we had a meeting of the "crazy eight" monday night at al's house, a group of core leaders for rustle (the church plant). there were more than eight of us. we had meat and salad and good conversation with prayers. there was a moment for me as it was growing dark where i looked around and felt that i was in church, the body of christ in the world, we few sitting around feeding pinapple heaven into our mouths and talking about how to discover the kingdom of God in kingston, and it was beautiful.
i am more excited about following jesus than i have ever been. life is good.
5.12.2006
of sunsets and sonshine
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5 comments:
What satisfaction to escape from dryness into an oasis of God's love. We are so excited to see how God will use you in this church plant and in the future! Cheers to following Jesus.
We're praying for you...
love...sis
Thats encouraging and cool to hear. Keep sharing your thoughts on your walk with God...I appreciate the realism :)
hey, can we hear more about the church plant and how it started and its leadership team's genesis?
good question ap, thanks...
essentially it began over ten years ago when a local carpenter named al doseger felt God calling him to start a church to meet needs in kingston. ten years later, after having started next church with a team of 12 or so people, he began to feel restless again...and began to dream again. right around the same time i was beginning to look into the whole electrician thing, then began to realize that my heart was still in church-type work. so i sent an email to al with my thoughts about that...basically i said that i think i want to get back into pastoring, but that if i do i think it needs to look different than it did last time. that's when he let me in on what he'd been pondering. since that moment, he carried the ball (i was still a newbie around next church) to the church board and congregation to guage response and test and see if his restlessness was a God thing or an al thing. turned out to be a God thing so he began the process of buying a building in the neighborhood we want to go to and finding people to become the core team for the plant.
a few years ago, from what i've been told, next was given a vision to start a new congregation within their church that became known as "church in the box." the remnant from this congregation has become much of the 24 that will go start rustle. there were also a few others, like karen and myself, that had been talking with al and sensed God moving us in the direction of the new church. out of these few that were asked to leave next, and the church in the box remnant, were chosen eight-ish key leaders to be the "crazy eight" - a team of elders of sorts to help give guidance and leadership to rustle. the people for this team were chosen for their passion for God and his kingdom, as well as to create a well rounded group that will have some tension from the many differing personalities (from administrators to dreamers and everything in between).
part of the dream of next in the beginning was to help poverty in the city of kingston. the neighborhood around next has changed for the better over ten years, so the rustle church is an attempt to follow poverty north in kingston and serve any way we can.
there's rustle in a nutshell...my role is to be one of those crazy eight, beginning hopefully with an internship to allow me a couple days a week of work at rustle...see how it works out i guess, learn lots from al and the others, and experience the excitement of starting a new church with a great group of people that i forsee becoming life-long friends.
very cool, brando. would love to talk about it, too. shoot me an email with you tel. #.
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