Happy New Year

Hello friends,

What a wonderful Christmas and Advent season it was at The Way. We enjoyed our very first season together, set some traditions for our church family to enjoy as we go forward, and focused on living the way of Jesus as we celebrated His birth. There was much to celebrate over these past few weeks. The joy of new faces, the welcoming nature of our church family, and a record attendance at our Christmas Eve worship gathering are just a few of the joys that the past month has brought. In retrospect, it feels a little weird to think that this church is only 4 months old. It feels so comfortable and exciting that I'm more inclined to think that this church has a much longer history.

As we move forward there is much to do. Our intent is to hit the ground running to start off the New Year. With that in mind, here are a few items worth discussing:

-DON'T MISS THIS SUNDAY!!!! We have a surprise waiting for everyone who attends our worship gathering this Sunday morning. Don't try to figure it out. Just be sure to come. And if you have any unchurched friends that you could bring to church with you this weekend, DO IT. I promise you this is the Sunday to go the extra mile and have them attend. Neither you nor they will be disappointed.

-Our graphics/web designer is working hard on overhauling our website (www.thewayministries.info). Over the next month our website will be seeing some exciting upgrades. Our goal is to build a web presence that both engages people who are new to The Way in a manner that gets them the info that they need as well as serving some of the basic needs of our congregation. Do you have any recommendations that would help us fulfill that goal? If so, please tell us. We'd love to hear your input.

-Also pertaining to our new website, the designer would like to receive some quotes from the people of The Way to incorporate into the new design. Could you provide us with one? It could be anything that you feel is note-worthy regarding what you feel is unique about The Way or what you love about The Way. If you have something along those lines that you'd like to share, please email it to me at pm@thewayministries.info.

-We are prayerfully considering a facility change. This should not be any cause for alarm. And we may not actually ever change the venue. However, it is important to us at The Way to be able to invest as much money as possible back into the mission based needs that are brought to our attention as a church. In short, we believe that the church's money is better spent on people's needs than on our church's venue. Therefore, as we go about living into our financial commitments to stewarding our money in 2010 freeing up every possible dollar to be spent on "helping people", we are considering our options. Do you know of a venue in the local Greensburg/Latrobe area that can supply us a regular meeting space for up to 150 people with chairs and parking? If so, I'd love to talk with you about it.

I'm so excited about this church, and I'm so excited about seeing what God has in store for us in this New Year. Keep in mind, this Sunday is one that you don't want to miss. I hope to see you there!

Grace and Peace be with you.

Bet Lehem

On Christmas Eve The Way began a tradition of celebrating Jesus (the bread of life) being born in Bethlehem (Bet Lehem - the house of bread) by giving each family a homemade loaf of bread. We invited everyone to do whatever they felt was most appropriate for their family to do with this loaf to honor the birth of Jesus. Some families used their bread to have holy communion together as a family on Christmas morning. Another family gave theirs away to a neighbor to spread the message of love. As for me and my family, we used the loaf of bread as a centerpiece for our Christmas dinner. For us, it was the perfect reminder of just why it was that we were together and enjoying such a wonderful meal.

What a great Christmas and Advent this has been at The Way! I'm so blessed to be a part of a church who is striving first and only to live the way of Jesus.

Grace and Peace be with you.

The Advent Conspiracy

Grace and Peace be with you.

Christmas Eve

I just wanted to post one last reminder for our Christmas Eve gathering at 7pm at Wimmerton Community Center in Latrobe. It's going to be a relaxed time of sweet treats, conversation, and celebration. Please feel free to bring anyone and everyone you know who may not otherwise have any plans at that time Thursday night. It's truly going to be a time of relaxing and enjoying one another's company as we gather around the manger to welcome the baby. Also, for those who are interested, we are meeting at the community center at noon that same day to decorate for our evening gathering. We'd love your help with that if you are available. If you are, then simply join us there at noon.

And finally, I want to once again say thanks to all who helped make our food drive such a HUGE success last Sunday. At this time, we've collected about 5 pick-up truck loads of food for this family. What a massive Christmas blessing!

I hope to see you on Christmas Eve.
Grace and Peace be with you.

Thank you!

This is just some of the food that was gathered yesterday at The Way as a result of the plea that we put out for a family in need in our community. In addition to what you see pictured here, about this much more has been collected since yesterday morning. The idea was to get the family so much food that they didn't have to worry about grocery shopping for a long time. As you can see, we reached our goal (Yay God!)

Thanks so much to everyone who helped make this a success!
Grace and peace be with you.

Urgent Matter

Hi friends,

As you may know it was brought to our congregation's attention last week that there is a family of seven in our community that is in urgent need of assistance (mother with 6 kids). In short, this mother has mounting overdue bills that she is unable to pay, there is no food, and there are no plans for any Christmas celebration due to the financial situation. The great news is that God has been faithful over the past week to provide financial assistance in large enough measure to cover the outstanding bills, and Christmas presents have been provided for all of the children (YAY GOD!!!) which brings me to the reason for writing this to you. The Way would like to fill up their cupboards with food for the Holidays. We're holding a food drive for them this Sunday (12/20). We're asking for anyone and everyone to give can goods, storable grocery items, and/or grocery gift cards as they are able. We'd like to have it all by Sunday so that we can deliver it to this mother for use on Christmas week and thoughout the holiday season. Can you check your pantry for a donation? Can you ask your friends and neighbors to do that as well?

If you do not or cannot attend The Way this Sunday at L.E.S. at 10:30am and would like to make a donation, please contact me and I will make arrangements to meet you to pick up those items.

And a friendly reminder about our Christmas Eve service. The Way will be gathering at the Wimmerton Community Center at 7pm. We invite you and all of your friends and relatives to join us. It's gonna be a relaxing evening celebrating the arrival of the Christ child.

Thank you for your continued support of the ministries of The Way. God bless you.
Grace and Peace be with you.

Church planting vulnerability

Sometimes we pastors are guilty of hiding behind our masks of Christianity so much so that the vulnerability of our true emotions never come through. To defeat that tendency, I give you an online conversation between myself and another church planter. This was taken from mine and Eric Phillips' Facebook walls:

Me: So you have a few weeks in...how's the new church going? Man, I've been praying for you like a madman.

Eric: Hey bro, it has been good. I think we might have just found a guy to do worship, he and his wife visited 2 weeks ago and we've been meeting and praying. We held a free community Thanksgiving dinner over thanksgiving which was awesome but completely broke me seeing how much need is in our area, and how many people are living with no hope. Just leaves me with more resolve to bring the hope of the Gospel and the coming Kingdom to this area no matter what it costs. I appreciate your prayers bro, even though God is doing awesome things I've been under a lot of attack, just really doubting my adequacy and feeling like I'm going to fail. How are things at the Way? How are you and your fam doing? How are you holding up financially?

Me: I here you about the attack, bro. I've been fighting off that demon for months now. Inadequacy, fear, worry...ugh...I have to put on the armor against them every day. I'm glad to hear of your early success. As for The Way, I couldn't be more pleased. We see new faces every day and the majority of them unchurched. We are literally a handful of empty chairs away from outgrowing our facility. And currently the church is in good financial standing. That's a little bigger deal to us than maybe most independent church plants as we tithe 50% of our budget back into the needy of our community...it means it takes twice as long to save up for purchases/bills. But because of His provision, our bills are all paid. Additionally, my personal financial situation is a blessing as well. I haven't received a paycheck in months, yet we have been able to find the funds every month come payment time. I still have days in which I feel like an irresponsible father, but I know that a day is coming in which my kids will have a testimony from my life experience which leads them to give obedience a chance. In short, I'm blessed. I'm excited. I'm terrified. I'm determined. I've never had so little, yet I've never felt so full. My church is a growing baby committed to Scripture and Missional expressions thereof. And this season of my life is a wonderfully messy expression of the deepest faith I've ever been able to muster. I've never been happier. I've never been so terrified. And I've never felt so close to Jesus. Blessings and favor upon you my brother...

Nothing like honesty to help people understand just how risky faith really is.
Grace and Peace be with you.

Coats for the homeless

The Way and Garfield Memorial UMC express their sincere thanks to all who helped make this coat drive a HUGE success. The video below shows some of the sites on the delivery nights. One note: it is illegal to disrtibute anything to homeless people in Philadelphia. On the first night of delivery the police showed up at Love Park with their lights and sirens on looking to take us all to jail. They ran out into the middle of the crowd yelling "who's responsible for this!?!" All of the homeless people just looked at me because my friends and I were the one who had delivered them. I looked at the cops and said, "Jesus is responsible for this." Upon hearing that, the cops immediately got back into their cars and left without any further question or comment. Yay God!!!



Grace and Peace be with you.

Christmas Eve Gathering

The Way's Christmas Eve plans have been finalized. We will be gathering at 7pm for our Christmas Eve celebration at the Wimmerton Community Center. The community center is located on Wimmerton Blvd. by the pool accross from N. Shenandoah. If you don't already have plans, we hope you'll come for a cozy time of sharing and prayer with The Way. It's gonna be a great time.

Grace and Peace be with you.