtic Christianity is a sense of community that is very analogous to our present day sense of house church. There is much of value to be learned by studying their missionary work.

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