The Well has Launched!!

Psalm 150

1 Praise the LORD.

Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him in his mighty heavens.

2 Praise him for his acts of power;

praise him for his surpassing greatness.

3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,

praise him with the harp and lyre,

4 praise him with tambourine and dancing,

praise him with the strings and flute,

5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,

praise him with resounding cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD.

We invite you to join us in praising God for the successful launch of The Well on Sunday September 27th!!

God is so good, and we can't wait to see what He is going to do next.

Keep praying!!

Here is a brief summary from Doug and Karen:

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for your prayers! We had a really rough week. Our website was hacked and various other things happened. We had a wonderful day yesterday. 2 more new families checked us out. We have 2 other families that are getting involved in helping with things at The Well. Is it happening fast, no. It is going to take time but we are encouraged by the new people we are meeting in the community and those that have come for service. From what we've been hearing people weren't sure whether we were a fly by night type thing since we weren't meeting every week. Hopefully now they will see that we are a little more permanent since we've begun weekly service. Yesterday was just the beginning. We are looking forward to what God has in store. Thanks for your prayers!

Karen and Doug

Bridge PreView

On Sunday, September 12, The Bridge hosted our first monthly celebration--the first of five scheduled preview services--in the Penn Hills Public Library.  Because of God's faithfulness (and your prayers!), we are excited to report that we had 51 present!  We could clearly see evidence of God fulfilling the dream he has given us for a relevant, engaging, multi-ethnic, multicultural local church in the Pittsburgh area.

As you think of us, please pray for upcoming celebrations: October 10, November 14, December 12, and January 16th as we prepare for our scheduled 'Launch Sunday' on January 30, 2011.  We know the Holy Spirit is bringing greater things to Pittsburgh and are excited about what He us already doing!

Thank you, again, for being part of this journey.
From all of us at The Bridge.

The Bridge Family Fun Day!!

The Well Update

Upcoming events and updates:

We had our second preview service on August 22nd. 28 were in attendance. Over half were from the community.

Sept. 1^st - pray walk with launch team

Sept. 7^th - Oct. 26^th - we will be hosting a Bible study and light supper for the community.

Sept. 26^th - projected launch date

Oct. 3^rd - Back to Church Sunday

Oct. 6, 12^th, 20^th, 27^th - leaf raking and yard work in the community

We also have one of our launch team members that is looking to begin a women’s Bible study the 1^st of October.

Doug and I begin coaching another U-8 soccer team tonight. We will have all new children and parents that we will be connecting with.

Pastor Noel Meyers from Gearhartville Free Methodist Church contacted all the pastors in the area to have a community wide outreach to encourage people to get back to church. We are excited about this. It will be good to partner with the other churches to reach lost people.

This has also opened up an opportunity for us to advertise on Qwik Rock radio station. It is a secular station. We will be doing an interview along with 10 spot ads.

Karen

The Bridge Family Fun Day

The Bridge Family Fun Day was a huge success!!

Check out more about the event here.

The Well

Hi Everyone!

Today we will be walking the neighborhoods with bottles of cold water and pop to once again invite people to the preview service.

Sept. 1st we will be walking the neighborhoods again to give out water and pop and continue to make contact with people in the community. Sept. 15th we will be hitting the local laundromats to give quarters out and talk with people.

Doug and I will also be coaching another soccer team this fall. We have a soccer meeting on Tuesday. Pray for the parents/children and the people of the association that we would be able to be Christ to.

Thanks for your support. This is vital to the ministry that God has for us. We are in this together. We so much appreciate you all!

Love,

Karen and Doug

New District Website

Check out the new WPA District website by clicking here.

July 18th Preview service @ The Well

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are able to stay cool. It sure is hot out there. :-) We are sponsoring a concert with the band "A Day Awaits" on Friday July 16th at 6:00 p.m. Pray that God will bring people out to hear the message that the band will be sharing.

Our first preview service is July 18th at 11:00 a.m. We are working hard to get everything together so that the service will be a good representation of The Well but most importantly that we will represent our Lord and Savior well.

Pray that God would raise up people to help us with junior church and nursery. We don't want our team to get burned out. We are also trying to plan our next preview service. With our team involved in mission trips to Haiti, York Mission and The Bridge we are scrambling for a date in August. If any of you would be willing to help us we would greatly appreciate it. We need help in a lot of areas - even if you would volunteer for 1 Sunday it would help. We are looking at August 22nd or the 29th for our next preview service. We are hoping to begin weekly services the end of Sept. Pray that God would raise up workers in the community to help us.

Thanks for your continued prayer. We can't thank you enough for your faithfulness.

Love, Karen and Doug

Live The Adventure

Church planting really is an incredible adventure, and there are a variety of ways you can join in this hard but exciting work:

...by praying

• for the multiplication of believers, leaders & churches;

• for current plants, planters, and mother churches;

• for God to raise up new planters and mother churches...

...by affirming publicly the need, value, and mission of church planting...

...by raising corporate awareness by promoting current church plants and planters...

...by providing various resources to current and future church plants...

...by giving/using permission to take part as a church planter, launch team member or other participant.

How will you take part in the adventure?

Gomez Journey/PrayerNote

The cat is out of the bag.

While I’m not sure just where that expression came from (or why we take it to mean a secret is not-so-secret anymore), we have some news to share.

At our District Conference last monday, our District Superintendent shared The Bridge’s plan to daughter a new church in June of next year. Sarah and I will be the lead planters in what we’re affectionately, for now, calling ‘Bridge 2.0’ and are excited about that next move. This is definitely a big step, but it’s part of an even bigger dream of developing an urban church planting and training center from which church planting teams are prepared and sent throughout the region, nation, and globe. It’s an impossible vision that will take the activity of God’s own Spirit to accomplish--and that excites us to no end!

For now, we ask you to pray for us as we identify the people and place where the next church will be. We have some ideas, but we need to be doubly sure we are focused on where God is already moving rather than just choosing something based on selfish desire.

In the meantime, we’re fully engaged with The Bridge and are ramping up to a busy summer ministry season. Please keep the following dates/events in mind as you pray for us and the ministry of The Bridge:

• Sunday, June 27: Sharing at First Wesleyan in Shippensburg, PA
• July 7-July 11: Youth volleyball clinic with the women’s volleyball team from Oklahoma Wesleyan University

Our largest event of the summer will be a free Family Fun Day at a local park on Saturday, August 28th; already churches and groups are signing up to take part in helping us offer a meaningful, engaging and totally free event that allows us to serve our community and get to know our neighbors as well as (hopefully) building momentum for our first preview service in September.

Thank you for taking this journey with us and praying for us.

We’re honored to have you in our corner.

Jeremiah, Sarah, and Jubilee

From the Well

Greetings Everyone!

We had a great block party! Thank you for your prayer coverage. God provided a wonderful sunny day! We didn't have a huge crowd - about 45 people attended. However, we made some good contacts and had about 8 people that expressed real interest in coming to The Well.

We are hosting a picnic on July 27th and asking some of the people we've become friends with to come. Pray that we as a launch team will be able to connect with them even more.

"A Day Awaits" is coming to play at Cold Stream Dam on July 16th at 6:00 p.m. for us. We are hoping to reach the teens and young adults. Pray for good weather and that people will come to hear the band. They are all college students and do a great job. They played for the district lock-in several months ago and the teens from the district really enjoyed them.

We will be having a preview service on July 18th at 11:00 a.m. at 1 North Front St. Cafe Books Events. The coffee shop owner once again was an answer to our prayers. We are able to rent an office space 24/7 with use of a larger room once a week for our Sunday morning service for $550.00 a month. We were excited about this as we won't have to load and unload sound equipment and nursery/junior church supplies every Sunday. We will store them in the office space during the week. Plus we will be able to have small groups in the office space.

We also have some people that may be interested in being in a worship band for us. Pray that God would continue to bring that all together. We are so thankful for our launch team. They have been doing a great job. Pray a hedge of protection around them. As we near launch, Satan is throwing more problems our way. We know that God has the victory we just need to keep our focus on Him and the mission we are on with Him.

Pray for Doug and I as it sometimes feels like you're in the trenches all alone. We know we're not but the work load is enormous and the to do list is big. You find yourself thinking and living the church plant 24 hours a day. We realize that we need to pull back and remember who we are as a couple and as individuals. We've gotten so busy being church planters we've forgotten to be husband and wife. We just won tickets to Creation Festival for next week so that will be a nice getaway for us. We are planning short day trips just to catch our breath too.

We praise Hyde Wesleyan for having a "baby" shower for us. We were showered with many wonderful gifts which will be a great help. Two of the churches in our district are preparing backpacks for us to give away in the fall. We are so thankful for them. We are thankful to all of you who are supporting us in some way -financially, prayerfully or actually physically helping us. Keep praying ! God is moving and working!! Lives are being touched and it's because of your obedience to the part God would have you to play in The Well and it's ministry.

If there is any thing we can pray for you about please let us know. We love and appreciate you all!

Karen and Doug

Seven.

In the June 7th Forbes Magazine, Rich Karlgaard noted some of the shared characteristics those companies which seem to have grown stronger and better despite the Great Recession. His article is good and well worth the read, but I’m taking those ‘seven secrets’ and applying them to how we’re thinking at The Bridge:

Design.
I’m not a designer, I’m not even artistic. But it doesn’t take too much to see bad design--in fact,in the past, I think a lot of our effort was just avoiding bad design. Our design is getting better…thanks to GotPrint, t-shirt producers, and Cloversites, I don’t have to be an incredible designer to have good design. We could be better, and we’re growing, but I’m glad we’re not settling for “free” when an investment in design speaks volumes about us. We’re moving to a place where we’re pursuing beautiful design rather than just running away from bad design. I’m excited about that.

Speed.

In general, things are moving much faster than we thought they would…and this is building serious momentum--we’re planning to launch and daughter faster than we thought could happen. We can’t take credit for this, but it’s happening. We also are focusing on making sure we follow up fast and do what we said we would when we said we would.

Cost.
We’re working hard to show that when someone invests in The Bridge, we’re being wise in how we expend limited resources. ‘Cost’ for us has less to do with what a customer gets from us, but how we manage the results we demonstrate to our investors. In our community, it also means ‘free’ doesn’t suck. We’re trying to do as much as we can at no cost to the people we’re ministering to… but we’re trying to do it as though they paid a premium to be there.

Service.
When it comes to our investor churches, we genuinely believe they are getting something by partnering with us, whether it's people who participate and take a renewed passion back, or a sense of legacy, there are many benefits to being part of what God is doing through The Bridge in Pittsburgh. But when it comes to serving our community, after just a couple of events The Bridge is already ‘the church that gave the free car wash--that’s great!’ We’re finding fun ways to show our community we care, we want to know our neighbors, and that God really loves them.

Communication outside.
Right now, this has to do mostly with face-to-face contact. Rick, especially, has been knocking on doors and being ‘the face’ of The Bridge. This will only go so far, and we’re analyzing where to best put some communications dollars: radio? adsense? street corner with a sandwich board? As we learnour community more and more, we’ll discover the best ways to communicate outside.

Communication inside.
We could do a better job at keeping launch team members on the same page, but we're learning how to make sure communication among senior leadership is open. Thanks to GoogleDocs, Calendar sharing, and Facebook, we’re growing in our communication and how we collaborate; we’re not ‘there’ yet… but I think we’re well on our way.


Purpose.

We’re here to help people connect with Jesus and see them grow in His likeness. More than that, we’re here to keep doing that by planting churches that plant churches to reach those far from God. The Bridge exists to love, learn, and live Jesus Christ in our context at whatever cost. We hope we have the purpose thing down… now it’s a matter of staying on mission when things, good and bad, tempt us to drift.

Why not run down the list yourself and give your church/organization a quick checkup?

District Conference CMTF Video

Here's another look at the CMTF video in case you missed it.

The best is yet to come!

Gomez/Bridge PrayerNote

We want you to know that God is indeed hearing and answering your prayers; here's a bit of what God has done and what he is doing:

CELEBRATIONS FROM LAST WEEK:

On Wednesday, Rick and I were able to attend the Community Development meeting in Penn Hills. It was encouraging to see the crowd gathered looking to serve their community and find ways to make the quality of life for everyone just a little bit better. We were able to get a sense of what the people in the community are worried about (many school closures and what will happen with the vacant property), what they are celebrating (a new community garden), and what needs they see (identifying different needs in different neighborhoods).

On Saturday, 10 members of our launch team connected in conversation with various people through the use of Community Surveys. The insights gained were good, and it seems a number of relational doors were opened.

Also on Saturday, Sarah and I attended the pool party for our apartment complex and were able to meet new friends, gain insight into where we live, and even connect with some community leaders.

EVENTS THIS WEEK:

This Saturday, we’ll be hosting a free car wash for the people of Penn Hills. We’re hoping to serve people and continue building on the relationships God has opened to us. Please pray for open doors for ministry and for us to connect with people far from God.

“BIG NEEDS”:

We are praying that God would allow us to help twenty people who don’t know him cross the line of faith and fall in love with Jesus this summer. Please pray that God directs us to people whose hearts he is already stirring and that we would connect with people in the right way for them to hear/receive the Best News Ever.

Sarah and I are in the process of seeking God’s face to get a sense of where the next church plant will be--the design of The Bridge is as a 'pregnant church plant,' and we know we need to be actively pursuing the vision of multiplication. Please ask God to shower his grace on us, that we would sense clearly where he is already working and that he would birth his vision inside of us.

With a growing family comes changing needs. We are asking God for the provision, in his timing, of a family vehicle that comfortably fit parents, a baby, dogs, and all of the ‘stuff’ that comes with us as we travel.

Please continue to pray for the sale of our house in Carlisle. We know the right buyer at the right time will come our way; in the meantime we are in need of God’s provision and continued patience.

We can't tell you how much we are enjoying this adventure of faith--thanks, again, for taking this journey with us.

Have a great week!

Jeremiah, Sarah, and Baby Jubilee!

(Don't forget to check out The Bridge's website at www.BridgePGH.com!)

5 by 2012

For more information go to www.theydidwewill.org.

Memorial Day and the mission

The following is an e-mail I received from our brother Rick Cox a few days ago that I thought you would enjoy. Rick and Jeremiah Gomez are currently working to establish a church planting movement in Pittsburgh, PA.

In just a few days we'll all be celebrating Memorial Day. For some it has become a time to grill hot dogs and enjoy time with family or friends. Regardless of what we do over the weekend, the thought itself is rather profound. I like the reminder to take a moment to remember. As we have travelled around the the district promoting church planting, I have found the district motto 'They did. We will." has caused many of us to stop and remember. It has been an interesting journey. I have been a part of this district for 15 years, and in all of that time, I didn't realize that the McKeesport church had daughtered the Armbrust church, nor did I realize the Ashland church daughtered the Hyde church. Our latest find came from our visit to the Loganton church. You could tell the church had been well prepared for our visit. They knew why we were visiting and what we were doing. The Q&A time at the end of the service was amazing. One person spoke up and said "when they planted our church they said we need to pray for the meanest guy in the community to get saved. The man that they prayed for was my Grandpa!" A number of his family members are now currently attending the Loganton Church, and they all realize they would not have a church today if somebody hadn't stepped out in faith and said we will!

It is good to remember, but the district motto isn't built on memories alone. It doesn't just say they did! It also says we will. It requires action. Our missions experience taught us that when we stepped out in faith to go, we did not do it alone. Today, nearly 2/3 of our district churches have stepped up to the plate and said if you go, we will go with you. Your prayers, your provision, and your participation are enabling us to be here in Pittsburgh, and we want to say thank you!

Just remember...for a church to have a future, her dreams must be bigger than her memories! We could paraphrase Jesus' comment by stating 'a church cannot live on memories alone!' We've got to have action.

Pray for us as we build The Bridge in Pittsburgh East!

Rick, Eunice, & Trevor

The Missional Church

Here's a great video that reinforces our need to "go" in order to fulfill the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Update from "The Well"

Launch team(Innovators) is currently meeting in Philipsburg at the coffee house once a week. One week we had 4 people from the community join us. We have asked one lady if she would consider being part of the Innovators.

Loss Support Group continues to meet at the coffee shop every Tuesday evening. The lady that is unchurched continues to come and has invited a friend to come too. We have had a few new people join us.

Doug and I are having fun coaching the 6-8 year old soccer team. We have been able to connect with many of the parents and people on the board of the soccer association. Relationships continue to be built.

We have been actively pursuing a rental facility for our launch. We continue to pray. We have not found any thing as of this writing.

Innovators have the opportunity to help with a 5k and 10k race at Black Moshannon State Park Memorial Day weekend. We will wear our Well t-shirts to the event as we work at the event.

The Well will be hosting a block party at Cold Stream Dam(a well known park in Philipsburg) on June 12th from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

It was a bit disappointing as the Heritage Days committee doesn’t seem to be open to us helping with Heritage Days. This was our big event for July. We have opted to wear our t-shirts and go to Heritage days and just support it that way. We are looking for another effective outreach.

Doug and I have met with 3 of the clergy from Philipsburg. We have been invited to come to the ministerium meeting to “fill” them in on what we are doing. One church just obtained a bulk mailing permit and has started to send out bulk mailings. We met with this pastor to reassure him that we weren’t after his church people.

Contacted Penn State Campus Crusade and Disciple Makers Fellowship to see if they would have any one that may be interested in lending us a hand with music or canvassing.

We have also contacted a few churches to see if anyone would be interested in coming to The Well and helping with children’s ministry once in a while.

One of our launch team members is organizing a “baby” shower at Hyde Wesleyan for our nursery.

Exponential Reflections from Rick & Eunice

We want to thank you, the CMTF, and the DBA for making it possible for Eunice and I to attend the Expo Conference in Orlando. It was a tremendous experience. One that we won't forget for a long time. The conference was such a confirmation for us, It helped strengthen the realization that we are on the right track. During our time of transition from missions back into pastoral ministry here in the US, we continued to pray and ask God to help us find where He was working and then allow us to join Him. The conference itself was such an eye opener. We had no idea that there were so many pastors / church leaders who were so strongly committed to church planting. It was very refreshing and encouraging to see how God is moving on the hearts of so many in the area of church planting. A second point of confirmation was the emphasis that was placed on intentionally developing multi-ethnic ministry. This was not just one ministry track of the conference, but it was the thread that wove in and out through out the entire conference. Another confirmation point was church multiplication: planting a pregnant church plant. In one of Ed Stetzer's seminars, he challenged us to model multiplication in our own lives and ministry. "You can't lead what you do not live." He continued by stating that the training of our first converts will set the stage for the type of church our plant will become. The converts will either become passive followers of Christ, or they will become participants in the sharing of the gospel. One of his statistical finds completely blew me away. "The church plant that doesn't plant within its first three years more than likely won't plant at all."

Again, thank you for making it possible for us to attend Exponential Conference. Our resolve has been strengthened so much. With God's grace and favor, we will do our best to plant a pregnant, multi-ethnic, Wesleyan church.

Building THE BRIDGE in east Pittsburgh,

Rick & Eunice

More Takeaways From Exponential

The following are some of the takeaways Jeremiah Gomez has graciously allowed me to share with you:

Thanks again for the opportunity to go to Exponential last month; there were a number of takeaways on quite a few levels:

The Bridge--Both Rick and I felt that the time at the conference affirmed/confirmed the steps taken thus far: our passion for having a multiethnic makeup which is consistent with the community the church is in; positioning The Bridge right now to daughter (and continue multiplying--Ed Stetzer shared a statistic that a church is most likely to daughter within three years of its launch and outside of the three-year mark, a local church is much more likely to never daughter); our selection of communities in which to live (we met other planters from Pittsburgh who see both Penn Hills and where Sarah & I are living now as prime planting locations); even our model of staffing and budgetary focus. It was an incredibly meaningful, encouraging thing for us to walk away thinking, 'we are on the right page!' Another area we saw strong confirmation in was the drive to make The Bridge and following plant a multiplication center equipping and sending other church planting missionaries.

Personally--I was challenged and engaged, and the Holy Spirit took the opportunity to do some work on my heart. Part of this involved continued healing from past experiences and a fresh-and-new challenge to trust God with everything, including my future in ministry; the challenge for me was to move to a place of greater submission and basically say, "if me doing this thing right now costs me my dreams/whatever future I think I should have, I'm okay with that because I'm following Jesus." I know it sounds cheesy, but it was profoundly meaningful for me. More than this was the confirmation that, at least for now, I am right where I need to be doing precisely what I need to be doing.

Relationally--It was a great thing for Rick, Eunice, Trevor, Stevan, and me to spend so much time together; it really helped fuse The Bridge team. We connected, also, with a couple of church planters from the Pittsburgh region; these, I believe, will prove themselves to be meaningful network connections with the potential for friendships among people who 'get' what we're doing.

Tactically--The very nature of Exponential is that it is not a methods-based conference (I talked with some who were frustrated at this), but a principles-in-action kind of gathering. I appreciated the lack of 'try this program' or 'use this structure' mentality and felt we walked away with tools to help understand and engage our communities so we could develop tailor-made ministries which would have the greatest Kingdom impact. One tool I appreciated and am already trying to employ is a four-stage approach for engaging people who are being stirred by God's Spirit and teaching them to lead others to Christ even as they are being led and allowing the Holy Spirit to drive discipleship and church formation; it's a tool that, once I'm comfortable with it, will multiply well without being 'canned.'

Despite the busyness and sometimes overwhelming nature of the information/tools coming at us, we came home feeling refreshed, energized, and ready push hard into God's design for where we serve. This was an enormously valuable training/learning opportunity and I genuinely believe a worthy investment.

Exponential Conference Takeaways

Here are a few thoughts from Karen Rhone about her experience at the Exponential Conference:

I don't know where to begin. There was so much information to process. It was good. Chris Hodges shared about 5 kings that you face when you plant -demonic, rejection, loneliness, temptation and discouragement. He talked about ways to combat these. It was good to hear his genuine, open story of the struggles that he had encountered while planting. Francis Chan's ending speech also stuck out. It was a reminder to not be so concerned about building a church but in ministering and loving the community. My pre-conference had a lot of good content from how to say "no" to people that want to start all kinds of programs - stick to the vision - be "mean" about the vision. We took lots of notes! Thank you again for sending us! We learned a lot.

Stay tuned for more conference takeaways from the WPA Team members.

Update from "The Well"

The Innovators were commissioned by Pastor Bob Croft as the Hyde Wesleyan Church celebrated planting The Well in Philipsburg. The Well has been doing activities in the Philipsburg area since January, and are currently hosting a Loss Support Group that meets on Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m., and a Bible Study that meets Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.. Both meetings are at 1 North Front Street Cafe-Books-Events.

For more information please contact us.

Update from "The Bridge"

Sunday we had our first meeting with individuals interested in being involved with The Bridge. Twenty-three people gathered at our house for a time of worship, followed by a potluck, and then we spent the afternoon casting vision and planning for summer ministry. A young couple who lives a mile from us heard through one of the couples coming that we were planning a worship service and asked if they could come. Of course they can come! During our worship time we shared our journey of how God led us into church planting. Then different ones shared their journey of how God has led them to get involved with The Bridge. During the time of sharing both the man and woman opened up and shared how they have gotten away from their faith and knew they needed to get back to God. The woman wept as she shared. This is why we're here. We thought we were having some worship with our planning meeting but God had other things in mind. Great things are happening in this couples heart. Will you please help us pray for them. Also help us pray that God will lead us to others who are hungry for God. We believe that God is on the move and we are following.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

The Bridge

Rick, Eunice, & Trevor

WPA Leaders at Exponential

Here's a photo of all the Western PA leaders at the 2010 Exponential Conference.

We will seek to post lessons learned and takeaways here over the next week or so.

It is rumored that there were as many people from WPA at the conference this year as were represented by the denomination a couple years ago.

Very cool and exciting.

They did. We will.

Exponential Conference

This coming week 8 members of the WPA District M3 will travel to Orlando, FL to participate in the 2010 Exponential Conference next week.

Exponential is the largest gathering of Church Planter on the planet, and will be an incredible opportunity for each of out brothers and sisters to interact and learn from some of the most effective missional leaders today.

The team consists of the following people:

Rick & Eunice Cox

Jeremiah Gomez

Doug & Karen Rhone

Stevan Sheets

Tim & Beth Stradling

Please pray that God will use this time to equip them for greater effectiveness and impact in the Missional Multiplication Movement in Western PA.

They did. We will!

A Missional Leader’s Easter

You are a missional leader.

What you do is critically important.

You are engaged in the most important endeavor in the universe. You have joined with God and are calling on His power to multiply disciples, leaders and churches.

Your mission is not to build a better widget. Your calling is not to fatten an investor’s wallet. You are giving yourself to a venture that has eternal ramifications; nothing could be more worthy of your time and efforts.

This is Easter week. The week when every Christian stops and ponders the amazing love of God for human beings caught in the trap of sin with no hope of ever getting out by their own power.

The events of this week as recorded in the Gospels are as varied as they come.

- We see crowds of people celebrating the entrance of Jesus into the area of Jerusalem. Laying down their coats (and this was way before the days of dry cleaners) to honor Jesus’ arrival; shouting “Blessed is He Who is coming into our midst!”

- We see Jesus’ missional heart, weeping over Jerusalem; longing for the people of that important and populated city to turn towards God.

- We see Jesus’ fervor for spiritual authenticity as He throws the money changers out of the Temple area.

- We see the Creator God who is willing to get down on His knees and wash the feet of His disciples (perhaps it would be meaningful for you today to realize that He loves you enough to wash your feet).

- We see the ultimate display of patience with humanity as Jesus warns and yet commits His love to Peter, a disciple-leader, who is going to deny Him.

- We see obedience taken to a whole new level as Jesus humbles Himself to the Father’s will, even though it will cost Him his life.

- We see the supreme act of love and sacrifice as the Lord of All becomes the sacrifice for all sin through His agonizing, substitutionary death on the cross.

- We see compassion in the midst of stress as Jesus ensures the future care of His mother while He is experiencing the horrific pain of crucifixion.

- We see His preoccupation with a missional-mindset as He promises paradise to a criminal hanging on a cross next to Him.

- We see, most glorious of all, His supreme power and authority over sin and death as He comes bursting out of the tomb and back into the lives of His followers.

Obviously these are just a few of the many events laid out for us in scripture. This is NOT just another week for missional leaders. This is THE week. This is the week that provides the passion and the motivation for all that we do.

Missional leaders take many cues from Jesus’ life during “passion week” to apply to their own:

- They are motivated to pray over a city or territory…to see it through the eyes of Jesus and to earnestly pray that the Father’s will may come about in that place.

- They are motivated to put a towel over their arm and serve others, caring more about a missional movement than their own advancement.

- They are motivated to pray, realizing that the Father’s will for specific missional activity is often revealed only through times spent in earnest prayer.

- They are motivated to speak into situations of missional disease, dysfunction or ineffectiveness with boldness, realizing that often the most God-honoring activity is to speak the truth in love.

- They are motivated to remain humble; not lashing out against those who do not share their missional mindset, but instead trusting God to work through them to bring about His plans for human transformation and His ultimately glory.

But ultimately, this week provides missional leaders with the greatest of all motivations to do what they do…a passionate love that stems from the realization that the God of the universe with walk through anything, endure anything, and stop at nothing to be in relationship with us.

A missional leader’s work is not forced, nor is it done out of drudgery. A missional leader’s work is done out of passionate love for a Missional God who went to the cross for their sin; has freed them from the trap of condemnation, and has now given them the opportunity to be His ambassador to others who find themselves still bound.

Missional leader, may this week be all the Father intends is to be in your life and may it provide red-hot, high-octane fuel for your missional efforts.

:: By Chris Conrad :: Dir. of Church Planter Development :: The Wesleyan Church

[Taken from The Expanding Wave e-mail newsletter dated 03/31/10]

Prevailing Church Seminar

Thanks to each of the 32 church leaders who helped make the Prevailing Church Seminar with Chris Conrad yesterday a great success!

It was an excellent time of fellowship and learning as we unpacked the reality that every church can "win"!

Special thanks to Chris Conrad, who provided invaluable insights, information and instruction. We are grateful for his exceptional leadership and investment in the WPA District and the M3.

Chris Conrad teaching during one session.

From Left to Right: Jeremiah Gomez, Ken DePeal and Chris Conrad.

The Bridge Prayer Walk

The Bridge

Pittsburgh Church Plant

PRAISE REPORT

Today was a perfect day for our Prayer Walk-a-thon. We had 42 people from across Western PA, representing 6 churches from our district, come and join us to pray for the city of Pittsburgh. It was an awesome day of praying and sharing. From the reports we have received today we've raised $5000 for our summer ministries. Our goal is $7,500. Pray with us that we will still reach our goal.

Thanks to Bob Croft, you can check out some photos from the Prayer Walk at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=155921&id=731039157&l=de87574a52

Beat the Blues

Update from The Well:

Hi Everyone!

Tomorrow ( Sunday) is the big day - Beat the Blues. Please pray that God's Holy Spirit would fill the coffee house. Pray for each person helping us. Pray for God's will. Pray that people's hearts will be touched. May He be glorified!!

Thanks for your prayer support!

Doug and Karen

--------------------

More information on Beat the Blues:

We are hosting, "Beat the Blues" this coming Sunday March 7th at a local coffee shop. This past Sat. we were able to distribute door to door 800 fliers to invite people to come to Beat the Blues. Hyde came out to help us in this adventure. Beat the Blues will have local musicians playing, State Police doing finger print kits, craft for the kids, 2 puppet shows, a couple of people doing caricatures, Haiti display and tattoos for the kids along with balloons and a table to promote The Well and what it is about. We will also be giving a way some gift certificates to the local restaurants and the Weis Market.

Who is next?

Is God calling you to plant a church?

Do you know a potential Church Planter?

The WPA District and the CMTF is aggressively pursuing our next planters. We currently have three couples and two church plants in process. That is awesome, and we praise God for what he is already doing! It is very cool.

However, we are still looking toward the future. We are creating a movement; and I want to ask you to prayerfully consider if you or someone within your sphere of influence is a potential WPA Church Planter.

Here are some things to look for in a potential Church Planter:

1. Are they entrepreneurial in nature? Do they have a track record of starting things from scratch?

2. Are they evangelistic in nature? Do they have a track record of leading people to Christ?

3. Are they energetic? Do they have a track record of long, hard pushing in one direction?

4. Are they good at delegating? Can they pass off ministry to others effectively?

5. Are they passionately in love with Jesus? This makes ALL the difference.

If you know of someone who fits that description, I would love to know that; and I would encourage you to ask them to go to www.Uought2.org and take the initial assessment that is available online there.

We are on the verge of a great movement of God, and it is time to get to it.

Keep pressing on.

Shawn Cossin

Church Multiplication Task Force

www.theydidwewill.org

724-376-2233

Pray for Pittsburgh!

We believe God's Spirit is on the move and that we will see Him do incredible things through The Well and The Bridge. We also know that one of the most important things we can do for our communities is to pray--aligning our hearts & passion with those of God and seeking Him to do what only He can do.

That's why on Saturday, March 20th, The Bridge will be hosting a prayer walk for the city of Pittsburgh...and you're invited to join us! This is a great way to seek God's face for what he desires to do in the city and through The Bridge, as well as to help us fund our summer ministries. For more information, contact Rick (RickAndEunice[at]gmail[dot]com) or Jeremiah (Jermiah[at]jxgomez[dot]com). The festivities begin at 10:00AM at a central location (to be determined shortly) with lunch to follow at the Cox residence.

Check out the image files of our brochure (below) to learn a little more about what the prayer walk is all about.

Can't make it on the 20th? Maybe you can consider hosting a Pittsburgh prayer walk right in your own community.

We believe great things are coming to Pittsburgh, and we're thrilled to be your missionaries here!

Rick, Eunice, & Trevor Cox and Jeremiah & Sarah Gomez

Update from "The Bridge"

Dear Pastors,

We are excited to share with you the name of the new Wesleyan Church in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is known as the city of bridges. There are a total of 446 bridges in the city, it holds the world record for the most bridges in one city. There is one bridge that is most important and that's the bridge from God to man through His Son Jesus. We want to point the people of Pittsburgh to the most important bridge they will ever cross; thus, the name "The Bridge."

Our family has moved and are settling in. Already we are seeing how God is opening doors for us. We believe that God is on the move.

God is bringing together a launch team to work with us. We can see God at work in this and we give Him praise.

A big answer to prayer is that we have someone to act as our treasure for the district until we can get our church established. Tammy Leonard who along with her husband Brian served a year with us in Africa. Tammy has agreed to be the treasure for our new church. We are excited to have the Leonards be a part of our church in this way. This has been a God thing as He has brought this about. From now on checks for our support can be made out to The Bridge and sent to:

The Bridge
c/o Tammy Leonard
264 Shawville Hwy.

Woodland, PA 16881

Prayer request:
1. Pray for the Gomze's and ourselves as we travel on weekends to churches sharing our vision for The Bridge and raising support. Support is coming in slowly but we know that God is in control. If your church is planning on sending support it would be a great help to us by letting us know how you intend to be a partner with us.

2. Pray for the Gomze's as they make plans to move. Sarah needs to find a job and they need to find a renter or buyer for their house.

3. Pray for the people that God wants us to reach out to. Pray that when we look around us we'll see what Jesus sees and we'll hear what Jesus hears. May our hearts be broken for the things that break the heart of God.

We covet your prayers and partnership with us in this ministry. If we aren't scheduled to be at your church and you would like us to come and share please contact me. We can't do this alone. We need the help of the district churches. Together we believe we can see a new Wesleyan Church in Pittsburgh.

--
Rick and Eunice and Trevor

6842 Alcoma Dr.
Pittsburgh, PA 15235

Home 724 427 4454
Cell 814 761 8323

Prayer opportunity

Here is a great opportunity to pray for "The Well."

Greeting to All!

We hope this e-mail finds you all doing well. We appreciate each of you so much. We are in a battle for souls and it means so much to know that we have prayer warriors with us!!

Saturday we will be canvassing the Philipsburg area to invite people to a fun outreach we are having on March 7th at the local coffee house(1 North Front St. Cafe.Books.Events. The event is called Beat the Blues. We will be having local musicians perform, caricatures, finger printing by the local State Police, puppets, craft for the kids and some other activities. This Sat. Feb. 27th, we hope to give 700 to 1000 cards out to people to invite them to this event. Pray that God would give us connections with people. Pray for open doors where He would have us to walk through. Pray that He would raise others up to be part of our launch team. We need about 15 - 20 people on the team to be able to launch. We only have 8 of us.

God bless you all and thank you for your faithfulness!

Karen and Doug

Drumroll, Please!

This has been a big week in the life of the Pittsburgh plant:

The Coxes have moved, the Gomezes have determined where they will be living in Pittsburgh, our Launch Team is growing, and new contacts are being made in the community.

But we are even more excited to announce the name of the Pittsburgh church plant:

We are THE BRIDGE, a new Wesleyan church preparing for launch in a community known as the City of Bridges. Our passion is to see people connect to God and overcome the boundaries of culture, ethnicity, and geography.

We are hoping to announce our new online home soon, and wanted to remind you of our mailing address:

THE BRIDGE

c/o 6842 Alcoma Dr.

Pittsburgh, PA 15235

Thanks so much for your continued prayers.

--

image courtesy of nikkispick at flickr