1st sunday service 9/9

     Our first service will take place on September 9th, 2012 at 10:30 AM

                                     Location:
                                                      Sheraton BWI [Ballroom]
                                                      1110 Old Elkridge Landing Road
                                                      Linthicum Heights, 21090



      Check our Website (will be up and running midnight of 9/7) -  www.gracelifechurch.com
                                   for more details.....

Latest Update 8/16

We have been working very hard getting ready for our first sunday service which is coming up in 23 days....so far this is where we are:


We have finished:

1. Working on our Mission Statement, Core Values, motto, etc
2. Newcomer's Process/System
3. Shopping List
4. AV Preparation
5. Making a list of needs/volunteers needed
6. Ordered, signs, invite cards etc
7. Discussed Timelines, strategies, look into the future
8. Trainings: Spiritual gift assessment, conflict management style, church planting steps, importance
    of spiritual disciplines, how to study the bible, etc
9. Developing Prayer Network with updates going out regularly


We are currently working on:

1. Website

2. Design for the church, logo, website etc

3. Still looking for Sunday Service Space

4. Funding for the New Church

5. Looking for more volunteers for various ministries

6. Partnerships

7. More Prayer Support

8. Children's Ministry Material

9. Discipleship, Membership Processes

10. Looking for a van, uhaul, truck for all the equipment



PRAY FOR US as we are under constant spiritual attack...

PR

8/1 & 8/2 mtg @ the office, 8pm

Meeting will take place at the church office @ 8:00pm

Agenda:

1. What are values and why is it important

      a.  Finish Core Values for the new church

      b.  Finish Slogans

      c.  Finish Mission Statement

2. Implement Strategy to get the word out

3. Follow up on delegating the ministry responsibilities/checklist

4. Work on Processes and Systems:  newcomers, membership, discipleship, etc

5.  Prayer and Worship

7/25 Mtg (Location and Agenda)

Meeting will take place at John and Felicia's in Elkridge @ 7:30pm

Agenda:

1. Go over spiritual gift packet

2.  What are values and why is it important

      a.  Discuss Core Values for the new church

3. Work on:

     a.  Slogans

     b.  Mission Statement

4.  Strategy to get the word out

5.  Delegating the ministry responsibilities/checklist

 

Mtg 7/17 & 7/18

Agenda:

1.  Discuss any updates

2.  GO OVER:   Spiritual gift assessment, reading on discipleship

3.  Discuss:  Vision, Mission, Core Value, Ministry Practice, Catchy Phrase (Membership Material)

4.  Strategy:  How to get the word out?

5.  Prayer and Worship

Meeting Notes from 7/11

Mtg Notes from 7/11:

A.  Location:

     Catonsville/Elkridge area – looking to establish somewhere here

-          Looking for space within 3 minutes off the highway (I-95)

-          5 minutes away feels a little long – feels like you are going far in and the church will be       harder to find

B.   Timeline:

      August 19 – earliest date to start service if we can get a space

-          Gives us enough time between now and then

-          We have a guest speaker (Randy Millwood) from July 29 – August 12

-          Will be a public service (but not an official opening)

      If August 19 doesn’t happen, it will be pushed to September 9

-          8/26 PR will be out of town

-          Labor Day weekend most of the people involved in the plant will be out of town

o   Also there will be SSM Serving Community retreat and the church plant retreat on the Labor Day Weekend

      This will be announced starting on Sunday at service

-          They will either go to the 5pm service at the Light, the church plant, or SSM, or find another

-          Shooting for 10:30am, finish by 12 – 12:30

C.     From July to December  (3 Timelines)

       1.  For the Main group

      -          Ongoing meetings and trainings/ Discipleship

      -          Creating systems, planning the church, developing ministries, delegation, deciding on       

              service format, membership class, etc

     2.   Ministry Strategy

      -          What is our strategy for outreach

o   We need to create a base first (people who will be workers/ already Christian)

o   As we go further out, it will be more outreach to non Christians or the unchurched

       3.  Organizational

      -          As time progresses, how is this group going to change

      -          The same group of people can’t stay the same and do all the ministry

o   that group will evolve into a leadership team or ministry leaders

D.   Our Projection

-          between now and September, there will be a fluctuation of people but after the offical sunday service starts we will see more of a steady flow of people from which some will stay and becomes members, some will service, some will even lead in the near future

-          starting today, this is a closed group (you either have to be invited to this group, or you’ve been coming, or people ask one of us or PR about it)

-          August 19 or September 9 – we will see an infux of people. By then there will be no Methodist service. They will have to choose a church for those who are not yet committed to the Light or the SS.

-          Out of the people who will visit (let’s assume 50), maybe 30 will stay be regular attenders. These 30 will layer into 3 layers

o   I like the church and I want to be a regular member (Member)

o   I want to do something to participate (Participating Member)

o   I want to serve in ministry or leadership (Partnering Member)

-          That’s when the outreach and groups will start to change – we may ultimately do less, but for the first 8-12 weeks we will carry ALL the burden/ministry.

-          Come December, the church will look different from when we first started

Q&A:

Are you thinking families?

-          We would like families and more established, single adults.

What’s the area like?

-          It’s all suburban – more stable and more families

-          Not right out of college – more established

-          People tend to live in Elkridge because they can’t afford Columbia

-          There are some areas that are a little rougher

How many nights a week should we allocate to church plant?

-          Probably 2 nights, since we will be starting trainings

-          It also depends what you are doing

-          By the time we start service, we will all be members (based on all the trainings that will be done)

-      If you are serving in other capacities like Small Group Leading, more like 3 nights out of the week plus sunday morning service.

What will the services be like? In terms of style.

-          We want it to be worshipful, similar to what we have now, but it will not be liturgical/traditional

-          We might change the order of service. We will still use the break, but it might vary when we collect the offering to keep the reflection time together

-      We are looking at 10:30am service when we start.

Mtg Tomorrow 7/11/12

Tomorrow's mtg will be at the office from 8pm - 10pm..

I think I am ready to get going on our new church start...

                                                                                
Agenda:

Worship/Prayer
Bible Study
Timeline/ Overall Strategy
Steps we need to take going forth
Overview of Training/Schedule
Q & A


Priority:

Worship Space
More Workers
Funds

Fasting Calendar and...

I sent an invite to sign up to fast a meal or more to pray for our New Church Start for those who have come to our meetings so far.  If you want to be included subscribe to this blog and I will send you an invite to google calendar. 

And below is one of the best link to info about fasting for those who are new or old to this spiritual discipline.   But the main idea is to forgo your meals to focus and spend that time in prayer.  It is not intended for starving or dieting....

http://www.cru.org/training-and-growth/devotional-life/personal-guide-to-fasting/index.htm

No Mtg this Wed 6/13 and...

We will not be meeting this Wed 6/13 at the office but will meet again at my house on Sunday @ 6pm again for Round #2 of Cookout, Dodgeball! and Prayer.

(2011 Dumont Road,  Timonium, Md 21093)

Things you can bring:  Salad, Dessert, Drinks



Also, here is the mtg schedule for the next several weeks:

1.  No Mtg this Wed 6/13
2.  Cookout/Mtg at my house 6/17 @ 6pm
3.  Prayer Mtg 6/20 @ the office @ 8pm (101 E. 33rd Street, Baltimore Md, 21218)
4.  No Mtg Wed 6/27
5.  7/4th Cookout, time and place TBA

Summary from 6/10 Cookout Mtg & Prayer Requests

Here is a summary from our Sunday 6/10 Cookout Mtg:


1.   Food

2.  Volleyball  

 

                                                                                                             3.   Ritas 

                                                                                                        


4.  Fellowship/Prayer










Things we talked about:

1.  Updates and some sharing - things are moving but moving in a snail's pace for now.  I think these are one of the best times in church planting as we are still small, everyone knows each other, we are not busy with overwhelming number of tasks, there is still so much to hope for, and we can definitely see God working around us as He is bringing about this new church.

Psalm 127:1 "....Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain...."

2.  We are getting contacted by several people and churches for possible partnerships to help with this new church start.  Many times this is something that we have to spend time and effort to seek out.  But for this church plant, we feel that God is spreading the word and bringing people/leaders around us.  I am busy following up on these leads and mtg up with people.  This is one of the prayer requests that these meetings will bare fruit. 

3.  We are also seeing more interest from people around us as we have been busy inviting and sharing with people in our communities concerning this new church. 

4.  We are still looking at Aug as our time for starting services for this New Church.

5.  What we need to do:  Keep Praying, Keep inviting and spreading the word, and Getting ourselves ready for July and beyond when we will start to really get busy. 


Updated Prayer Requests:

a.  Pray that all the people who are involved in the church start will be ready as July comes around.  More specifically that we will be ready spiritually, emotionally and even physically be rested up.

b.  Pray that we will be able to find space to start our Sunday services by Aug.

c.  Pray that the meetings that we have for possible partnerships will bare fruit.

d.  Pray that we will be protected against spiritual warfare that is and will be coming against us. And also that we will be more than conquerors in Christ

e.  Pray that God will gather even more people for this plant, some to serve, some to lead, some to be part of the community, some to find Christ!

6/6 Dinner mtg at PR, postponed..

The dinner mtg that is suppose to happen on 6/6 has been postponed to Sunday 6/10 @ 6pm.  Still at PR's house:

2011 Dumont Road
Timonium, Md 21093

You can bring a salad, dessert or drinks.... thanks

5/30 Mtg Summary

God wants us to understand the moment.

-          Dr Martin Lloyd Jones – "Discerning the Times"

o   When you see the clouds you know that the rain’s coming

o   A lot of times when we look at God, we look at God and things He does with such mystery and who knows what God’s going to do. What’s interesting is that when Jesus talks about that passage about the clouds, what Jesus was trying to tell people was that a lot of times discerning God is not that complicated and mysterious.

o   Instead of asking God what are you up to, just try to understand where you are and look around and see what God is doing around you.

o   As time is passing by, I was wonder what God is up to.  As I asked that question I started to think about what is it that I see right now. We have a good dozen people who are committed and that’s what God has done already. That’s not something that has happen by accident. It’s amazing how God gathers people (different combinations/groups of people). And then we have these meetings and at times I wonder if we really need these meetings. Well we’re doing these meetings and God orchestrated that – He wants us to gather and pray and share our lives together and not worry about what are we going to do in September. If I were to explain to you what God’s will is, this is it. Doesn’t mean it won’t change next week. What we need to focus on is how can we make the best of where we are and what we have right now and "what is it that God wants me to learn through this...?"

-          Zachariah 4:10

o   ¹⁰ “Who dares despise the day of small things, ....."

-          Really enjoy this time. It is a special time. When things start going, it’s going to be hectic with so many things to do. These days are very special in that sense. No doubt God is up to something and will do something. We’re just going for that ride and the train will take off.

-          Phil asked if we will go forward if this is the only group we have. I said no probably not. I’m thinking this is not why God is starting another church for SSM grads. I feel like we are 1/3 the way there in terms of gathering people. As I’m praying, different things have happened. (1) met with pastors in the area. They talked about ways they can help. Their churches are not big (60-80 people) but they are willing to help. (2) Mike and Vicky at our church were sharing there’s a church plant going on in Ann Arundel/Howard County for the past 5 years and they might be interested in joining us if we started this church.  They have some families and a group of youth who they have been reaching out to for the past several years...We’re not sure if it will all work out, but it’s exciting how God is opening up doors.

-          Follow up with people that God puts on your heart. (1)There are people that can be part of the church plant (2) people who can attend (3) and people you are always evangelizing to. It’s like an evangelism prayer list expanded. Follow-up on leads. Knocking on doors. Hopefully through these leads the different populations will come.  

Worship Space

-          By August, hopefully we’ll find a place of worship.

-          Will need to do a service and there might be people in our church now that might not fit with SSM and The Light.  Also people we are reaching out to won’t wait forever for the plant.

-          PR isn’t the only one looking for a space. There are others in the Howard County area helping to look for a worship space.

SSM Serving

-          How much can you serve at SSM?

-          Don’t know exactly how much but one thing definite is at minimal you will have to participate at the Sunday service at the new plant which will most likely be a morning service. But if that grows there will be more to do.

-          It’s safe to commit to another ministry that will require up to 2-3 nights at SSM.

o   Ex: dship (night of dship, night of following up with members)

o   You don’t want something that will require 4 nights out – takes too much time.

-          Need to be creative so you don’t do 5 nights of ministry – that’s when you burn out

o   Want ministry at FOUR NIGHTS MAX (three is ideal)

o   How to go from 5 to 4 nights – think about things you can combine and streamline

o   Can meet with people early in the evening or meet with people before dship, etc

-          Spring of next year, might be 3 nights of church plant activity

Inventory

-          In July we’ll need to go through the Methodist Church and see what equipment we have and what works (most likely a Saturday or Sunday)

-          See if we need to buy anything to get the service going (we’d like to minimize the buying)

Do you have things in mind in terms of how you want to spend the time during these meetings?

-          Time for us to get to know each other better (eating together)

How to pray for this (church plant)

-          Yourself – asking God why am I a part of this plant/to what capacity do you want me involved

-          With things happening with the church plant – the leads PR gives us, needing a place in August, list of ministry needs, money, more people

-          Spiritual aspect – warfare, how God is moving, bigger picture things, what God is trying to do, how He’s guiding the overall plant

o   Also pray for each person in this group and those that are missing

------------------------------------

Where we all are right now is normal. People want to see things more tangible to hold on to before they get involved. It will come. I know that this is where your faith kicks in. You have to have faith, believe what God has in mind and keep pressing toward that. We are here because we’ve had enough confirmation to be here. We need to press forward and things will be clear. Don’t make any final decisions until things do become clear. Some people bail midway, but wait until things are clear to know for sure if you want to bail or not.

Next meeting at PR’s (June 6, between 6:30 and 7pm)

5/23 Mtg Summary

1.  What will this church look like?  (the timeline, some detail pictures, focus, people, etc)

-        Once again this plant is not something really new to our network.  It is one of the plants that we have always talked about and tried two other times.  We knew from the beginning that we will need a home/base/flagship church that will be the center of all the works of Grace Life.   And that in the city, it would hard to have a church like that...thus, we have always looked to the nearby suburbs where God would lead us to start a church.  I believe this is such a time. 

       Thus, when we think about the focus and the purpose of this church we would have to look outside the city limits where people are less transient.  So far, Catonsville and Elkridge have come into our view as we see open doors of opportunity.  We have some people in our church who are presently located there, we have Grace Lifers from the past who live in that area, we have possible partnerships that we can start looking into, possible funding opportunities, I have other contacts through past minitry involvements in that area, etc.  At one point Federal Hill looked really promising, but now it seems less likely as some of the leads have not worked out and the limitations of being in that area are great. 

-      TIMELINE: we have 3 months if we want to launch in September.   Most of the time, when people start looking for a new church it is in the fall and early part of new year like Feb.  So those are good months to launch a new church.   If we are not ready to officially launch the new church then we will still hold sunday services starting from Sept.  and have an official launch by Feb.

-          Need a place to worship, people, funding – then we can have a service.  We still need a critical mass of people, we can have a closed service – not open to the public but you can invite the people that you know. Gives you the freedom to train up people and plan more ministry.   So far we have about a dozen people who are committed to the plant to do more than just be attenders.   We would like to get to a place where we have about three dozen people committed to the plant and few more who are going to be faithful members.

2.  Why should I be part of this church from the start?

-          Not everyone gets this opportunity/experience. Esp if you have a calling in ministry it gives you an unique opportunity to learn a lot about ministry from the ground up.  If you want to be a missionary, church planting will be a great experience. You will also grow because things are so dynamic. Things move a lot and change a lot. Rarely at a static state. You experience a lot of breakthrough and prayers answers (like a mission trip). A lot of community aspect – starts small at the beginning and everyone is focused on the mission. Everyone is contributing and tithing, etc.   It is like being on an extended mission's trip. 

3.  How can I get involved, what can I do to serve, and what are some expectations if I say, “I  

     do?”  You can look below at some of hte ministry needs that we will have right away.  One of the reasons why we would like to have more people involved is to limit the burnout that the core group often experiences in a church planting context.  The core group typically does all the ministry, all the decision making, all the follow up, all the outreach etc.  In this new church start we would like to have enough people so that we can all share the responsibility/ministry so that we are not out every night doing ministry or in meetings.  So perhaps just couple nights a week.  Some will serve in the Leadership Team and not serve as a small group leader.   Some will serve as a small group leader and not be a worship leader at the same time.  IN this way I am hoping that people will be able to serve more long term and enjoy the blessing of serving the Lord.  

4. Where would the funding come from?

-          We would like to raise about 100K a year for 3 yrs.  That seems like a lot of money but it is very minimal in terms of what it usually costs to plant a church in US.  I am close to securing about 20k of that already.  Pray that God will provide for this plant.  We will also be doing some fundraising and we will get help from our SBC friends.

5.  Where is it going to be located?

-          Look at the notes under the first question and PRAY ABOUT LOCATION.  We will need to make a decision within a month because it is one of the reasons why some people are having a hard time committing to this new church work.

6. How is this church pant going to be different than the other ones that Grace Life has done?

-          We would like to get a larger pool of people to start with.  We would like to start with mostly working adults and married couples/families.  We are less pressure to do this plant than other ones that we have done because in the past the survival of the network was at stake or because it was our first plant . But this time, we are much more dependant on God and waiting on Him to work.  We really don't have to force things or try to move it faster than it needs to be...

7. What would be expected from those who serve in Leadership Team/Ministry Leaders?

         -  Avg one meeting a week for those serving on the Leadership Team.  For ministry leaders like small group leaders, two evenings a week.

8. The importance of this church.

      -- I can't stress enough the importance of this plant and the potential that it has.  This church could really be the home base for not only the ministry that we will continue to do and plant churches here in US but all the future work that we are thinking about doing in South America, esp Peru. 

Ministry Needs:

Leadership Team: people who have had experience in ministry including interns and vstaff
Sunday Service:

-          Worship Team/Leaders

-          Media

-          Fellowship

-          Greeters/Newcomers

-          Setup Team

Prayer: prayer chain or prayer network
Small Groups (2): one in the city and one outside of the city

Children’s Ministry

Nursery

From this point on we want weekly prayer meetings.

1.       Spread the word about keeping up with the church plant. At least to keep praying. Go to the blog.

2.       When you meet with people, keep in mind 2 groups – group that can serve and be part of this plant and a group that will be visitors/attendors/members.

3.       Weekly meetings – Wed nights 8pm (1-2 hours)

Prayer and worship in addition to training on some weeks...