A couple of months ago Suz and I announced that we felt called to stay in Clark and continue our ministry here with North Routt Community Church. We wanted to give you an update on the church and how things are progressing here in the mountains. So let me walk through a few notable updates and share some events, pictures and happenings of our life and our wonderful rural mountain church.
Growth
Over
the last 6 months or so we have seen significant numerical growth both with the
addition of multiple young families and the congregation's continual invitation
of their friends and neighbors. Both are very exciting to see as God brings a
bustling summer gathering into our small meeting place. Just two weeks ago we
had to put out almost 50% more chairs than what we had anticipated (from 50 to
nearly 75 people). While God has blessed us with a season of numerical growth,
our main focus moving forward is the development of the church as a sustainable
entity. Lord willing, if we continue to have more folks come in we want to make
sure we have leadership in place and processes for growth/discipleship established
so our community can flourish in their walk with Jesus rather than just grow
numerically.
Development
We have noticed that
our decision to stay has given us a different platform. Previously we were
unsure whether we would stay or go after our initial two year church planting
residency and that uncertainty made it difficult to ask for commitment from
others when we were unsure ourselves. Making a commitment for ourselves allows
us to ask commitment from others and move toward some important goals together
as a team (we reestablished our core team a few months ago)
Here are some of the church’s primary
goals that we believe are realistic within a three year time frame…
- Solidify our identity, vision, mission, values and rhythms- Currently we are walking through these important "who," "why" and "how" questions so that we function out of an understanding of who God has called us to be as a church.
- Develop a governing board (at this point we function primarily through the consensus of a core team) - within the next several months we will officially identify and put in place a governing board of elders. We will function as a plurality of leaders so I have accountability and support.
- Financial stability – while we have taken steps toward greater financial stability we still have a ways to go for the church to be self-sustainable. We have laid out a projected budget that will allow us to cover our ministry costs, give generously and support a full-time pastor.
- Reproducible discipleship process – We want to take the great commission seriously and develop a discipleship process that models Jesus’ way in our context. We have the process defined and now we want to strategically implement it as an intentional part of our church culture. I think it was Dallas Willard who said the two most important questions a church can ask are:
1. “Do we have a process for making
disciples of Jesus Christ?”
2. “Is it working?”
Small
Groups
We
have two new small groups that have started in the last few months in addition
to our young-adults small group. We now have men's and women’s groups that meet every week in the Charter School (where we have our Sunday service).
The men’s group, which has been meeting for over two months, has had a very great
showing each week and what is especially exciting is we have a few men that
have no connection with a local church attending and participating regularly. We talk about Jesus a lot but they still keep coming back! That has been very encouraging as we attempt
to foster new spaces where people can be introduced to Jesus. The woman’s group
started up this month and I am excited about how God can use that environment
to work in the lives of the women who show up.
The
Art of Neighboring
Sermon Series- We started a new sermon series two
weeks ago on the “art of neighboring.” It is based on a book by the same name. I
was able to meet one of the authors during a Frontline Church Planting Network training trip to Boulder, CO.
During our conversation I learned that he spends some time in Clark in the summer!
Recently I reached out to him about doing a series on his book. The general premise
of the book is based on this question: “What if we took the second half of
Jesus’ greatest commandment (love your neighbor as yourself) both literally and
seriously?” The goal of the series is to encourage our community to invest in
our small town starting with our literal neighbors. We want to learn their
names, things about their lives and create space to be available and invest in
relationships with the people that God has placed us around. We believe that
relationship is the best conduit for the Gospel and discipleship. One of the
ways we have implemented this idea is through monthly community cookouts at a
local state park and it has been awesome to see folks from our church reaching
out to their neighbors and inviting them to come and share life with them and
our church community. It has been a very encouraging part of this summer.
Ministerial Alliance – That is what we call our local
pastors collective (it sounds pretty cool, like we wear black robes and meet in
the dimly lit basement of an old church). I am collaborating with other local
pastors to launch this series as a united group of churches, with the hopes of
greatly affecting our culture (both Christian and non). There has been an
encouraging amount of excitement and buy-in from the majority of local pastors.
One of the authors will come and speak to the pastors in a few months and help
us move toward a practical and unified movement of neighboring well as local
churches. I am extremely excited about this and would love your prayers as we
try and walk this out in faithfulness.
Hotel
Bloom (make your reservations today!)
This summer we have
had a crazy amount of friends and family come through our doors. It has been
wonderful to reconnect with family and friends and share our unique life up
here in the mountains. So, if you want to book a stay at Hotel Bloom™ don’t
hesitate because we are filling up fast.
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| Front of the house and detached one car garage |
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| Front and side porch |
 |
| Side porch |
 |
| Back porch |
Our amenities include two cats, one is incredibly awkward and the other is "slightly" overweight, but in an kinda adorable way –
a dog who doesn't understand “personal space," 11 chickens (there used to be
12, may she R.I.P) with fresh multicolored eggs each morning, a river right off the back porch and a spacious loft area
with a moderately comfortable bed adorned with Swedish inspired bedding (yep,
IKEA).We aren’t on YELP yet but we are hoping to get some glowing reviews
after our busy summer season!
Suzanna’s
New Venture
Suzanna
has officially started her own videography business! She started with some real
estate photography and has quickly moved into shooting and producing multiple
short promotional videos. She is learning and growing quickly as she learns her
craft, expands her portfolio and builds relationships with clients. I am so
proud of her hard work and obvious talent. She hopes to expand into wedding videography
soon and also has the future goal of telling the stories of people and organizations
that are making God and His Kingdom known and felt in tangible ways – giving them
a voice and platform to proclaim the goodness and glory of God.
Making
it work!
Many
of you are still continuing to support us as we move into this next stage of
ministry. We want to first say thank you for your generosity! Your donations
and partnership have made it possible for us to continue to work full-time in
our pursuit of God’s Kingdom work in an area that desperately needs it. We have
taken the leap of faith to stay in Clark as we feel this is where God has us for
now. We feel clarity in our calling yet our financial provisions are quite unclear at the moment. We are exploring multiple options of
how to support ourselves so we can continue full-time. This could happen through
partnerships with another church or denomination, a quicker than expected
increase in NRCC giving or the continual generous support of many of you and
potentially others. While our clear goal is to be supported by NRCC in the near
future we are not at that point yet. We are working hard to define our financial
standing/need, so we wanted to communicate to our supporters that we are in
process and will soon explain our financial situation as it becomes more clear in
this coming month and will update you. Please feel free to communicate with us
and ask any questions. Once again my email is: dbloom2388@gmail.com
With that said we
again thank you for your prayer, your relationships and all of your support (financial and otherwise).
It really means the world to us!
Dave & Suz
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