Church at a Church Plant Today

Hey Guys-
I stayed in Bloomington all weekend because we had alot going on up here with wedding showers for my brother and his fiance. My younger bro started going to a new church that was planted just last spring by some family friends of ours. It is right in Bloomington and Joe and I have heard alot about it from different people. Since I was here today I decided to go check it out. It was a very cool experience! It was cool to see all of the outreach that they do and how it seemed to be working. I was able to talk to some people about their experience at the church and got some good insight from that also. The church is right in between Illinois State University and Illinois Weslyan University so there was a very high college population but suprisingly enough there were some young families and some middle-age to older people. I wrote down all kinds of thoughts and questions throughout the service. I noticed that alot of people that were there used to go to other churches. I wondered (since the church is new) if these same people will switch churches again once this church has been around for awhile. I also wanted to ask what the target population group was and how they have seen their outreach work or not work. They were in the middle of some really cool and 'intentional' outreach programs for some of the people in the community.
There were probably over 100 people there today. We also have about 100 people that go to our church but today I saw 100 people that wanted to be there and had come there because of what was happening, not because it was a Sunday and church is just what you do. My mom said just six months ago there were only about 30-40 people that were going. When I told her that it was standing room only today she was amazed!
After church I was able to talk to Sue Berry, the pastor's wife and she had heard that Joe and I "had been around the world" doing mission stuff. She was very encouraging and helpful. She told me that we had to go to a church planters conference becuase if nothing else, it has helped them not to give up. She said that the conference taught them alot about what to expect and the best ways to deal with the things that come up. I talked a little with Dave Berry, the pastor and he invited me to email him and pick his brain about what they have done. I plan to take him up on that!
I think the coolest thing about the church was seeing a girl that used to be in our youth group. Last year before she left for college she got baptized because she felt like if she didn't get baptized that she was not commmitting herself to God. She felt like if she didn't completely give herself to God then, then it wasn't going to happen. We had some good chats about that before she got baptized. Her family makes fun of her for being a christian and she has not support. Anyway this girl was there! Yeah! I was so exited and proud of her to know that she made the effort to get up on a Sunday morning when no one was checking up on her. It was exciting because this church was reaching her and she was involved with the church. I was so thankful for this church for all of the people that were being touched through it, but more than that, it was helping Leslie to continue to grow and strengthen her faith. Through seeing her and talking with her it was evident that God was working through the leadership and the family of this church. (Jacob's Well Community Church)