In two weeks and two days we will begin weekend services for Restore Community Church. Here are some observations about starting a new church:
Just for fun, I wanted to show you what the UPS man brought today....
One of the scariest things about moving from Chicagoland to Kansas City to start Restore Community Church was leaving friends. Especially my kids friends. Were they going to make new friends?? I hoped so...and I certainly prayed for them.
So here is a little update on friends...check it out:
In preparation for the launch of restore community church, I have been doing lots of things I have never done before. One of them is working with church marketing solutions to design our bulk mail marketing campaign. We will send a 6 postcard series to homes in the Northland of Kansas City. The postcards are designed around a "What if..." theme.
These are the "what if" questions we are asking our neighbors here in the Northland.
What if everyday could feel this good? What if church were not a building? What if you could be restored? What if you could change the world? What if God isn't mad at you? What if kids are the building blocks of community?
Check out one of our postcards...designed by CMS...with our input on word choices and pictures.
The back says: What if God isn't mad at you? What if God is rooting for you? What if God could hear you and you could hear God? What if spiritual peace is possible?
We think God desires a relationship with everyone, wanting to creatively share His love, peace and hope.
Experience Restore Community Church, a brand new church in the Northland. You will find heart-felt worship, today's music, and practical teaching. Quality children's programs available at our Sunday morning celebration service. Dress is casual.
Park Hill High School
Restore Community’s first public Celebration event is scheduled for Thursday night, December 20th 7:00-8:00pm at the
Don't miss it.
I am so proud of the volunteers who came out to help. Kent and Cherilyn were there early to figure out how to tie the sign to our tent. Brooke was the whipped cream queen. Jake, Shane, Bailey, Nancy, Cormic, Declan and Matt met the runners as they finished the race with a bottle of water in hand. Rose was a cheerleader....calling out "hey everyone over here" while also serving and stirring cups of hot chocolate. Oh, and she danced....with Gretchen. Charlene was the one who put the powdered hot chocolate in the cups and opened cases of water. Jacob B. was saying "Hi" to everyone and making conversation while also stirring up hot chocolate. Gretchen had her moments with whipped cream, stirring chocolate and filling cups.
It was a blast!
Troy and Josh are gone all week at Church Planter's Bootcamp. The kids and I had a fun dinner conversation about what Church Planter's Bootcamp would be like.
A drill Sargent yelling and Troy and Josh while they are doing sit ups. "Do you love Jesus! Do you love others! Will you do all it takes to keep people from going to HELL!"
Troy and Josh answer, "Yes Sir" while Josh keeps doing sit ups and Troy can't keep up anymore.
Drill Sargent, "Put away those Blackberries. You think some 'Berry' is going to save your soul? Do ya? Do ya? When was the last time you baptized someone! That will be 100 more sit ups until you get this right!"
Troy and Josh are sweating and scared, they have to stay up all night doing jumping jacks in the rain...saying over and over "Help people find their way back to God, Help people find their way back to God....."
Sometime this summer I posted about the t-shirts we bought while visiting Ely, Minnesota. We were in the best t-shirt shop ever. Where a very south of the border accented man was running his t-shirt shop like a party. Every time he put a t-shirt in the press with a new logo being ironed on, he held it up for the whole shop to see and he said, "look at this, don't be Jealous." Then he would turn up the music and do a little dance. Well....picture us here in Kansas City wearing our new t-shirts, doing a little dance and saying "look at this, don't be jealous." However, if the feelings of jealously will not go away, here are a few remedies:
Since we completely sold out 100 t-shirts in KC this past weekend, I just got done ordering more. Get yours at your local Restore launch team meeting, Sunday November 18th.
We are getting ready to order Repay Cards. We are hoping these cards will be a catalyst for the people of Kansas City to look for opportunities to serve each other. Here is how they work:
You have a card, you look for a way to serve someone, you serve them, you give them them the card. Hopefully when you give them the card, they will look for someone to serve, serve them, and give them the card....and so on and so on, until the card is worn out.
Here are some ideas:
Pay for the person in the drive thru behind you, give the drive thru attendant the card and ask them to give it to the person behind you.
See a yard with tons of leaves in it. Knock on the door, offer to rake the leaves. When they ask how much you charge, give them the card.
Go to the movies, buy an extra ticket. The next person who comes to the counter to buy that particular movie ticket, you say, "wait, I have an extra, here you go, hand them the ticket with the repay card." Walk away....simple.
Pray, ask God to give you opportunities to serve someone else, repaying the kindness we have received from Him.
How fun is that?
Troy being annointed by Dave Ferguson. Pretty cool moment between friends. 
