Midtown Prayer Gathering

Last evening we were able to have our second monthly Midtown Prayer Gathering. During that time, we prayed for South Korea, our country we have adopted to pray for this month. We also heard from Brian and Kelly Key, campus missionaries to the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and dear friends of mine. We also spent time praying for the people of our city. As the holidays approach, many, young and old, are lonely. They are looking for people to be around. I was able to challenge our church and the visitors to befriend their neighbhors, co-workers, and others. And, in this way, we can share the Gospel as well. Below are pictures of our first prayer gathering in October. Please join us in praying for South Korea, Brian and Kelly Key, and the people of Midtown Kansas City this month! A prayer guide may be downloading by going to our website, www.midtownchurchkc.com, clicking on "connect", clicking on "Midtown Prayer Gathering", and clicking on "November Prayer Guide". It should be posted soon.

It's November!

I'm sitting at the Filling Station this beautiful Sunday morning. I don't know where the time has went. It's already November. The next two weeks I will be preaching at our Sunday worship gatherings. It has been a bit since I last preached, so i'm pumped for the opportunity, and am realizing more and more how much I feel strongly about doing that regularly in my life.

I've been convicted lately about urgency. Urgency with the Gospel, yes, but also just plain urgency in getting things done. I've learned that there is absolutely no excuse for not having urgency. Not having resources-no excuse-go out and get them, and beg for them if you have to. Not having time-make time-you are in control of your schedule, not the other way around. Not having energy-work HARD when it is time to work hard, and rest HARD when it is time to rest. There needs to be a strong urgency in all of our lives as followers of Christ. Being passive about something you are passionate about is kind of ironic, if not contridictory, to me. Recently I decided that I will no longer be passive about many things in my life. Not that I am neccesarily a passive person anyway (I feel like i'm a pretty upfront, look at things realistically type of guy). However, in my actions and attitude, i'm going to be respectfully blunt and honest. Thus far, it has brought about nothing but positive results. I don't neccesarily think it always will, but, thus far, it has.

Pray for me this morning and next week as I open the Word with Midtown Community Church.

Fall 2009 Update Letter

I have completed my Fall 2009 update letter. As I say in the letter, it is probably the most important letter I have ever written, as it includes detailed information on my financial need for 2010. In a nutshell, I need your help desperately in the coming months leading up to and after the launching of Midtown Community Church. If you have not received my letter yet, I would love to send it to you. I can send it by email via PDF, or, I can snail mail it to you. It would be my pleasure to do this, and I would be honored for you to pray through it. Love you guys.

A Crazy Week...

Well, to say this has been an unexpected week would be an understatment. About a week ago, I had three or four bites that appeared on both of my legs. A few days later, rashes were spreading over both of my lower legs. Seems to be I have been eaten on by a brown recluse spider. Thus, a week later, 3 trips to the doctor, 4 pill bottles of pills, including two different steroid packs, and i'm on my way to recovery. I spent half of the week off work. Thank goodness for paid sick days! The legs still look pretty nasty, and itch. But, with this kind of stuff, that is to be expected. However, I was able to go to work this morning, and had hardly any pain in my legs, and the rash seems to be beginning to dry up. I had a lot of time to sit and think this week while resting my legs, which was good. So, thank you for everyone who helped me out/visited me this week. I think i'm gonna make it. It made for a crazy, yet at times restful fall break from seminary classes. Perhaps the Lord knew I needed to take a few days and sit, and he knew the only way I would do it is if I had no choice. He was probably right.

It's friday afternoon, and I just had to get out of the apartment. I'm at The Filling Station, which if you don't know, is absolutely the BEST coffeeshop in Kansas City. Period. It is located right across the street from our church's meeting space, and a block from my apartment. To Do: Study for a midterm I need to take before Monday. Have I studied for it-not yet.

So, while this post focused more upon me personally than Midtown Community Church, I wanted to update you as to where I am at. I owe each of you who support me an update letter. Be prepared to recieve that soon. It will be a special letter and appeal, so be looking for that soon.

Lots Of Things Are Happening!

It has been a busy week for us at Midtown Community, and I could not be prouder of our leadership. They have stepped up and gotten a lot done on our physical meeting space. Pictures are soon to follow, but we are nearly complete with our Children's area now. This includes paint, trim, new bathroom fixtures and new tile. The only major thing we lack at this point is carpet. So, if anyone knows of someone who would like to donate some carpet, let me know! :)

We also had a group of 20 8th graders from the Whitfield School in Waldo (south Midtown area) come and spend an entire day painting our worship area. They did a great job getting the first layer on. We still have quite a bit to do on that, but, they provided us a great start. The area already looks completely different!

And, last evening, we had our first monthly "Midtown Prayer Gathering". Our church gathering with another local church, where we prayed for our churches focus country of the month, Rwanda. We also prayed for another church plant that is attempting to reach out to an area north of us. Thirdly, we prayed for our city in general, Kansas City. We pray that God would use us to share the Truth of Christ, to love, to serve, and to care for the people of our neigbhorhood and city. We pray that our city would be transformed by the love of Christ. And, we believe it can, and is.

I hope to have pictures and/or videos of these events up soon! Right now, i'm in the middle of finishing one of two final midterms of my Masters Degree!

Remodeling Update

Greetings all. The next 2 months big changes will begin to take shape on our meeting space for Midtown Community Church. We have nearly completed our work on our children's area. All that is left to do is prime, paint, tile the bathroom, and install new fixtures. This will happen in the next two weeks. Whoo hoo!  There are a few things left to do as far as this goes (installing possibly a drop ceiling), but the priorities in the room will be finished.

On October 6th, we will have a group of 20 8th graders from Wycliffe School in the Waldo area coming to begin painting the said area above, plus begin painting our worship area. Thanks to a donation from an amazing paint company in the KC Metro area, we have been donated some incredible paint (about $100/gallon...its amazing paint they create themselves).  

Along with this, we are hoping to meet this week with a woman whom we got to know through our launching church (www.wornallroad.org)  that designs spaces.  She has be gracious enough to volunteer her time to help us get a computer mock up of our space, and give us some vision to show people. What a blessing.

We also met friday with a church from here in Missouri that is near and dear to my heart to address the water leaking in our building.  Two men were gracious enough to meet with Adam and I, and figure out what the best plan of action would be to seal the patio that is above our space so that the leaking ceases. We are praying about a group from this church that can come up in the next couple months to help us with this task, which is not a small one. 

In the next month or so a group from one of our partner churches in Oklahoma will be coming to install a secondary exit door for us (as we need it for fire code). A big project in itself, we are so thankful that this crew will be coming up. 

Thus, so MUCH is happening. And, while its good, we still have MANY needs. We need two bathroom plumbing lines run, which is going to be QUITE a task. We need concrete floors sanded so that they may be painted/stained. We need indoor walls built. We need two sets of fixtures for two future bathrooms (vanities, sinks, toilets, and possibly small shower set-ups). 

If you have access to anything remodeling, construction, etc, we probably need it. If you have anything you would like to donate, it is completely tax deductible! Remember that. 

God is up to some great stuff, and these are some of the practical things for our physical space that we are in need of. Lots of other needs we have as well. 

A Great Weekend

This weekend the leadership of Midtown Community Church had the chance to go to a Church Planter's Retreat at Lake of the Ozarks. It was a great few days of refreshment and a chance to refocus ourselves on the mission of our church. I was very grateful for the opportunity to get to take part in this.

This weekend I have been working of filling our website with content. It's certainly not complete, or even close for that matter, but it's slowly building. Check it out if you would like. www.midtownchurchkc.com

I hope this week to put together an updated list of our most severe needs as a church, with the possibility of you as an individual or you as a church could help us out. We have MANY needs from remodeling to simply finanical help. In the mean time, if you are interested, let me know. I can discuss some of these things we need so very desperately.