I mispell things!
thanks to penza i had the opportunity to interview another person concerning his views on the church and what he would like to see a church do within the point area. i am very thankful for the people who are kind enough to answer my annoying questions and let me pick their brains.
slowly but surely these interviews are helping us to launch tapestry.
after weeks of praying everyone on the tapestry launch team agreed that we should start the public worship services of tapestry on september 14th. we also agree that we want to do a prayer labyrinth in the uwsp university center in about four weeks. the second we reach that conclusion pam and my stomachs went beserk. i’ve had butterflies all day. yes we moved up to wisconsin for the purpose of planting tapestry but truthfully it didn’t seem as real before the launch date was set and the labyrinth was agreed upon. in my mind it all still seemed theoretical. it’s not anymore. it’s the real deal now and while it’s incredibly exciting it’s also a little nerve racking.
it’s so great.
anyway i’ve been usingg mind mapping to organize projects for a year or two now and i really like it as an organizational tool. it helps me to think through things. i’ve used mindmeister before (because it’s free and online – a combination that i like). i haven’t used the it’s collaborative features before but i decided it would be nice to try it this time. so i’ve set up a collaborative mind map for the labyrinth to see how it works out for us.
this would have been such a great thing to have had for youth ministry retreats. it would have been a great way of organizing several people working on various projects and also communicating what everyone was doing.
anyhow below is a link to the labyrinth mind map.
my run for the day
distance – 7.0 miles
time – 1:21:25
pace – 11:39/mile
weather – 40º/very windy
the launch team of tapestry meet tonight as usual at our home. besides having two new guests with us for the evening the cool thing about tonight’s meeting was some resolution on some dates. after weeks of prayer here are the things we settled on:
we’re also looking into participating in the trivia invasion next weekend. for those who don’t know it the point area hosts the world’s largest trivia competition. it should be fun.
as someone who is trying to plant a church my days vary a great deal. some days i’m doing really cool things involving developing relationships and connecting with new people, while other days i’m working through details that will be important one day. today has been one of the detail days. the tapestry launch team is presently praying about a date for the launch of our public services. it’s all very cool because all of us have already experience conversations with people who are not presently connected with a church who have expressed serious interest in being involved in tapestry once its launched. i’ll tell you more about the launch date once we have all finished praying and have a chance to talk with each other. that means sunday evening.
anyhow, a part of launching the public services is finding a place in which we can hold them. i’m not sure we will ever have a building but having one is never a viable option for a new church plant. so i’ve been calling people and pulling connections to find possible places that we can look at and pray over once we have a date set. right now the main places that i think will be in consideration are:
i’m sort of dreading the day we actually have to start deciding because there are a ton of aspects to the decision. we’ve got to consider what building will best fit within the “d.n.a.” of tapestry, while at the same time considering practical considerations like parking, location, facility, and the primary and secondary costs of the location. i think the school will be the best fit for who we are and who we will become, but it will be hard to make that choice when the school is three times more expensive than the club and the church is basically free. when you have a tithing base that consist of your own family money is a big consideration. i would start to think that that we might choose one of the other two options except for the fact that the club is next to impossible to find (i think they took the idea of “private” very seriously) and rather small (which is fine at first) and the church building is well .. a … church building. they all have their pros and cons and i’m sure within the next two months i’ll find another two or three options that will muddy the waters of decision even more.
fun, fun.
SIDE NOTE – tonight pam and i are taking the first of four latin dancing lessons. by the end of april we will be latin dancing fools.
i just mailed out the tapestry prayer email for april. you can view it HERE.
if you are note presently receiving the monthly prayer email and would like to receive it please email me (my full name @gmail.com).
has anyone else noticed that most of the churches that say they are “the church for people who don’t like church” are typically doing the same churchy things as everyone else, but with a slightly more contemporary flare? i see this “church for people who don’t like church” catch phrase all over the place. i don’t really think that many churches can honestly use it. i don’t really think that we’ll (tapestry) use that slogan but i do hope we will truly be different from much of what’s around us. i love many of the churches around us but i don’t really want to merely replicate them.
right now the launch team is praying over a date to begin the public services of tapestry. i can’t really say the date we think we are being led to until we’ve all reached that point. i can say that it is soon enough that i need to start buying some equipment over the next several months. since, many, if not most, of you are experts on some of the equipment i need to buy i thought i might look for some of your opinions. so here’s the list of what i will need to buy in the next several months and what i am thinking of spending.
of course, i also have the boring stuff to buy (i.e. tables, chairs, coffee makers, etc.) so if anyone has any suggestions on a place to get good stuff at inexpensive prices that would be cool.
btw, thanks to the many wonderful people who have contributed to the point that we have money to buy these things for tapestry.
my run for the day
distance – 5.0 miles
time – 52:15
pace – 10:27/mile
weather – 28º/weather
i know that this doesn’t matter to anyone who reads this blog but i just purchased sptapestry.org as an additional domain name for the tapestry website. why? well because i realized that stevenspointtapestry.org is a little long to put onto things. both domain names are good for the next two years and since their cheap i’ll probably keep both for a good long time.
the family and i went to see “horton hears a who” today and it was great. dr. seuss is wonderful and i think this movie is probably the best adaptations of his work thus far. it has such great themes running through it (messianic, the value of people, fighting for those weaker than you, standing on your beliefs, etc) but it is also quite funny. we watched it with a room full of kids, parents, and college students and the laughter was loud and strong. i also appreciated the fact that the animation was quite modern but still suessical.
SIDE NOTE – next week is wisconsin spring break. this means pam and the boys are off and i can’t really do much in getting tapestry going. therefore, we’re heading to chicago. pam and i have been to chicago separately but never with each other or the kids. we’re quite excited. right now the game plan involves a blackhawks game, eating a chicago style hotdog, spending time with some former youth, eating at ed debevic’s, hitting a bunch of museum’s, maybe seeing a play, and going to easter sunday church with some friends we made at our church planting assessment last year. i can’t wait. if anyone knows anything else that we absolutely “must” do please let me know because pam and i are always open to new ideas.
SIDE SIDE NOTE – while i run i am presently listening to david kinnaman’s book “unCHRISTian.” it’s amazing thus far. i’ll write more after i’ve finished it.
SIDE SIDE SIDE NOTE – yes we did survive having all the fourteen year olds over to our house. i’m not longer the youth minister of any of these kids. now i’m just a dad and therefore not real cool to have around. no one wanted to me to play halo. it was a sad night.
my run for the day
distance – 5.0 miles
time – 54:15
pace – 10:51/mile
weather – 34º/sunny
i just finished the tapestry monthly prayer email for march. you can view it here. if you do not receive this each month and would like to just email me (my name @gmail.com) and i will place you on the list.
my run for the day
distance 3.0 miles
time – 29:43
pace – 9:55/mile
weather – 27º/snowing
i’ve interviewed a few more people concerning what they would like to see a church in the point area do. all of the conversations have been fascinating. someone asked me if i was going to shape the church around this interviews and i thought it was an excellent question. i’m not really interviewing people as a marketing strategy, like they are a focus group. there have been things said that i am sure will never be a part of the church (i probably should not say never, because strange things can happen). for example one interviewee said she want a church to sing in parts. i don’t really expect that to happen. so the interviews aren’t really to find out what works and doesn’t work church wise for the people we are trying to reach. rather the interviews are meant to hear what the community is saying and then respond within our faith.
yet the interviews will definitely shape what the church will be like. i’m listening to thoughts of people i really enjoy talking with and that will have a dramatic impact on what we do and how we do it. it won’t shape our cornerstone beliefs (JESUS does that) but it will shape how we talk about them.
i’ve decided to post a page that leads people to the interviews so that i have an easy way to link the people i interview to what i am writing. it’s on the top of the webpage and is labeled “community conversation.” for those who just want to go directly to the interview document you may do so by clicking here.
my run for the day
distance 6.0 miles
time 58:49
pace – 9:49/mile
weather – 23º