Advent and other goings on

Friends of The Way,

What a phenomenal couple of weeks we've had at The Way. The laughter, the sharing, the new faces, the rapidly dwindling number of empty seats, and growing sense of "family" has all added to the excitement. It's hard to believe that this church is only 12 weeks old. And it's harder still to comprehend just how good God has been to us so far along this journey. As one of my mentors said the other day, "We could not have asked for a better first three months." Our attendance is consistently growing. Our passion and mission are sustaining the surge forward both inside and outside of our gatherings, and all of our bills are paid. Very few churches can say those things right now. Would you please join me in praising God for those things?

As we move forward this week, here are a few items that I am working on:

1) We're delivering the coats that we've gathered to the homeless in Love Park tonight! I'm SO PUMPED about this. Thanks so much to all who have made this effort a HUGE success!
2) Small groups...everyone who has offered up their home for the purpose of hosting a small group ministry will be receiving a call from me this week. We will be finalizing those plans and organizing a kickoff for each group.
3) Child care is an issue that is being worked on for our congregation. It's been proposed that a team be organized to rotate Sundays and provide some childcare in The Stuffice on Sundays during our worship gatherings. If this is something that you'd be willing to assist with and step into the rotation, please let me know.
4) Financial giving is a topic that I'm praying hard about right now. I'm so proud of the way that our congregation gives to its church. There are several stories in our brief history of people giving to our church in a manner that has allowed us to get to where we are today. And as we enter this Christmas season, I know that needs both for our church, as well as for those in our community, are going to increase. So I'm praying for God's provision and reminding our people to make your tithes and offerings as you are able. Thank you so much for your continued faithfulness and generosity to the ministries of The Way.
5) I'm joining Shane Claiborne, author of "The Irresistible Revolution" later this week at a speaking engagement to share about The Way and our values as a church. This is a HUGE opportunity as it will allow me to share not only who we are, but what we're all about, in an international arena that reaches out to Pastors and churches that hold to the practices of the Acts church. If nothing else, it will be an opportunity to meet many other people who think the way that we think and build their ministry around simply living the way of Jesus. This is such a cool opportunity for us.
6) We are spending this Advent season encouraging everyone to find someone who isn't already plugged in to a church and get them to The Way this Christmas season. We all know someone who doesn't go to church regularly who may otherwise find a place to worship this Christmas. Why not bring them to The Way? Will you be the one to get them there? Will you extend the invitation?

Let me close by saying that I LOVE THIS CHURCH! And I LOVE THE PEOPLE OF THE WAY! I'm so blessed to call you my church family. Thank you for each and every blessing that you bring to the Kingdom of God by living the way of Jesus.

Grace and Peace be with you.

A new video

Grace and Peace be with you

Speechless

Check out this pic of the coats collected at The Way this morning. Praise God and thanks to all who donated. It's two truckloads of coats and other items. The pile was so big that we had to remove a row of chairs; it stretched from wall to wall. What an AWESOME morning at The Way!

Grace and Peace be with you.

Something big is happening

As written here previously, The Way has taken on the task of finding winter coats for a community of homeless people who are otherwise unprepared for the coming winter season. And I have to tell you that there is something BIG going on through this. People from The Way have been using their facebook status, blogpage, email address book, and professional networks among other things to gather coats on our behalf. In fact, another church has joined us in petitioning its people for this cause. It's SO cool to see what God is doing.

We're collecting these coats on Sunday November 8th at our worship gathering. We're gonna lay them on the floor at the foot of our altar table, pray over them, give God thanks for them, then send them off to meet their new owners. We do this because we believe it is our duty in Christ to care, even for those whom no one seems to want to care about. It was Jesus who once said, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

So what do you say, friend? Can you make it your goal to gather as many coats as possible on behalf of Jesus over these next few days? Are there friends and neighbors that you could approach about this? Could you talk to your coworkers or classmates? Would you use your facebook and email contacts, etc. to find some coats and other winter clothing items?

God is doing something big with this already. Let's join together with Him to see what this is going to become.

Grace and Peace be with you.

Coats and other things that tell the Gospel story

One of the things that we are most serious about at The Way is expressing the love of Jesus Christ to people in need by making it a point to share our possessions to meet those needs to the best of our ability. One of the ways that we do this is by using a web-based database called The Common. It makes disseminating information much less complicated.

This week on The Common one of the people from The Way made it known that she has some homeless friends who are in need of coats and other winter-weather items. And to put it more clearly, she has LOTS of homeless friends in need. So The Way is making it our mission to find coats...lots and lots of them...

Do you have a coat or two collecting dust in your closet? If so, can we have it? We're collecting them at our upcoming worship gathering on Sunday, November 8th. If you have a coat to donate, bring it with you on Sunday morning. If you have a coat to donate but don't, or can't, attend The Way this Sunday, we'd still like to get it from you. Email me to make arrangements for delivering the coats at:

pm@thewayministries.info

We're gonna collect these coats on Sunday, lay them on the floor in front of the altar elements, pray over them, and send them off for delivery to their new owners.

"I have come to recognize that, if I have two coats in my closet, one of them belongs to one who has no coat."
-Dorothy Day

Grace and Peace be with you.