Waiting on God and Important Conversations (part 1)

This week has been pretty crazy! After returning from the Dwell Conference in NYC on May 1 (which I still plan to blog about when I collect my notes and thoughts!), Emily and I spent one night in our apartment in West Virginia before she went on a ladies' retreat with the women in our missions organization. I visited my parents for that weekend. We got back to WV on Monday the 5th, and then we left to go to New Hampshire for a wedding with Emily's parents on the 6th.

Anyway, not alot of time for thinking about church planting! But, it's funny how God works even when we feel like we aren't. While on this trip (I'm in NYC right now--we are spending a couple nights with Emily's cousin Amy and her husband Joe in Brooklyn) I've had several important phone calls.

My first conversation was with a guy who is a church planting coach and mentor for a denomination that I had never heard of before the Dwell Conference. A speaker at the conference recommended this denomination to me when I privately asked for his help in finding a good denominational "fit" for our new church. My conversation with this planter/coach was very encouraging! He has planted churches himself, and coached nearly 100 planters of successful churches in the last decade. His denomination gives generously to church planters, and they have a free and extensive church planter assessment process that can really help you take wise steps on the path to planting.

This denomination is totally behind church planting among young and unchurched people--more than I thought any were right now. It is also focused on missions and being relevant to the people they minster to. We are very excited about the possibility of joining this group. Emily and I feel at this point that their theology and practices of reaching the unchurched are in line with ours. We are in the application process right now...

We believe God is showing us that having an accountability relationship with a church planting coach and joining with a denomination where there is a healthy "give and take" is the way for us to go. The key for us is keeping the autonomy of the local church. It's nice to find a denomination (or have it find us) that agrees with us on this subject!