Hi friends and family,
We have a ton to update you about as we enter into an exciting summer (summer starts a little later here...)! So I will break it up into digestible sections and keep it brief so you don’t get a stomach ache.
In case you forgot what Clark is like - here is a short reminder. This was on our way to church service last week.
Over the last few months there has been a lot to celebrate at NRCC. From small but important victories, like finally finishing a portable church sign. Letting people know you exist is kind of a bare minimum for a ministry strategy and it only took me 3 years to get it done... (all our growth was word of mouth). I was able to design the sign and get it printed through Vistaprint and had a friend do most of the work on the frame of it (thanks, Javin!)
Along with that, our website was completed. It is amazing what you can do through hours of YouTube videos and a little determination (also a web designing friend to clean up the rough spots - thanks, Devon!). So that is up and running and you can give it a visit at www.northrouttcommunitychurch.com.
Church Finances - Big Steps Toward Financial Independence & Stability
As many of you know Suzanna and I have been functioning much like missionaries as we serve at NRCC over the past 3 years. This year NRCC was able to support us up to 50% and we raised the remaining salary so we could continue to minister full-time. Our goal for the end of the year (Dec. 2016) is for NRCC to be completely self-sustainable as a church, needing no financial support from outside sources. In November 2015 our church’s core team developed a goal budget that we could move toward in 2016 that would allow us to be financially independent. We spoke to our congregation in December (of '15) and I am excited to say that we met or exceeded our goal budget (sometimes greatly) for the first 3 months. That was indeed something to celebrate as it was shocking to see that much of an immediate increase! Praise God! However, during our “mud season” (Spring & Fall) which is our slow time, we did not meet our goal. The good news is, if you average out these past 5 months we have met our budget goal! We thought that it would take the majority of the year to reach this point financially as a church. Reaching this goal budget allows us to be financially independent from outside sources of support as well as being stable for years to come. Not only that but in our goal budget we are able to use our resources, not just to sustain our church internally but to also be a blessing to our local community externally!
Church Engagement – Folks are stepping up in BIG ways!
· Worship Team – Running out of Channels?!?!
One area of growth has been our worship team. For the first two years it wasn’t uncommon for our time of worship to be led by one person, sporting an acoustic guitar and vocals. While it was simple, intimate and fit our church's culture, it also came with some challenges. For the first two years we only had a few folks that would help us lead regularly and it rested mostly on one of my good friends and more than once there was no one available to lead on a Sunday morning.
To put this into perspective – during our Easter service of 2015, I plugged in a stinkin' iPod into my tiny desktop speakers… It was rough. We all sang along to some very quiet worship songs with uncomfortably long instrumental solos (shudder). Fast forward to these past 4-5 months…
We now have a complete sound system, a keyboard the church bought last month, and often times 5-7 people helping to lead and foster an environment of worship each Sunday morning. God has brought in some incredible new folks into our community and some others have stepped up in huge ways. The past two Sundays we ran out of channels on our sound system!! This is a problem I never imagined we would have, at least any time soon. Another reminder of how this church planter (me) is thinking too small…
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| The worship team practicing before a Sunday service |
· Kid’s Night IN/Parent’s Night OUT – Worn Out and Worth It!
Another way our little church is growing is with our involvement in the local community. There is a question that can make a church planter squirm and that is, “if this church failed, would our town miss us?” Meaning, are we living as faithful representations of Jesus and making an impact with how we live, love and serve? One of the more tangible ways we have tried to serve our community is by putting on an event we call “Kid’s Night IN/Parent’s Night OUT.” So far it has been once every 2 months, and we rent out the charter school on a Friday night to offer free babysitting for kids up to 6th grade. We want to offer a fun and safe environment for the kids while offering a free opportunity for parents to invest in themselves and their relationships with their spouse. We watch the kids for 4 hours, planning out games, crafts, providing pizza and popcorn and a movie on the projector screen and sound system and it is all FREE! Our first one had about 20 kids and our second had 25 kids and more than half of them do not attend NRCC, which is our goal to offer this to the broader community.
Some parents have mentioned that it was the first date night they had since their kid (8yrs old) was born. The response from those outside of our church community has been a wonderful mix of thankfulness and confusion as we make sure to communicate we expect nothing in return.
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| Our event flier |
A May Miracle – Denominations Working Together
In the month of May NRCC went through a sermon series called “The Art of Neighboring." We had done this already in July of 2015 but we decided to revisit it leading up to Summer. While this may surprise you, the reason wasn’t because I ran out of things to preach on but because something really cool was happening among the pastors in our county. Pastors from Routt County (mostly Steamboat) get together once a month. It is really quite remarkable in itself, since it spans different denominations, theology and methodology. During one of our meetings I had mentioned that we had preached a sermon series based on this book and that I was getting to know one of the authors of the book after meeting him through mutual friend and learning that he vacations in Clark. After talking with the author and being encouraged by one of my mentors, I presented to our ministers group a vision of our local churches uniting together to preach this same sermon series. We invited the author to come speak with us, worked out the details, and during the month of May ten out of fifteen local churches jumped on board to encourage their congregations to invest in their local communities. We used similar language, gave similar charges to our congregations all to encourage a greater sense of awareness of how God can use them in their local communities. It was such a neat experience to be a part of and we will meet this week to reflect and process this last month together as well as seeing if there are some practical ways to move forward together. I believe and pray that God will empower the churches of Routt County to step up and be the Church in tangible ways as we invest locally through service, generosity, sharing our lives and pointing others to Jesus in word and deed.
Looking Ahead – Lots of Ways for us to be Faithful
Leadership Structure – An Elder Team that Works Together.
Currently we are functioning through a "core team" of committed folks that make decisions through consensus. We have established ministry team leaders (our deacons) to oversee and develop teams in specific areas of ministry. We are approaching a decision on our elder team structure that will function as a "team" of elders who would work in collaboration and in consensus as a unified entity. I would be held accountable by the team yet also work with them.
Baptism Service – NRCC’s first Baptism at the End of the Summer.
We are planning out NRCC's first Baptism service at the end of this summer. It will be a celebration of what God is doing in and through this community as we publicly witness folks making the decision to follow Christ. We will have the service at the school (where we normally gather on Sundays) but outside during our normal Sunday service time. We will have time of testimony, baptism, worship and then a cookout after to celebrate individuals giving their lives to King Jesus.
“Love Clark” – A day of Community Service
As we have tried to implement neighboring as church value, we are thinking about ways we can tangibly neighbor well. Not just as individuals, but also corporately. One of our members brought up the idea of organizing a day of service where we serve our community in a variety of ways. It was based off an experience through her previous church in Kansas that took part in something called "Love Wichita." We are communicating with the folks who organized that and taking steps toward implementing it in our context in early fall. Please pray for God's guidance in the details so we can be faithful representations of the King who serves.
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| Our potential design! |
Suzanna and I are blown away by God's grace as he works through our imperfection and inexperience in this unique and beautiful place. We cannot thank you all enough for your prayers and support. We feel your prayers as we battle through discouragement and also celebrate the joys. Your financial support has allowed us to make these important steps in growth and development that will allow North Routt Community Church to not only survive, but also to thrive as a self-sufficient Gospel community that can impact our small town for Christ and his Kingdom!
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