September '08 Church Planting Update (Ariel & Lindsay)

[ariell...@gmail.com]

A lot has happened since our last church planting update.

Near the end of August, Lindsay and I drove out to Jefferson City for
a “church planter assessment” with the Southern Baptist Convention.
The basic idea with an assessment is to evaluate prospective planters
and their wives via a series of interviews with seasoned planters and
an extensive written questionnaire (over 400 questions). This process
yields a profile that evaluates character, personality type, spiritual
gifting, etc.-in short, the ingredients that the Bible says are
crucial in leaders, combined with indicators that decades of research
have shown are important in church planting. (One of the tools used is
the Ridley Characteristics.)

We finished the assessment on Saturday, stopped by Jeff City’s main
attraction, the amazing Central Dairy, and headed home to watch
movies, play tic-tac-toe, and do crosswords while we waited for our
results. About two weeks later, we got the official report: “Go for
it!” Or, in church planting parlance, “It is the recommendation of the
Church Planting Assessing Team that the candidate will be most
effective as a Founding Church Planter.”

This opens doors for us to partner with the Missouri Baptist
Convention and receive access to training, a local strategist, an
internship, and some funding. This is our first substantial
partnership, and something that excites me is God’s people getting
together to advance the gospel, so I’m pumped about this.

In a few days, we’ll be heading back to Jefferson City for church
planter “Basic Training” and some more incredible ice cream, if I get
my way. We’re looking forward to jumping into the nuts & bolts of all
this, and beginning to put specific plans together. In addition, we’ve
also kicked off an internship partnership with a

young church plant in Independence, Missouri, LifeConnection. This
will allow us to get our hands dirty in the day-to-day operations of a
church plant and gain some invaluable experience while we work with
the great team pastor Jason Allen has put together.

Over the weekend, Lindsay and I were walking the streets of KC’s
Crossroads art district, feeling a sense of excitement as we toured
the galleries open on “First Fridays” and did some people-watching. We
feel like things are (finally) beginning to accelerate after a long
summer of thinking and waiting. We have a ton of work ahead of us, but
it’s good to be meaningfully busy. Here are some things we’d love for
you to pray for us:

1. That we’d find the right house. KC’s Westside neighborhood, just
outside downtown, seems perfect, but housing there is not cheap. We’re
also considering moving to Independence for the duration of the
internship. Pray that God will open the right door.
2. That we’d find the right core team members. We’re beginning to
put together the team God will use to get a downtown church plant off
the ground. Pray that we’ll find the right people.
3. That we’d discover the right partners. Not everyone can be part
of a church plant in a core team, hands-on way, but God puts it on
some people’s hearts to support new gospel work by donating volunteer
time, prayer, or money, or some combination thereof. Pray that we’ll
discover the right partners, both churches and individuals.

As always, feel free to send us your thoughts or questions. Thanks for
reading our updates!

Peace,

Ariel (AJ), Lindsay, Aidan, and Asher

P.S. For the interactive (links and photos) version of this letter,
check http://arieljvan.com.