Day 3 - Church Planting

I have always had the utmost respect for church planters. You can't argue with statistics, church planting is the best evangelistic tool that the church has. So, how do we in Cottage Grove, OR tap into that. First of all I think we need to develop an attitude of church planting. It may not be exactly feesable to plant a new church in Cottage Grove (though I could argue that it needs one) but we could be supporting, or saving up to support a church plant in the local area. Another way we can help is by raising up a church planter. We can hire on staff an associate minister who will be sent out to plant a church in the future. We can be the place he prepares and is inspired. Those are some very legitament ways we can be a church planting church. Those may not be ideas we can put into practice next month, or next year, but I do believe we sshould have an attitude of outreach in the area of church planting.

The mentorship breakfasts for me, have been truly disappointing. I do enjoy the free breakfast and sharing the vision and awesome things happening at Sixth and Gibbs, but there was very little time, or ability to truly be mentored. I sat around a table with a mentor and six other pastor's. Unfortunately, no one got to be very specific and ideas that guys were throwing my direction just don't work for the situation the church is in. It is not their fault, we just really don't have the time for me to sit and explain the West Coast mentality and what our city is truly like. Let's face it, things are different everywhere, what works in one place may or may not work in another.

Individually it has been a struggle, I miss my family and though there are some people here that I know and love, there is no one here from my peer group. I have been kind of loner the last couple of days which by the way, has provided for some quiet times with God and lots of reading to catch up on too.

I worked out a free lunch, breakfast and bought a quick dinner at the conference. I have failed to experience the culture here in KC, I promise to do better the next couple of days. Peace

ae