Category: tapestry

okay maybe i’m not bob woodward but i am interviewing a lot of people. earlier this week i thought it would be a good idea to start interviewing people concerning what they would like to see a church within the stevens point area do. my goal is to interview 40-50 people that i randomly meet within our community. i struggled over what question to ask everyone. i was worried that simply asking “what would you like to see a church in the stevens point area do?” would end up with answers that had more to do with programs rather than things concerning the actual nature of the church. thus far that hasn’t been true. the people i have interviewed have offered some wonderful insight.

i’ve only interview three people thus far (one church member, one person who says she only goes to church because she is payed to play the piano, and one person who is agnostic about churches) and the discussions have been wonderful. i try not to direct the person i am talking with but i do try to make sure i understand what they are saying. this means i try to let them ramble a great deal but i also ask the same question over and over. the question is “what do you mean by that.” basically i play stupid. even if i think i understand what they mean i try to get them to explain it a couple of times so that i can make sure. everyone has been wonderful. even after the church starts i think i’m going to have to make this a regular part of what i do.

i am typing my notes from the interviews into a google document so as to be able to share my notes and also invite others to contribute to them. if you would like to contribute something please email me (my name @ gmail.com) and i will send you an invite. if you just want to look at the notes as they are recorded you can go here.

SIDE NOTE – the other day we had 5 deer bounding through the snow of our backyard. it was quite pastoral.

the prayer, thinking, doodling, and asking is over. the image above is the logo for tapestry. to be honest i actually liked the design just below this one a tiny bit more (this one was my second choice) but the logo is not about whether i connect with it. instead, the logo is about whether it helps other people to connect with the church. all of the people i have talked to that i believe are in the group that the church will connect with the best said that this logo conveyed the most to them. that’s good enough for me.

so met the logo of tapestry. i think i’ll call it fred. folks, say “hi” to fred. you’ll be seeing a lot of her (yes i know that fred is generally a guy’s name, but the church is a bride and therefore female – girls can be named “fred” too).

five months ago the fam and i moved to central wisconsin. as most of you know we moved here for the purpose of planting a church that has a passion for those who aren’t really the biggest fans of the church but are still interested in JESUS. for some people this means they have burned by a church. for others it means they have never really seen how a chuch can relate to real life. whatever their reason they are not going to connect with a church that has all the answers so we want to be a church that is okay with questions because we really believe that JESUS is the answer. i’m know that somewhere there’s a very effective plan for doing planting a church like this but no one ever told me where that plan was and therefore i have done the only thing pam and i could think of doing … hanging out and meeting people. i’ve been as close to being stalker as you can get without actually receiving a restraining order. okay, hopefully that’s not true, but i have looked for every opportunity i could find to get involved in random conversations and get to know people. the past five months have been the beginning of the beginning. last night was the end of the beginning because last night we had our first core group meeting. “core group meeting” sounds pretty formal for a group of people getting together to eat, read the 1st chapter of acts, pray, and dream about what a church could be, so i’ll just call it a gathering. anyhow our gathering was great (at least in my opinion it was). after it was through i kept finding myself thinking “a new church is going to grow from what we did tonight.” it was amazing.

now we beginning of the end of the beginning. due to a prior commitment we’ll miss this coming sunday but after that we’ll start having a gathering at our house every sunday night to eat, read the book of acts, pray, and continue dreaming. this will become the church and eventually we’ll have a public service (that should continue to have eating, biblical discussion, praying , and dreaming). my guess is that a once a month service (previews or trials) we begin in may and weekly services we’ll begin in september. of course, the weekly service isn’t the church. nope the church is the people and that began last night.

if anyone reads this blog and is around stevens point on a sunday evening please come and join us. the food will be good (if pam cooks instead of me) and the friendship will be excellent.

a friend of mine has been nice enough to throw some of her graphic design expertise this way by agreeing to do a little design package for tapestry. yesterday she sent over the first version of possible logos. they’re above. i’ve printed them out and i will be staring at them, thinking about them, praying about them, dreaming about them and most importantly doodling on them (the logo has to look good with doodles – that’s a must). on a whole, i think she did a spot on job.

do any of y’all have any thoughts.

my run for the day
distance – 2.0 miles
time – 21:39
pace – 10:50/mile
weather – 22º/snowing

when pam and i came to wisconsin to plant tapestry we did so with the knowledge that i would receive some salary support from the minnesota / wisconsin baptist convention but without any idea where we would get any initial funds for starting anything up. obviously we would be tithing to the church but we figured that it would be for quite some time before anyone else was contributing financially to ministry of the church. that was going to be okay because i am a firm believer that ministry is not dependent upon money. yes, you need a little money for certain things but most things can be done with very little money if you have a great abundance of time, energy, creativity, and initiative. so pam and i figured we would be doing this thing with our tithe and as much time, energy, creativity, and initiative as we could muster together.

thanks to some of y’all the plan has changed in one detail. we’re still going to use as much time, energy, creativity, and initiative as we can possible put together but we no longer have to depend upon our tithe alone. some of you have made some very generous contributions to tapestry. i wasn’t expecting them but i am very much appreciative of them. thanks guys.

since tapestry does not formally (i.e. legally) exist yet we don’t have members (it’s kind of hard to have members in something that doesn’t yet exist) but as of today we have our first person joining us on the journey whose last name is terrell. i’ve been meeting people for the past four months, talking and listening with people concerning what they believe the bride of CHRIST (the church) is supposed to be like, and sharing with them what i feel called to do. a couple of weeks ago i asked a few people to pray about joining us on the journey. today the first one said “yes.”

woohoo!

there are a couple of other people who are thinking and praying over things at the moment and a bunch more that i am continuing to talk with. within the next three weeks pam and i are going to start meeting with, eating with, praying with, reading the acts of the apostles with, and discussing with a group of people who will hopefully commit to joining with us on starting the church that we believe GOD has called us to start. we’ll do this on sunday nights for 5-6 weeks and then start taking our next steps.

SIDE NOTE – at present the terrell family is living through its first classified blizzard ever. the wind chill outside is presently -25º and is supposed to reach as low as -45º tomorrow. thankfully i’m inside.

some days i get pretty disheartened about how we’re going to start tapestry. some days i spend all day praying and trying to meet someone new who might be the next person that GOD leads my way that will help or join in starting the church. some days i spend all day trying to explain what it is that i believe GOD is leading our group to do only to look at them stare blankly back at me or even worse say something like “you’re kidding, right?” some days i spend all day doing stuff that doesn’t seem to matter at all and i am left sitting in the evening wondering how we’ll even get the church started when i am able to get so little done. some days it’s so cold outside that it’s impossible for me to meet anyone and share what i believe GOD is going to do because everyone is trying to stay home where it’s warm. some days it seems like i’m not cut out to help plant a church and i was wrong in thinking that GOD wanted me to.

of course, today was not one of those days. in fact, today was the exact opposite of one of those days. today was about as good as it could possibly get and if i have four more of these days tapestry will be planted and healthy by saturday. it was a great day.

i like days like “today” a ton better than days like “some days.”

SIDE NOTE – don’t worry mom i’m not depressed thankfully there aren’t very many “some days.” of course, there aren’t a ton of “todays” either. most days are just normal.

i have to say that i can’t stand the word “signage.” i know it’s the term that a lot of buildings use for describing all the signs that you put up so people know where to go and such, but it really sounds stupid to me.

with that out in the open i was wondering if anyone knew the company that is usually at the national youth workers convention producing portable signs and displays? the last nywc i went to was the 2004 “wide open” conference so i am merely assume they are still around. i need to start pricing some displays for the church and i don’t know who can make the necessary stuff.