Robert's Blog

i’m presently in the air between chicago and new orleans and since i am very bored of reading turabian (writer’s guide of style) for my class tomorrow, i though i would post something on the blog.

each month i have to complete a report to send to the mwbc to receive my funding. it’s really no big deal because the questions i have to answer aren’t that difficult. truhtfully, i think the whole thing is done just to make sure that i actually am working on planting the church rather than just using church planting as an excuse for a paid year long fishing excursion. the first pastor i ever worked for said that ministry could be the easiest or the hardest job a person is ever involved in and that each person decides which it will be. i would say that this is even more true of planting a church. i could sit around and do nothing all day long until my funding runs out, or i can try to use every opportunity all day long, seven days a week to try and accomplish what i believe GOD has called our family to. hopefully, i done more than just sat around. i think i have. anyway i figure that the report that i complete each month serves two purposes: 1) it hold me accountable to actually be doing stuff, and 2) it shows a history of the birth of the church.

one of the question that i have to answer each month is “in what areas are you struggling right now as a church planter?” the question always intriques me. the main reason i find the question interesting because my struggles are almost always the same … fear.

most of the time i know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my family and i are doing what GOD wants us to do. in fact, i love doing what i get to do everyday. there are moments where i will call pam at the university just so i can tell someone about the small but great things that happen during my day that i am positive are leading to the planting of tapestry. i can see it happening. i’m convinced that GOD is going to do things thorugh the planting of tapestry that bring people to him. i’m convinced thi whole thing is going to come to pass and it will be amazingly cool. i see tangible things happening and real relationships growing that convince me more and more that we were right concerning what GOD wanted.

all of the above is true most of the time. of course, there are other times.

i don’t talk about the other times much. i don’t usually tell them to anybody except for pam because truthfully they scare me. these times always to bring to mind the old parable of human nature being two fighting dogs and the dog that wins is the one that has been fed the most. i don’t want to dog of fear to win, so i don’t focus on it much when it’s one of those times.

you see every now and then i start to freak out concerning what we are doing. the closer we get to september 14th (tapestry’s launch date) the more often i have brief moments of “what if i was wrong?” you see i don’t have a plan b. this is it. we moved up here to plant a church that honors GOD and that’s that. it would be a lot easier if i knew there was something i could fall back on, but i don’t. that’s what causes me to have moments of fear.

i don’t like those moments.

thankfully they don’t last very long.

usually doing these moments i pretty quickly see something that reminds me that GOD is in control and that he honors the work (no matter how pathetic) of those who agree to follow him. i’m real thankful for those things that remind me and i’m even more thankful that the moments of fear are few and far between.

i have a request for my wisconsin CHRISTian friends who read this blog but are already active in a church – would you consider being “missionaries” to tapestry for 3-6 months? here’s what i mean. it does the kingdom of GOD no good what so ever for me to encourage CHRISTians to move from one believing church to another. in fact, i would describe doing such a thing as basically evil. i have some wonderful friends around Point that are actively involved in some wonderful churches and i do not want them to swap to tapestry. i want them to stay where they are and help those churches in following CHRIST.

with the above said, we need a “critical mass” to begin our worship service on september 14th. it’s pretty intimidating to walk into a room with 6 people in it. it’s especially intimidating if it’s a church service and you don’t have a church background (the very people we are wanting to connect with). so we’re looking for some volunteers who will agree to come to our sunday evening services for 3-6 months to be “seat fillers” and maybe help volunteer in getting things working. i’m asking people to do this while always remaining loyal to their actual churches (every other church in town has morning services). once, we’re up and running i want these volunteers to slowly stop coming to tapestry (a mass exodus would be weird). once again the goal is to expand the kingdom of GOD, not reshape it. these volunteers will be hugely important for birthing tapestry but once we’re born they will need to go home.

we have a couple of friends who have already agreed to be a part of this, but i’m still looking for a few more.

SIDE NOTE – if you’re not already involved in a local church then this doesn’t apply to you. you are more than welcome to come and stay. 🙂

SIDE SIDE NOTE – one of the things i and the launch team have talked about is regularly paying a non-church goer to come and critique our worship services. we want to make sure that we are not saying and doing things in a religiously coded manner. the goal is for everything to be easily understood and grasped by people who have not been raised in a church. we jokingly call these idea “rent an atheist.” we’ll do it every 6 months or so. thanks to some friends at emy j’s we have our first reviewer for the launch service. she will come to the service with critical eyes and then report to the launch team the week after. i’m very excited about this.

here’s the august edition of the monthly tapestry prayer email i send out. if you would like to receive this in your inbox each month just email me and i’ll add your name to the list.

thanks for praying.

i’ve tweaked the rave card front a little (basically adjusted the sky & grass color) and i feel pretty happy with it now. here it is.

you can look at the original one here. i think the difference is pretty clear and obviously i prefer the newest one.

now it’s time for the back. here are the two 1st mock ups that i’ve worked on. there differences between the two are just in their wording. just click on them for larger (aka readable) views.

 

any thoughts?

i’m going to mull this over for a day or two, have through launch team look at them, and then order the cards & signs next week.

i’m now researching the next big tapestry purchase. truthfully i’m about fed up with buying large items for tapestry, i would much rather use our resources doing something good rather than just buying more equipment. yet i guess this is a part of it all right now. anyhow, we will be meeting in a gym so the lit up ugliness factor of the room is pretty high. i want to reduce this ugliness factor by controlling the lighting and thus i am looking into buying portable lighting. the key concerns here are that the lighting needs to be a good value, rugged, portable, and dependable.

i know next to nothing about lighting (i put some up in the parkview student center and it worked but i think that was luck). right now i’m looking at this set up, the mbt weekender dmx. it’s $823 plus $110 in shipping. oh how i hate spending money like that for lights. still i want to hide as much of the gym ugliness as possible and lighting seems to be the best way to do it.

so blog readers who know a thing or two about lighting (phillip & chester)  lend me your brains. is this a good buy? too much lighting? too little? we’re not going to be doing much with lighting (other than hiding gym ugliness). on and off is a must, dimming would be nice but it’s not essential.  i don’t want to spend any more than this and i would love to spend less. any suggestions?