email to Dick Crabtree

Hey guys. Just wanted to post the email I sent to Dick Crabtree to you to keep you in the loop.

Hello Dick!
I had a conversation recently with Bill Weber, among others, about our church plant, and I realized that I had still not formally joined SPCF. We have worked so closely together recently that that detail had slipped my mind. I appologize, and I would love to start that process with you.
I understand that I will need to find some forwarding agents to handle our money Stateside. Molly and I have some options of people, but before I ask them, I was hoping that you might be able to give me an idea of what is involved and expected of them. That way I can let them know what they are getting into when I ask them.
There was one more thing I would like to ask of you, in behalf of the church planting team. In the interest of clarity and efficiency, I was wondering if SPCF would be able to write up a list of expectations and responsibilities of the church planting team in respect to the board, and also of the board in respect to the team. We think if we know exactly what you expect of us, and what we can expect of you, that it will help avoid confusion and frustrations down the track. Maybe you might be able to bring it up at the meeting in February. We would appreciate that!
Thank you again for all that SPCF has done in helping us get this church plant off the ground. It is a real blessing to see God's servants all coming together for His purposes. I look forward to a future filled with this kind of rich partnership.
God bless you all,
Hamish Taylor

Conversations

I want to update you on some conversations that I have been involved in with my Dad, Randall, and Bill Weber (visiting the Brooks). The nuts and bolts of it is this: I think that everyone is looking for some more formalized steps to be taken. Bill mentioned that he would like a report about the church plant--its status and plans--for the SPCF meeting in February. (Side note--who is going to be able to make that meeting? It will most likely be in Cincinnati). My Dad (a Shore elder) mentioned that the eldership has not been formally invited to partner with the plant. He said they knew about it, but they had not discussed anything as a group yet. I explained that we were holding back for a little while at Reuben's request, but Dad said that this plant ought to be introduced sooner so that it can feature in the strategic planning of Shore for 07. I also made a request to Bill that perhaps SPCF be able to write up something specific for our church plant team as to our responsibilities and expectations as an SCPF team. We all agreed that a better understanding of roles--both within SPCF and with their relationship to us--is important.
So, in light of all this, I think I need to do a few things. Firstly, I am going to send an email to Dick Crabtree, asking him to formulate with the board in February an outline of responsibilities we have to the board and expectations we can have of them. Secondly, I am going to draft up an official kind of invitation to Shore, explaining what we are doing as a plant team and inviting them to partner with us in it. Having those formalities aside will pave the way to some more productive discussions of what the plant will look like and who will have what kind of authority in it. I will send the draft to you guys so that you can put you input into it before I send it on to the church. I will also talk to Reuben about it to let him know what's going on. Thirdly, I will put together a kind of statement about the church plant for the meeting in February. If you guys can send me some individual reports to put in, that would be really helpful. Just a little on how fundraising is going and so forth.
Well, I think that is enough for one blog! Enjoy the holidays!

Merry Christmas

Merry Chrsitmas team! It always seems like people are extra thankful this time of year, I attribute it to the Son of God being born in such a marvelous way...no big deal, but I will take some time to be extra thankful for all of you!
I am so thankful that God has worked in such an ovbvious way over the last 10 months to bring this team together. This year has been such an awesome year for me in the way that God has revealed himself to me and in the way that I feel like I have trusted God more than I ever have, though I sense this is just the beginning of it and I love it! I am so thankful that our journies, though very different, have crossed at this point. I am so exctied (insert EOD here) about this next year, no doubt it will be hard (at least for the statesiders) as we close one chapter and begin another, but it excites me to know that I will be relying completely on God in a way that I probably never have, starting a new adventure with Joe, and being a part of a passionate team. I am thankful for the many gifts that each of us bring to the table of music and design and detail and leadership and love to make up one team. I am thankful for the ways that you all inspire me and I am so excited (insert EOD here) to continue brainstorming and praying and learning and even failing with all of you knowing that we are doing our best to be faithful to what God has called us to.
I hope that each of you have a fabulous Christmas. I am so thankful for each of you and the many things that you bring to this team.

News from Shore

Just to let you guys know (if you have not heard already), AJ--our youth minister--has put in his resignation from Shore to take up a position at Savannah Christian Church. Just coincidentally, that is the church that Jeff Vines joined after leaving Shore. Do you think that makes it a good place or a bad place to fundraise at?

Since AJ will be gone from the end of Jan, it raises some interesting issues with the Well. It could pave the way well for our potential involvement, but the timing is a little sticky. Randall will be discussing with them how the future looks. Keep that in your prayers.

Also, I have gone on the website for the census results, and have downloaded an excell document that gives some limited details about different areas of Auckland. Of special interest at the moment for you to look at is the Rodey, North Shore, and Waitakere Districts. I will email that document to you all.

I have also put together a really brief draft of my dreams for the Well, which will actually include the whole young adult ministry. It is bare-boned, so I would appreciate any advice or opinions that you have on it. I think, however, that it might provide a useful skeleton for our church plant.

Have a great Christmas! Just think, our next Christmas will be together...

Needing Some Kiwi Addresses

Hello Hamish and Molly!
I hope you're having a wonderful kiwi Christmas time. Whitney and I are sending out Christmas cards. We would like to send greetings to our new friends in New Zealand, but we don't have their mailing addresses. Can you give us the NZ mailing info for:
1. Randall and Mikki
2. Mike and Heather
3. Reuben and Anna
Thanks!

Back in the loop

Hey guys!

I appologize for being out of the loop for so long. I am still finding it difficult to hit a rhythm in NZ, of working and then coming home and getting into church planting work. I am still learning how to juggle everything so that it all gets a fair share of my energies! I am also discovering that I am energized by being in a group--especially our group--and I am finding being apart from you guys difficult. I really look forward to having you guys here! I appreciate your patience and prayers!

You guys had some interesting discussions about target groups. I am in agreement with Nate in that it is important for us to have a target group. I don't know the preacher who suggested having no target, or his church, but I have a suspicion that his church attracts those that his team is best eppuipped to minister to anyway. For better or worse, it seems that churches attract people like themselves. So, if they have no target but just go about church in a manner comfortable for them, they will attract people who share their comforts and likes. Nothing really wrong with that. But if we want to attract people that are different from ourselves, then we will have to be intentional about doing it. Since we want to be attracting NZers--the biggest population group in NZ ;) --we will have to be intentional about making church comfortable for NZers. More specifically, we need to make church fit the needs of the community we are in. All without changing or damaging the gospel message. Does that make sense?

Speaking of communities, the census results for 2006 have just been published on the net, if I am not mistaken. I will be able now to get some up to date info on our target communities, and then send the links to you so that you can look them over.

Also, I was given a suggestion by Randall (and this is purely just dreamin at this stage) that when you guys arrive in NZ, we as a group might be able to take over the monthly youth service and turn it into a weekly young adult service--as part of Shore. Then, when we are ready to plant ourselves, we could either take some from that congregation, or not. But either way, it will be a good experience to work together as a team and also give some benefit to Shore. It also might avoid us "taking over" some people's positions. Having said that, this is something that has not been discussed with the youth minister, so it is purely a theoretical option. Just wondered what you thought about that.

God bless you guys, and thank you so much for your committment to my country. You guys inspire me!

Lego Christmas

A friend of mine sent this to me through email and I loved it! Hope you guys enjoy it too! "This is a movie my son Vincent (now 10 yrs old) made to show at our church. It is a stop motion animated movie made using Legos. It is the Nativity story using Star Wars Legos. He used makeavi (sourceforge.net), Ulead Video Studio, and our old digital camera to make the film."

A Conversation With Reuben

In case you didn't see the emails, here is the conversation I had with Reuben:

Reuben said:
Bummer that's not going to work out. We should definately stay in touch though. From my perspective the next step in the whole process is for Shore's elders to sit down at the beginning of next year (we have a strategic planning retreat in early Feb) and have a look at the whole scenario to see if this is something that we feel we are ready to get involved in, and if so, how such a partnership with you guys might look in terms of location, structure and timing. I know that you guys need to have certainty on things as soon as possible, but at the same time, its worth being measured with our timing in order to make sure we get it right. My hope is that following that discussion by Shore's elders, we can send SPCF a strong and clear signal as to where we are at with it, which will give you guys a basis on which to move forward. Hopefully at the SPCF meeting in Feb (do you know what date that is?) you will know where things are at and what's happening. For now, keep praying and let's keep talking! It's been great getting to know you guys and we'll be praying for you as you continue to seek God's leading for the future.

Cheers
Reub


Nate said:
Sounds good to me. I believe I speak for the rest of the team when I say that we're right on board with Shore's leadership having some time to settle in and make some judgement calls.
I want you and the leadership at Shore to know that we are convinced of our team's call to church planting in New Zealand. God has confirmed this over and over. So convinced are we that, after over a year of prayer and seeking guidance, Whitney and I have informed the leadership at our current ministry of our intentions in NZ. Whitney will be phasing out of her role at the church in February 07 and I will be finished here as of May 20th 07. Joe and Amy have a similar transition time at their current ministry as well. After that we intend on participating in more training and doing full-time support raising from May to October (or longer) with the intention of moving to Auckland in the window of October 07 - January 08.
We have discussed as a team some ideas of how we might spend our time during our first year there, but we are definitely open to God's leading in that area and we are certainly desiring a partnership with Shore. If that means that we would intern at Shore for 6 months - 1 year, that would be great. If that means that we would just exist in the community and get jobs while adjusting to the culture and building relationships, we're cool with that too. Or perhaps there are other options that we don't know of...the feedback we get from you and Randall and the Elders at Shore will play a major role in these decisions. If Shore's leadership were to decide that this time frame is not appropriate, then we would certainly reevaluate.
I hope you can understand our desire to move forward in these ways while trusting that God's call on our lives will certainly prepare the way for us in New Zealand. Thank you so much for your prayerful and wise approach to this situation. For that we can only be grateful. You are in our prayers.

P.S. I'm not sure of when exactly the February meeting is, but I'll let you know as soon as I know.

Cheers,
Nate

I'll keep you updated on any replies.