Church Plant Update
We are less then two months away from our first preview service in August and the activity is really picking up. Here is a time-line of what has taken place the last two months.
 April 2 - Offer position of “Implementor of all things Bridge” to Kate Sloan - I couldn’t think of a job title and I just wrote this at the top of the job description. It has since stuck and actually fits quite well.
April 15, 22, 29 - Announced and took sign ups from Third Church to be a part of the 100 Family Initiative. The number was 103 families but another dozen have trickled in since then.
April 28 - The Schmidt family loaded up a truck with all of their stuff and got it unloaded into their new home in Ottumwa in less then 4 hours (including drive time). Obviously this was significant in the church plant in that we should probably be living in the community we are being called to be a part of. What was tough about this was that we still didn’t have a working toilet, shower, or sink.
May 3 - After living out of our van and sleeping at Jenny’s brother and sister-in-law’s house we drove to our home and started spending the night there. We still didn’t (and still don’t have a kitchen sink) have a sink in the house so we did our dishes in the bathtub.
May 7, 9, 11, 14, 15 - Intense study sessions for Commission Pastor Test. This test covered Biblical Understanding, the Sacraments, Reformed Theology, and Systematic Theology.
May 17 - Commission Pastor Exam (My classmates and I passed)
May 24 - Pillars (our senior saints of Third Church group) had an event in which I shared vision about The Bridge.
May 25 - I gave the commencement speech at the Pella High School Graduation.
May 29 - Kate Sloan & Matt Terlouw started. Kate is currently working 30 hours and Matt is on an intern basis in the area of worship.
May 29, 30 - We had our Portable Church consultation. Pete who did our consultation said the Bridge View Center is in the top 5 facilities he has seen for a start up.
May 30 - We had our first Core Team meeting. This was a chance for me to cast some vision for the Core Team and allow those who are highly interested in The Bridge to meet each other. We had 30 people show up at Smokey Row Coffee House in Oskaloosa.
June 8 - Sent out an informational mailing to the Launch Team
June 10 - Lydia Joy was born!
June 14 - Placed order for Portable ChurchÂÂ
June 20 - Prayer Walk in Ottumwa
July 18th, 2007 at 8:10 am
Sounds like you got a lot of momentum. I am excited to see how this turns out. Did you say, you have a 103 or so families that have joined your venture already?
Like to hear more.
Future Chruch/Cafe Planter,
Jess