A Final Goodbye to the Ridge Church Site

Hey! I just wanted to make a final post on the Ridge Church blog/website, and this is it.

Baby #2, Chloe, Emily and I will be moving to Charlotte on June 25, 2010 where I will be the new Student Pastor at LifePointe Christian Church. It's a five-year old church plant, and it will be a very challenging role for me. I would expect no less of the Lord! ;)

We are very excited about the new path that God has laid out for us, and ready to start serving in a new area of a town we loved living in!

This will never change the love that we have for the Ridge Church folks, those who supported us through prayer and finances while we planted The Ridge, and the fine staff of OneLife Church in Powell, who welcomed us with open arms. We care about you all and will miss each of you.

Please pray for us, and if God so leads you, consider financially supporting us in our 1/2 salary, 1/2 fundraised monetary situation in Charlotte. (You can learn more about all that in my personal blog, kevinlayne.blogspot.com.) I'm calling it "Life in the Fast Layne," but of course Emily thinks that's lame. The name of the blog is subject to change...

One final note: This blog will continue to exist as long as blogger lets it. I am planning to keep it as a record of our church plant, and my church planting thoughts and efforts, even before Ridge Church started meeting. To that end, I've imported my original blog posts from a couple years ago, so all the church planting stuff is on one blog. Doesn't mean a ton to most people, but it's a big deal for me... Feel free to read anything you want!

Until we see you again, God bless you and keep you!

Kevin

"New Baby" Layne's first picture...

Ridge Church Update for October

Hey, everyone! It's been a few weeks since my last blog update. I wanted make sure you know what's been going on with Ridge Church and also Kevin and Emily (and Chloe!).

First, God has been so gracious to us; we have much to thank Him for.

• Our former Ridge Church folks have the best hearts! They have done a great job of humbly joining the OneLife Church team. Many of our former Ridge Church people are serving at OneLife, most in the children's ministry area of the new church. That's great for the former Ridge Church folks, because everyone is finding a place to serve God and others. It's great for OneLife too, because they've had more children than they anticipated this early in the life of the church and needed our great volunteers. Awesome fit between Ridge Church and OneLife. That's a God thing!

• OneLife has seen 6 people commit themselves to being Christ-followers already! That's an awesome thing for a church that's only had 5 public Sunday worship services. Also, OneLife continues to grow each Sunday in numbers. This is a blessing from God, as people who are not connected to God by a relationship with Christ are inviting others who do not know God. This is great!

• We are currently in the process of finalizing the "winding down" of our Ridge Church financial situation. We will be giving some monetary gifts to some important people: Ken and Christy Garrison, the owners of Panache Hair and Body where Ridge Church met on Sundays; Andy Hughes and Journey Church of the Highlands in Boone, North Carolina; and Jeremy Rose and The Axis Church in Nashville, Tennessee. More information will be available soon on our final financial stats. I think it's important and cool to see a tally of how much of God's money Ridge Church folks sent back to church planters and missionaries! New Churches and Serving Others were two very important values at Ridge Church. We are going to live out those values all the way through to completion. Those financial numbers will be available soon here on the blog.

• If you'd like to keep up with what's going on with me and Emily, here's a link to our latest prayer letter to our prayer team and financial partners. Feel free to check it out. If you have any questions about supporting our ongoing fundraising as we trust God to provide for our financial needs while I am a volunteer staff member at OneLife Church, email me!

Thank you all so much for reading the blog over the last 15 months... I have one more post, at least, that I will put up soon. Have a great night.

A Ridge Church Update

Hey! Sunday was the first day of Ridge Church folks going to OneLife Church. I have to admit, this week has been a little weird for me.

Last Sunday, Emily and I shared with you all that Ridge Church would be folding into OneLife. It was our prayer (Emily and me) that everyone would see a couple things in this decision.

• First, we wanted people to know that Emily and I came back to Knoxville after 10 years of ministry in other places because God told us to and we plan to stay as long as He wants us to. We have been committed to and remain committed to God's plan for this city. We love Knox Vegas, we love the people here, and we want to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ bear great fruit and transform this place one life at a time.


• Second, we wanted people to know that Emily and I are committed to church planting. The Core Values of Ridge Church were Truth, Grace & Faith, Community, Serving Others, New Churches, and Fun. It just so happens, OneLife is all about those values and that shows that this is a great place for our people.


• Third, we believe that the Church (big "C", meaning all Christians throughout time and place) is Jesus's bride, as spoken about in Scripture. (This isn't creepy, it is a way of sharing just how much God loves us and how important we are to Him.) That means that God is the leader of the church (little "c", meaning individual churches everywhere). The Bible teaches that we are all one body as the worldwide Church, and we should answer to God. That means that if God wants to connect 2 churches (local manifestations of the worldwide Church) and make one, He has the right to do that. In many cases, as in ours, we can see the wisdom in it. In some cases, churches really need to combine, but we resist it, for whatever reason. I think church connections should occur more often, but that's another discussion! Anyway, we want to exhibit humility in our commitment to Christ. God is in charge here, and we know that we are obeying God and advancing the Kingdom of God by folding into OneLife. That's enough said right there. Any personal ambitions we have must be subordinated to the goal of getting the Gospel out to other folks.
  


• Fourth, by folding into OneLife, Ridge Church will cease to exist, but how we do this part is almost as important as how we started. Even during this transitional time, we have a great opportunity to share Jesus with folks. When people ask, "Why are you doing this?" you can tell them that God said for us to, we are all part of God's body, He can do more when we team up, we want to obey God... All of these reasons are true and any one of them is a great answer! But one thing you won't tell them (because it's not true!) is that we "failed" or God let us down, or there was "sin in the camp" (there's not) or that we gave up or that we didn't want to share the Gospel with other people. We are folding into OneLife so that we can accomplish the mission God gave us His way, as part of a team of people leaning on each other and God. That's simple and good! No "church splits" or "personality clashes" or "differences of opinion" or whatever other excuses people give for not living out the Christ-following life in harmony with other believers. Nope, we are making a healthy move to honor God; we're moving as one small healthy church plant into fellowship with another healthy church plant. It's a great example to those who don't follow Christ, and also a great example to churches out there that constantly fight and bicker over stuff.

In the end, God wins through what we are doing! I want you all to see that and believe that. I do. I love you all and pray that you will continue to explore what God has for you, be willing to try new and challenging things for Jesus, and obey with all your hearts!

By the way, God does move in weird ways! Last Sunday, all I knew was that I would show up at OneLife this Sunday and pitch in however I could. Today, I'm a part-time staff member, continuing to raise financial support so that God can use the gifts and talents I have to support the OneLife staff team. I'm honored and humbled and excited about what He has in store, all at the same time. For those who are supporting us financially, thanks so much! We will continue to rely on you so that we can serve in Knoxville. More info on how supporting us works out will be available soon.

See you this Sunday at OneLife! 11 a.m. at Powell High School... If you have questions or want to get involved (since that's part of my job!) email me!

The Letter We Sent to Our Prayer Partners

I didn't know exactly what to write here, so I'm posting the letter we sent to our many prayer partners. Here goes...

This prayer letter began when I asked Emily to help me with it... I have had a tough emotional ride of late. Just so all of you know that God uses Emily all the time to speak with, to, and even for me sometimes... - Kevin

After a very difficult yet very blessed 15 months, God has led us to join forces with another church plant in the Knoxville area. We have had quite a bit of time to pray, think, and talk with others about this, and we have come to a simple conclusion. We believe God led us to plant Ridge Church as a part of His sovereign plan. We have seen people who had given up on church become interested and involved again. Others had a renewed excitement about God and some were introduced to a God they had never met before, one that was not concerned with the rules and legalism that is so prevalent in this area. All of these things would not have happened if God hadn’t sent us here with the intent to plant. For whatever reason God has seen fit to greatly bless our efforts, protect us from any type of unhealthy, negative or “bad” situation, yet at the same time draw Ridge Church as we now know it to a close. This has been a very crazy time and we have sought very wise counsel and prayer from our outside advisory board, other pastors and other godly men and women.

In church planting, you never know what's going to happen... It's always a risk and success in God's eyes is not always the same as success in our eyes. Based on a ton of Scripture I've read lately, God sees human success as equal to obedience to Him. We have seen the next step God wants us to take and rather that fight for “our” plans and our own personal ambitions, we believe God wants us to obey His leading, continue serving in Knoxville as missionaries, and join the team of this new church plant. We have a network of well over a hundred “unchurched” people that we are still in contact with, still are interested in what we've been talking to them about (God), but will also take more time to be willing to check out God or understand what a relationship with Christ is.

We shared this information with our core group Sunday morning at our Prayer Gathering and were not sure what to expect. God gave me the words to say and had already prepared the people's hearts. They were sad on the one hand but excited about the future as well. Church plant core group members are typically risk-takers themselves. God has really blessed us with them and we are so thankful that this move will bring glory to Him.

Obviously, we have some massive prayer requests. First, that God will continue to give us wisdom and sensitivity as we draw our time as a Ridge Church body to a close. We want to honor those who support us financially and through prayer and ask that you continue in your support. Our work here is far from done and we plan to continue serving as missionaries in this area. Sadly, in the “Bible Belt” so many people think they know God but are just going through the motions. Then there are those that are so “righteous” they have made it incredibly hard for other committed Christ-followers to reach non-believers.

Second, pray for this transition time for God’s people. They will be walking into a new environment and a larger group. This will be exciting for some and difficult for others.

Thirdly, pray for Emily and me. It is hard to not struggle with the “success syndrome.” Pray we remember all that God has done and the amazing ways He has used us instead of focusing on what could be perceived by others as a failure. Please pray that He would guide us on the next phase of our church planting and missionary journey here in Knoxville.

A few weeks ago Emily and I went on a walk to pray in a local park. There was a really nice paved path around the entire park that we walked in silence as we were there to be quiet and seek God. When we neared the end of the paved path, there was a little beaten-down dirt path that took us off the paved path, but it was clearly a path. Most people would pass it by but we, of course, had to check it out. Emily noticed it first, quickly stepped onto it, and I noticed and followed her. It was beautiful and ran along the creek. Along the way we were poked by some thorns, but Emily saw where it ended up and we returned to the main paved path. I asked her where the dirt path led and she said, “It joins back up with the main path.”

A realization hit both of us like a ton of bricks: We are THOSE people. We are the people who will always get off the smooth, easy, well-traveled path, in search of those hidden treasures that require getting your arms and ankles scraped along the way. In the end, God brings us back to the smooth path. Some would say we’re the dumb people who don’t know how to follow directions. But we look back and know that we follow the dirt paths in life because of how God has wired us. He uses that wiring to accomplish His greater purpose in our lives. God has created us all differently and each one of us is a special and wonderful creation of His.

So, we are now continuing on the path God gave us over a year ago, planting a new church in Knoxville. We remain focused on missions, service, and evangelism, driven by the desire to reach this community for Christ, throwing aside anything that hinders us in that pursuit. We pray that you would continue to support us in this effort! We will continue to keep you updated.

We love you all!

Kevin and Emily

Prayer and Pakistan

I had a great time Sunday at our monthly Ridge Church Prayer Gathering. I always enjoy getting together with you all, and Sunday was cool because we got together to pray!

Last month, we prayed through the ACTS process. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, ACTS is a "recipe" to follow in prayer so that your prayers make sure to honor God and "cover all the bases" that you want to pray about. This is way better than the random "beef stew" prayer that we often send up to God, full of all kinds of stuff that just gets added into our prayers willy-nilly. (Maybe this isn't a good analogy, but it's what I got right now.)

Anyhow, A stands for adoration; it's the time for adoring God for who He is. C stands for confession; it's the time for admitting our sins to God and requesting His strength to obey Him in our lives. T stands for thanksgiving; it's the time to thank God for all kinds of stuff. Finally, S stands for supplication; it's the time for praying for others and ourselves, and is at the end on purpose!

Anyway, this week we decided to pray through the Ridge Church values. In an hour, we got through the first 3: Truth, Grace & Faith, and Community. I had a great time, and I hope you all did, too. The Krispy Kremes that Sue Irving brought were a nice treat! At our next prayer gathering in September, we'll "pray through" our other 3 values.

On Sunday we also took up a special offering for our Pakistani brothers and sisters in Christ. You all shared more than $50 that will go directly to Pakistan to provide clothes and lodging for Christ-followers who have had their homes burned by angry Muslims. Thank you for sharing what God has trusted to you so that we can be an encouragement to others in Jesus' name!

This Sunday, we'll meet at One Life Church for worship. At our Prayer Gathering, I said we'd meet at 9:45 at Powell High School. The time for their worship gathering is 11 a.m., not 10 a.m. as I thought. So, we'll gather at 10:45 at Powell High School this Sunday the 23rd. Childcare is provided by OneLife, so kids are welcome! After worship, everyone is welcome to eat lunch with us as always!

See you at small group and on Sunday!

Moving Stinks, but God is Cool

Well, I sit here on Saturday evening in the Panera Bread in Fountain City. I love this place (except for their new coffee style, not a big fan of that), especially when I'm in an "Internet pinch."

I'm in just such a pinch now. We just moved from a rental home in Gibbs to a rental condo in Fountain City on Thursday. (P.S., I'm a big fan of "Two Men and a Truck!" Shout outs to Eddie and Anthony, if they read this!) The Internet is set up with Comcast, but we just cleared out enough room in the condo to actually get the cable jacks within arm's reach last night at about midnight. I had to work at my "real" job all day today, so no Internet at the condo yet.

The great thing about Panera is that Emily and I can meet here for a pre-birthday supper (her birthday is tomorrow...) and then I can stay and "compute" and finish up my sermon and stuff for tomorrow's worship gathering at Panache at 10 a.m. Love to see you there, by the way!

Now I totally believe moving stinks, since packing up and then living out of boxes, and trying to do it all with a Chloe in the room, is tough. But, God has provided us a cheaper, and closer-in place that will be great for our small group to meet in. We loved the green spaces of Gibbs, but we are committed to our ministry in the more urban areas of our town. So, this is great for us!

Finally, many of you have been praying that God would send our core group the worship leader and ministry partner that He wants us to have. As a result of an ad on craigslist, and also putting the word out to some pastor friends, we have been connected with several prospective dudes. So, your prayers are working... Keep praying that the Holy Spirit would work in the heart of the right guy and he would be as excited about loving Knoxville with Christ's love as we are!

See you tomorrow!

A Year One Update and Some Important Changes at The Ridge

Hey everybody! I just wanted to take some time and put out here on the blog some important changes that are taking place at The Ridge. It's hard to believe, but it's been nearly a year since Emily and I moved back to Knoxville (June 30 of last year)!

The last year has been a tough one for Emily, Chloe, and me. Emily's pregnancy was stressful, but Chloe was our "little" miracle child when she was born in November. There's too much to share about that here, but Emily will if you want!

Chloe has had a disposition toward giving us first-time parents little scares by being sick a lot. Fortunately, after getting ear tubes about a month ago, Chloe has only had one infection of any kind! That's kinda nice, because since leaving the hospital in November, three month-long ear infections (requiring 3 different meds and two shots), and five other infections. Chloe's went to the doctor more than 20 times this year from January to April... And to Children's Hospital for tests twice.

We are by no means complaining, since we have a healthy child! Many other parents care for chronically ill children with major health issues. We have been very blessed to have Chloe and have all her "issues" be minor. But, as a first-time Dad, this has not been something I could have been ready for, that's for sure!

Talking about numbers, Emily and I have driven more than 4,500 miles since our church planting journey began, visiting churches to raise support for our plant, meeting other pastors, and being the subject of prayer from entire churches (thanks alot for those prayers!). Chloe has already been to 7 states outside Tennessee!

So, it's been a wild year in several ways, incuding being a church planter and first-time dad while also working full-time at a retail establishment (HoneyBaked Ham Store) and watching our old townhouse in Charlotte sit on the market while we have been unable to make payments on it.

To be completely honest, much of our human "planning" for our church plant has been completely tossed asunder over the last 12 months by God. I have come to realize over the past year that the church planting experience is a wonderful tool that the Lord uses to enact major remodeling in the spiritual, physical, emotional, and social world of the church planter and his wife and family. I have found that this "remodeling" has to occur before the church planter and the church plant can be effectively used by God to lead others to Christ and to spiritual growth.

Relatively little has gone "according to plan", from the recession affecting the lives of so many of our Ridge Church folks and our personal fundraising efforts, to Chloe's doctors' visits, to needing to work full-time at a non-church job to support our little family.

I was once pretty upset at all the stuff that didn't go the way I wanted it to over the last year. However, God has changed my mind about all of it. I have been supremely humbled by the Lord since June 30, 2008. He has grown me in many, many ways. I have seen Him at work, come to a new realization of His Sovereignty in my life, and finally given the totality of my life over to His control and guidance. This is tough for a Type A kinda guy and Type A kinda girl (Emily).

Anyway, with regard to our important Ridge Church changes: We've found that we are a little "ahead of ourselves" in acting our age as a church plant. Just like Chloe should be expected to act like a 7-month old, our church should act its age as well. We want to offer God a Sunday worship gathering that is worthy of His greatness. We want other people as the Body of Christ at Ridge Church to be involved in serving and leading. We want to be a healthy church planting family and make sure that we have healthy time and involvement boundaries. This way, Emily, Chloe and I have our priorities in order and enjoy the family God has blessed us with.

Last Sunday at The Ridge, we shared that our church is going to move to meeting twice monthly on Sundays. We are seeking to "act our age" and strive to be a place of spiritual health for the planter, God's people, and our city as we remember our focus must be upward on God and outward on others, not inward on ourselves.

I have created a PDF document from my PowerPoint slides that we talked about last Sunday. I'd love for you to read it if you'd like to learn more about our re-commitment to our Ridge Church Vision and Values and also to the Lord, each other, and our community. Feel free to check it out here, and also feel free to email me any comments or questions you may have.

Emily, Chloe and I continue to be committed to this great adventure that God has called us to, and we want to encourage you to stay the course with us as we move forward under a renewed sense of the Holy Spirit's leadership.

Have a great week!

Awesome Child Dedication Last Sunday, Communion/Lord's Supper This Sunday!

Hey! We had a great time Sunday at our first Ridge Church child dedication. Our daughter Chloe and Kahlan Carter were dedicated to God by their parents. It was a great time of worshiping God for the gifts of our children. It was also a great time of community, as the Christ-followers in attendance all committed to pray for the children and their parents, and provide any assistance possible in helping the parents to raise their kids in a way that glorifies God.

As part of a Christian community, we all have a responsibility to each other. The Bible refers to us as all parts of the "body of Christ" with Him as the head. Paul talks about this alot... Check out 1 Corinthians 12 for one cool passage on the topic.

Here's a pic of our child dedication... My prayer is that there are many to follow!


The parents all thanked God publicly for their children, praising Him for His gift. They all also publicly committed to raising their kids in God's paths, teaching them about Him and Christ's gift for us on the cross. The parents' prayers are that their kids would some day make their parents faith their own, and will become Christ-followers who in turn will raise their children to follow God. Cool stuff!

This Sunday, we are enjoying another worshipful Sunday gathering. We are going to share Communion or the Lord's Supper together. At Ridge Church, all Christ-followers are welcome to share in Communion with us. Anyone who has placed their faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins and committed to follow Him all their days is welcome to participate. This is a wonderful time of community and sharing together the grace that God gave us in sending His son to die for us. This is a great time to teach your children about Jesus and His love for us, and an awesome time to praise God for Jesus' victory over death.

So, join us this Sunday at Panache at 10 a.m.! We look forward to seeing you there!

A Prayer Request from Fountain City's Firemen

Hey! I hope you all are having a great day today... Hope you're staying dry in this rain!

I have a minute to post a blog update, and was reminded of a visit I had earlier this week with some guys at the Knoxville Fire Department's Station 15 in Fountain City. I've driven by the fire house at the corner of Jacksboro Pike and Essary Road alot lately. God put it on my heart more and more each time to stop by and ask the firemen (firepeople?) there if The Ridge could serve them in any way.

So, this week, after a visit to our dentist (praise report: "Look Ma, no cavities!"), I stopped by the fire house at about 4:30 in the afternoon. The guys in the kitchen were making Sloppy Joes for supper and just hanging out. I introduced myself, mentioned that we were a new church in the area, and asked if there was any way that we could support them in their dangerous work to protect our families and property from perhaps the most feared manmade scourge: fire.

The guys were a little surprised: 1) to see me enter the firehouse (I assume it's kinda rare for a civilian to roll up in there), 2) to have a local pastor ask if there was any way his church could pray for them.

This is sad, but beside the point, I guess. The main point is that the guys took a couple minutes to come up with an answer to my question, but when they did, they simply asked for prayer. They mentioned the dangers of their jobs, and that their families worry for their safety. I told them I would pray for them, which I have. I also told them I'd pass the request along and that they could ask for us to support them anytime.

This is a really simple thing to do, but it means alot to folks! So, next time God tells you to pray for someone or speak a kind word of encouragement to them, do so! The guys were curious where we met, and I told them. You never know, you may get to meet one of them some Sunday at Panache! Inviting the guys to our worship gathering was not the reason I went to visit the fire house, but God opened a door. He may do the same for you to present Jesus' love to someone in a special way.

People are curious when they hear of a new church where God is worshiped and the people are serious about serving others. So, keep all this in mind, pray for the fire"people" and have a great Saturday! See you tomorrow at 10 am!

Lotsa Good Stuff Coming Down the Road...

Hey! I hope you all are having a great week!

Just wanted to touch base, say hey, and let you know a brief summary of what's coming up in the next weeks at The Ridge. God is up to alot in our midst!

First, I want to thank Ken and Christy Garrison for hosting our Sunday worship gatherings at Panache. Thanks guys... You set a great example of hospitality and service.

Here's a little bit about what's going on:

• We're meeting every Sunday morning for worship at Panache from 10 until 11:15 (ish) a.m. We have graciously been invited to stay as long as we need to meet there. So, invite a friend, family member, or co-worker and come join us Sunday! After a week off after working hard to prepare for our Easter celebration in Fountain City Park, our worship team returns this week... Thank them for their faithfulness!
• Our Ridge Church small groups start on May 6! I can't begin to tell you how pumped I am about this... Small groups are where we believe the local church finds its greatest and purest expression. Sunday morning worship gatherings are wonderful and necessary for honoring our God and building community. But worship on Sunday is not personal enough to stand alone as a discipleship tool. Along with the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives and personal prayer, we need the community, encouragement, and discipline that only real relationships with other believers in the name of Christ can give us. So, make plans to "know and be known" in one of our first two small groups starting Wednesday, May 6! More info on Sunday!
  
• We're having a special "baby dedication" time in our Mother's Day gathering on May 10. We'll be dedicating our children who have not already been dedicated to God. Really, this time is a time for the Christ-following parents of "Ridge Kids" to dedicate themselves to raising up their kids in a way that God would be honored by. See Ephesians 6:1-4 (there are many other verses on parenting in the Bible!) for an idea of what we mean. If you have questions or are interested in dedicating your child to God (and any age is appropriate!) let Emily know. We're taking a break from our awesome study of Colossians on Mother's Day for a chat about kids and parenting. As a new parent, I don't have all the answers, but God certainly does... See ya there. Bring a friend!
  
• We're taking a break from our Sunday worship gathering schedule on Memorial Day Weekend, Sunday May 24. This is a way to honor our hosts at Panache, our worship team, and me (hey, the pastor works too!) with a break. It's also a way for Emily, Chloe and me to take a trip to visit our old friends in Charlotte and attend the wedding of two of the students from our student ministry there. So, worship at another local Bible-believing church, or take a trip out of town... Have fun!
• We're having our regular Ridge Church Service Project on Saturday, May 30 from 9 to noon. We're helping the folks of the Fountain City Town Hall clean up First Creek in the Fountain City Park area in partnership with Keep Knoxville Beautiful. This is a great way to serve our city, get to know our town leadership, and honor God's creation as stewards of His wonderful Earth. Parents and kids both are very welcome! You will need to make plans to hang with your kids in the park area if you bring them, however.

Well, that's a bunch of cool stuff! Rest assured that The Ridge is not all about programs. However, because of our core values, we are committed to small groups, Sunday worship gatherings, and regular corporate service projects (and fun events!). See you soon, and don't forget to tell someone about The Ridge so they can hear about Jesus and get to know us!

Easter

I couldn't have imagined a more enjoyable Easter Sunday than Easter 2009!

God truly has been good to us! Although we lost our awesome free meeting location last Sunday, God gave us a beautiful day on Easter for us to enjoy our worship gathering and picnic in Fountain City Park. Of course, He gave that day to everyone in our area, but maybe we appreciated it more than most of Knoxville did!

This was our first worship gathering outside. More importantly, it was our first worship gathering where we shared the Lord's Supper or Communion together. After the teaching on Jesus' identity as fully man, Jesus' crucifixion--taking the punishment we deserved for our sins, and Jesus' proof that He is fully God through His resurrection, sharing the Lord's Supper as a community of believers in Christ was extra meaningful for me. I hope it was for you, too. We will observe Communion regularly as a church, so look forward to it!

As I mentioned Sunday several times, Jesus has done all the "heavy lifting" (as well as the "light lifting" and "any lifting at all") to secure our forgiveness from God for our sins. We cannot earn our forgiveness from God no matter how badly we may like to try. We can, however, respond to God's calling in our lives and trust Him with our entire selves in faith. This all can happen because of God's gift of grace in Christ's death on the cross. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper together, we celebrate God's love for us, and Jesus Christ's obedience to die on that cross. We also look forward from the cross to the resurrection of Christ three days later on that first Easter. The Lord's Supper is so much to celebrate in such a simple act... It's a big deal and it's awesome to participate in it with you.

I pray that every Ridge Church Easter gathering is as glorifying to God as this one was. And, I pray that you are here to enjoy it with us!

As I mentioned Sunday, we have moved meeting locations... This Sunday, we will be meeting at Panache Hair and Body at 3501 Tazewell Pike in Fountain City. We're still meeting at 10 am (we'll keep as many things "regular" as we can!) until 11:15 or so. Ken and Christy Garrison have been very generous in allowing us to use their facility on Sundays, although they are already there six days a week!

If you read my last post, you know that having a building to meet in isn't everything and doesn't make a church. However, it does make things easier when, for instance, it rains! We'd also of course like to have more room as God blesses us and more people join into community with us. We want every friend and family member and neighbor who is invited to come to The Ridge to hear about Jesus to have that opportunity.

Rest assured we are keeping our eyes peeled for available, affordable meeting locations near I-640 and the general Fountain City area. Consider this an open invitation to participate in the search! Feel free to email me any ideas you have. No stone will be left unturned... Either way, we trust God will send us to our next location in His perfect timing!

One more thing you don't want to let get past you... Our April fellowship time! This Saturday, at Cris Patterson's house, we are having a cookout! This event is open to anyone who is interested in coming... Ridge folks and their friends and family and anyone else who is interested! This is another great time to bring someone who isn't too sure about Jesus or His people so that they can get to meet us and find out we're "normal" and really do care.

We're hanging out from 5 to 10 pm at Cris' house at 1718 Woodhaven Drive. If you want to eat, bring your own meat (and buns)! It's a really casual evening, so come and leave when you need to. Thanks a ton to Cris for hosting this evening. Hope to see you there!

Hello on Good Friday...

Well, today was Good Friday, the ironically-named day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem at the end of His earthly ministry. The day is named "Good" because although Christ's death was absolutely horrible, it is unbelievably good for us that He chose it. Because Jesus took the punishment for our evil and sinfulness that we deserved and surrendered Himself to die on the cross, the way for us to be forgiven by God through faith in Christ was created. The Gospel, the Good News of Christ, is right there before us in the story of Jesus' act of obedience.

So, Good Friday indeed is a memorial to the greatest, best Good ever to happen in time. Our sinfulness met its required perfect substitute and sacrifice in God's Son Jesus. Thank God for His perfect plan to fix our relationship with Him, His perfect Son, and His perfect sacrifice of Himself for us... Even us.

Sunday at the Ridge, we will honor Jesus for His gift of life that was made possible by His gift of death on the cross. There will be some quiet time to worship and thank Jesus for His death. Then, we will celebrate His resurrection... Proof that He is Lord over death! There will be some happy, joyful time to worship and praise Jesus for His Lordship and status as God. At the end of our gathering, we will celebrate our first Communion together as believers and as a church. You definitely want to be there!

This Sunday, we will meet at Fountain City Park. We lost the meeting location we have been enjoying for free this last Sunday. Our landlord has been great to us, and even called me this week to check on our arrangements for Sunday. The time just came that he needed to rent out the space to someone else.

So, we don't have a whole lot of leads on new, fancy meeting locations. We do have a place to meet next week, so no worries there. (We'll let you know that on Sunday, so come to our Easter gathering!) But, it's OK that we don't have a new fancy meeting location!

So many churches are so hung up on their building/facility/fortress/comfort zone/idol. Unfortunately, many Christians are so dependent on their church buildings that they can't imagine "doing church" outside them, rarely seem to have any gatherings or fellowships that aren't at them, and even are confused about "the church" being a building.

This is unfortunate and so sad! I can go on, as this is one of my pet peeves... But just let it suffice for me to say two things:

1) Jesus (our Great Shepherd) didn't have a building. Luke 9:58 (ESV) says: "And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.'” Jesus wasn't a building manager. He was a guy who went all over talking about His Kingdom to people (who act just like sheep!). He preached in houses, on a boat to people on shore, and on hillsides. He loved His Father's creation and hung out in it with others. That's pretty cool to me.

2) The early church had no buildings. Folks met in the homes of those who would open them in hospitality. Believe it or not, Christianity had very few dedicated buildings until Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity a legal religion in 313. In fact, worshiping openly would in many cases result in arrest and did result in death for many believers. Many Christians even today meet in homes for fear of their government (China, North Korea, Iran) or due to financial constraints (Brazil, etc.). Meeting in a home or other location makes sense for alot of reasons!

So, we'll keep our eyes open for a new place to meet... And we'll keep you updated on our progress! But, we're not too worried about it because having a building has absolutely nothing to do with spiritual authenticity. It just makes things easier, in exchange for costing some of the money God provides to His people. God will provide a new location when He's ready, and his church (His people) will keep on being the church at The Ridge. We'll keep on worshiping Jesus and focusing on our Core Values. No matter where we end up, we're Ridge Church!

Trey and Kitten, Evansville, and Discovery Church

Last weekend, Emily and I drove to Evansville, Indiana to visit our friends Trey and Kitten McClain and their church plant, Discovery Church. Discovery has committed to supporting The Ridge financially each month with 5% of their offerings. They also financially support a church literally "on the Strip" in Las Vegas called Verve.

Pretty cool! Both Ridge Church and Discovery Church are committed to planting churches. The first church plant we are supporting at The Ridge is Journey Church of the Highlands in Boone, NC. You can learn more about Journey in an earlier blog post. We will be supporting more churches as time goes on because New Churches is one of our core values!

Trey had Emily and me come up front at their gathering and share a bit about what God is doing here in Knoxville through The Ridge and the awesome folks who call Ridge Church home. It was good to be there and be encouraged, and it was also good for the Discovery folks to meet firsthand the real live church planter types that they are supporting with their prayers and God's money. We did a little Q&A from the stage, and then their church prayed for Emily, Chloe, me and all of the Ridge Church folks. So, know that there are people in Indiana behind us!

Here's a pic of all of us (including Trey and Kitten's kids Alyssa and Morgan) together at Marx Barbecue on the West Side of Evansville this Sunday after Discovery's worship gathering. There's also a purely gratuitous one of Chloe asleep in the car when we stopped for gas:


Discovery has been great to us! We thank God for their support and the support of other churches like them, including many Acts29 East Coast churches.

God is up to big things in Knoxville, but that's not the only place! There is a new generation of churches that are serious about living life transformed by God and His love and truly loving their communities... It's pretty exciting... It's great to be part of something bigger than ourselves!

Recap from Last Sunday!

Last Sunday (or "this past Sunday"...) we had another great Ridge Church worship gathering. God has blessed us in so many ways! We have been having a great time getting to know each other as a group of believers and people exploring Jesus over the past 6 months as The Ridge moves toward having weekly Sunday morning gatherings.

Being a church isn't just about having formatted services on every Sunday morning. We believe that the local church should be a healthy community of God-followers and a welcoming, Christ-glorifying place to include and involve others.

God has been great to us recently! This Sunday, our worship team used our "new" sound system for the first time; we bought it for a great price from a guy in Bean Station (incidentally one of Tennessee's earliest settled places) who had used it in a church singing group. Gotta love Craigslist! Our worship team enjoyed having a good system to use as they led us on Sunday.

Another local church, Knox Life Church, has blessed us with some other equipment needs! Knox Life is a church that reaches out to the folks who live and work downtown in our fair city. They used to meet in the Regal Riviera Theater in the heart of downtown on Gay Street but have moved to the Old City and started a coffee shop called Remedy. Knox Life gave us the use of their multimedia projector. What a great gesture of sharing with another church! Our style of ministry is different than Knox Life's, but that's OK! We're all on the same team.

We haven't used the Knox Life projector yet, but it will make its debut soon one Sunday at Marli's. We also are the happy recipients of some of those cool squishy puzzle-piece floor things in our children's ministry area for our kids to sit on during our gatherings. Those were also a gift from Knox Life! Thanks so much!

So, God has been really providing for our fellowship's needs. Our goal has always been to honor God with good stewardship of the Ridge Church finances. Instead of spending a ton of God's money on new and fancy stuff, we can direct more of God's funds to church planting, missions, and helping those who need it in our town. It's also a great picture of the Kingdom when one church can help build up another by sharing gently used things that they no longer need. After all, it's all God's stuff, and we share a common mission--spreading the Good News of Jesus!

Emily and I are headed to visit our friends Trey and Kitten (and thier kids!) and Discovery Church in Evansville, Indiana this week. Discovery is one of the churches that has been financially supporting The Ridge. We are excited about seeing them, and also hope that one day they will be able to come to Knox Vegas to meet you all!

Prayers for safety are appreciated...

By the way, if you're interested in being part of the Children's Ministry Volunteer Interest Meeting at Marli's this Tuesday evening, email Emily and make plans to join in. She'd love to hear from you!

Enjoy these pics from last Sunday!

Thanks to some special people!

This Sunday our Ridge Church gathering was a blast! I have to admit I was a little nervous about how things would go. We had several new things going on, and they were all important things that we were praying would go well. And they did! Our children's ministry's first week, our first musical and financial worship time (we had an offering) and our first interview with the first local missionary that we are supporting went great! It was a great week in general.

I want to thank a few people who helped make Sunday what it was. Obviously, we want to thank God for heading up this whole enterprise! It's also important that we thank the people who serve well at our church. Not because we want to puff anyone up with pride, but because we want to encourage those who humbly serve to continue to do so, and also encourage those who aren't serving to do so for God's glory.

There are a ton of Bible verses about serving others and the proper healthy interdependence of the people who are the church. 1 Peter 4:10-11 says, "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

Just because I'm the "Lead Pastor" doesn't mean I'm any more important or valuable to The Ridge than any other person who calls our young church body home. We are all valuable in God's plan for the local church, we all need each other, and we all benefit from serving each other in our areas of gifting and expertise.

That said, I want to thank a few folks who served humbly and well as a way to honor God this week. First, my wife Emily, who is a great administrator and does a ton of stuff I stink at! She also sang as part of our worship time. Thanks to Tom Kerley, who led worship on his guitar and brought some of his own sound equipment, and Pat Norris who stepped up to the plate on Sunday morning and rocked the congas.

Thanks also go to Becca Thiele, who is a college freshman at Johnson Bible College and serves as our Children's Ministry Intern. She is serving because she comes from a church plant in Charlotte, she loves kids, and she is excited about gaining ministry experience. We are blessed to have her with us for this semester. Other children's ministry thanks goes to Sue Irving, Emily's mom, who is committed to doing what it takes to serve in our children's ministry and make it a safe place for kids to learn about God and be loved by caring adults. Karen Norris also assisted in the kids' area, and we thank her for her willingness to jump in and help with no notice!

Finally, we should thank Cris Patterson, who is part of the management team at Marli's, where we meet. She's part of our happy crew, and also is the one who locks up after us and arranged for us to meet at her place of employ. Leo Cooper, Jr., the owner of Marli's, is also a great guy, and he has given the OK for us to meet at his restaurant on Sundays out of the kindness of his heart.

There are other people who should be thanked, like Ken Garrison for being part of our offering counting team. Many of you also helped to clean up Marli's after we concluded our gathering. I don't even know who all of you were, but you know who you are. Thank you!

I'm sure I've missed someone, but I want to make an important point here. Our church is all about the Gospel and Jesus Christ. You're going to hear me say that so much it will seem to get old. That's fine by me. The Old Testament looks forward to Christ's coming to earth and crucifixion for our sins, and the New Testament explains His activities and looks forward to His return. The whole Bible is God's Word to us, and the most important message of all is how to be reconciled to God. And that can only happen through a relationship with Christ.

Our church is all about Christ, but the ministries of our church happen because of the humble hearts and devoted service of those whose lives are oriented around Jesus and work as part of our local church body, our team. It is a truly a team ministry!

For that reason, you will often read blog posts where I thank and encourage those who serve in our midst, those who serve those outside our midst, and those who make huge steps of faith and honor God in outstanding ways. Those folks are an inspiration to us all. The great thing is that many of you are those people! My prayer is that all of the folks that call The Ridge home will find their way onto the blog, because we are all seeking to honor God with our entire being.

Until next time...

Thankfulness Train Keeps Rollin'...

Well, while we're talking about Thankfulness here at the start of the New Year, it's only appropriate that we publicly thank all the folks who have supported the Layne family prayerfully and financially for the past six months while we have been planting Ridge Church.

There are many folks who have donated their hard-earned funds to provide a way for Emily and me to pay the bills as we have been meeting folks and gathering people into The Ridge. We can't thank them enough! Although I have a part-time job at the HoneyBaked Ham Store near Knoxville Center, and I work with some really great people, that job isn't designed to supply the pay, hours, or benefits to provide for a family.

Our church is associated with the Acts29 Network, a group of churches that plant churches and agree on a common theology. A29 churches connect for prayer, advice, support and encouragement. However, The Ridge is not connected with a specific denomination. We are "nondenominational" or independent.

There are certain benefits from being nondenominational, like not having an outside entity tell you how to do everything or being forced to give your money to a certain fund. But, being nondenominational also means Emily and I don't get a "paycheck" like most people think of it.

All the funds that Emily and I get from Ridge Church while our church is young and small are funds that have been donated to The Ridge for our support. The donations come from friends, family, and churches. When we grow larger, Ridge Church will become financially independent... But that takes a little time.

So, for making life possible for us, we thank our supporters! And, we thank God for creating a spirit of generosity in your hearts.

Although I don't think it's appropriate to share the names of all the individuals and families who are supporting us financially, I'd love to share the names of the churches! Some are part of the Acts29 Network, and some aren't. But, all of them are important to us and we thank them very much for committing to us as a couple and to the vision God has for The Ridge!

Christ Community Church - Watkinsville, Georiga
Discovery Church - Evansville, Indiana
Exmore Baptist Church - Exmore, Virginia
Redeemer Community Church - Johnson City, Tennessee
Sojourn Church - Huntsville, Alabama

Thanks again to all our prayer and financial supporters. You rock! By the way, if you're reading this and would like to join the list of our supporters, please do not hesitate to let me know... We can find a way for you to help The Ridge get financially on our feet!

More Thankfulness Action!

Hey! A bunch of you participated in the Ridge Church November service project. We helped Knox Area Rescue Ministries (KARM) distribute hundreds of turkeys and food boxes to the less fortunate in the Knoxville area just before Thanksgiving (right after our little Chlo Chlo was born).

I didn't thank you all for participating in that yet, but I hope you know that you rock! Here's a cool email we got from KARM the other day. Thanks for loving folks in Knoxville in Jesus' name with us! You Ridge Church peeps are pretty cool...

Dear Thanksgiving Basket Volunteer,

2008's Basket Assembly was the fastest ever….and Basket Distribution allowed us to give away more than just food….

A great event was made even greater! Over 200 volunteers served with love and sacrifice by sorting and counting food, decorating all 1300 boxes with willing hands, filling them with meals for 1300 families (fastest year ever!), or being a face of hope at distribution. An extra 100 boxes were given away this year! Whatever your role in this year's event, you were a part of a successful effort to provide the Love of Christ to those in need.

We are thankful for your sincere efforts this season.

Have a great New Year!!

The KARM Volunteer Team

A Season of Thankfulness

I wrote in my last post that our family has just (hopefully!) come out of a very busy season, and we hope for a more restful one for a while. This is also a time for us to look around our lives and be thankful for what God is up to. The Laynes kind of missed that at Thanksgiving time due to all the insanity that has been our lives of late.

So, here's some things we're thankful for lately:

• Jesus coming down here to hang out with us in bodily form, and everything that follows His Incarnation.
  
• A healthy baby Chloe.
  
• A healthy Emily.
• A warm home when it's cold outside.
• The love of friends and family.
• All the Ridge Church folks we've met and reconnected with since June.
• The opportunities to serve our community in two service projects.
• The prayer and financial support Ridge Church has received from families and churches who are behind us, all over the country.
  
• The opportunity to support church planting and missions with the finances shared by Ridge Church folks (more info on that soon).
  
• All the help we've received with shower gifts for Chloe and all the babysitting offers.
• A "new to us" vehicle for Emily to drive when I'm at work that was given to us by a kind and caring Christ-follower here in Knoxville.
  

The list could go on, of course, because even when times are tough, God provides blessings. Life is like that... For all the tough things in this world, it is still God's world, and when He made it He said it was good. Check out Genesis 1 for more info there...

Have a great New Year!

Big Orange... Pumpkins!

Today was a fun day for Ridge Church! We held our first Pumpkin Carving at Fountain City Park today from 2 to 5 pm. A bunch of cool folks came out and brought a bunch of melons and creative attitudes as we shared the afternoon together carving away.

Congratulations to the winners, both kids and adults, in our three carving categories: Most Creative, Most Fun, and Best Craftsmanship!

The prizes for our winners came from 4 cool local sponsors from Fountain City:

• Gift certificates for kids' ice cream cones from Baskin-Robbins at 5228 North Broadway.
• A $15 gift certificate from the Fountain City Creamery at 114 Hotel Road.
  
• A $20 gift certificate from Leo's Cafe at 3029 Tazewell Pike.
• A gift certificate for a free haircut from Christy Garrison at Panache Hair & Body at 3501 Tazewell Pike.

To our sponsors... Thank you very much! You helped us to have a great time!

There's some great pics from our Pumpkin Carving below for you to check out. We did have a couple of carved hands, so here's best wishes for those that left with band-aids to heal up fast.

If only the other Big Orange could have had a good day... But, there's always next Saturday!

A Great Night Together with Ridge Church

Hey, everybody! Emily and I had a great time with you tonight at our second Ridge Church gathering! It was great to see all of you folks that we've been talking to about The Ridge. We're so glad we were able to get together, share our hearts and get to know each other better. It was good to talk about our vision for Ridge Church, our values, and what those values will look like "lived out."

Toward the end of our meeting, we talked about our timeline for The Ridge for the next couple of months and how you can be involved in helping us launch our Sunday worship gatherings in the new year. That said, if you have any musical ability, like playing an instrument or singing, and you'd like to learn more about using that ability as part of the Ridge Church worship team, contact Emily. If you'd like to learn more about working with children and being part of our children's ministry team, contact Emily. You guessed it, Emily is the admin part of this couple... You can call her as well, just dial 704.579.2022. (Only 2 months before we are out of our North Carolina cell contract!)

For those of you who weren't able to make it, we missed you! I've posted our Ridge Church Vision and Values on our website for you; check out and download the PDF document here.

Our next Ridge Church gathering is scheduled for Sunday, November 9, from 5:30 to 7 pm at Panache hair salon at 3501 Tazewell Pike in Fountain City. It's a great location, and we're thankful to Christy Garrison yet again for sharing it! One of the things we'll be doing at the November and December gatherings is discussing the second chapter of the book of Acts. This chapter is the description of the first Christian church in Jerusalem in the early days after Christ returned to Heaven... It's a great passage to talk about when your new church is in the same situation!

The gathering schedule is November 9, November 16, December 7, and December 14 (all Sunday evenings). More info on our Sunday, November 23 service project will be posted soon, but you can mark the date.

We're excited about our next Ridge Church Event this week! We're having a Pumpkin Carving at Fountain City Park this Saturday, October 25th, from 2 to 5 pm. It's gonna be a great time for all ages... Who doesn't like using a knife on a defenseless late-season fruit of the vine?!

BYOP (Bring Your Own Pumpkin), and have a great time carving up that big gourd with us. We'll have prizes for Most Creative, Best Craftsmanship, and Funniest categories. Kids can win, too! Our prizes are gift certificates from local businesses in the Fountain City area.

Note: This is an excellent event to bring your friends to who may be interested in The Ridge! It's a comfortable place to be (outside in the Fall) and a fun thing to do (chop up produce) with cool people (all you Ridgers!). So, bring a buddy or a neighbor family and make sure to introduce me to them so I can make new friends!

If you're on Facebook, join our group, and also check out the Pumpkin Carving event page. If you're not on Facebook, make sure we have your email address so we can keep you updated with Ridge Church happenings... Then think about Facebook... It's fun and safe!

See you Saturday!