Great Soup, Great Scoop!

We have been getting back into the swing of things after our time in Guatemala. One important opportunity we scheduled was to hold an Informational Forum at our host church, Trinity Covenant. Among other things, an important goal of this forum was to continue to inform our hosts about what we are doing and how we are going about it. This gives more and more people the chance to share the Vision in many important ways.
Carmen opened by reciting a poem called "So I Stay Near the Door". This poem has been a favorite of Carmen's for a long time, and is now one of mine. It expresses how important it is to continually seek those whom Christ is seeking. Sometimes we'd rather remain behind the closed doors of the church, but our vision as ambassadors of Christ is to connect with others and share the love of God (see our Project Text!). This was a great way to start, reminding us all that we are compelled by Christ's love to reconcile the world to God.
Our NPC Director of Church Planting (our coach) Kurt Carlson, gave a church planting overview. He shared about the ECC's goals and process for church planting, and explained how we came to be a part of that process. We are currently in an early "residency" phase; prior to our official church planting work. This is a time to do much of the groundwork which would be done by planters who have resided in their planting area for some time. Since we spent the last 4-5 years in Chicago, its a time for us to get reconnected.
From there we shared our Project Text, our Vision, and our Values, which you can read about here on our blog via the links on the right side of the page. We had some time for Q&A, which included great questions like: "Kurt, you say church planting is 'hard work,' just what do you mean by that?"
We were very encouraged. About 35 people attended, with some using our commitment cards to commit to prayer, giving, and sharing the Vision. There are a few who are considering taking the big step of being a part of our Core Team, as well. Very exciting!

Thank you so much to those who prayed for this event, to those who attended, and special thanks to Barb and Cindy for the delicious cheeseburger and minestrone soups!

If you have questions about the FHL Project, please contact us. We'd love to talk to you!