In a previous post on church planting, I shared some of the reasons we struggled to see a healthy biblical community come to fruition.  In light of these (if not because of them), I want to share what is next for us on the horizon as far as ministry goes.

First, Sherry (my wife) and I have a renewed sense of both passion and vision for being the church in the place and among the people God has sovereignly placed us.  We know that there is no such thing as a “perfect” church this side of perfection, but we are committed to being part of biblical church, which we believe to not only be possible, but normative, for healthy Christians.  While this passion and vision are not unique to us,  we do desire to make them particular in our time and place through establishing a network of simple churches (gospel communities) based in Metro Detroit and as part of our command to go into all the nations.

Second, we are developing strategic biblical partnerships with a couple of local churches that are sincere in their desire to support our call to church planting. There is an apostolic pattern of being both assessed and commissioned to the work of the ministry in relational ways that best serve both the senders and the sent.  I will be doing an internship at Calvary Baptist Church, in Waterford, MI and also spending additional time connecting with and serving alongside the people of Mack Ave Community Church on the east side of Detroit.  These relationships will also afford us time to prayerfully renew our strategy for the establishing multiplication of simple churches, which includes the invitation for others to move into our neighborhood and join us on misison as a band of brothers and sisters.

Finally, we plan on continuing to build relationships with others in our community, identify and help meet needs through the gospel, solidify our essentials in ministry and deepen our commitment to the gospel as a family.  In other words, my family and I will live ordinary life with gospel intentionality as a means of tilling the ground for planting church/disciple making right here where we are.  We haven’t seen the last of our mistakes or lessons but we also haven’t seen all that God will do. 2009 should prove to be interesting indeed.