April 19th, 2001
Hey everybody! God is so awesome!
Due to the generosity of Beaverton Christian Church's people, my wife,
Renee & the boys were able to join me out here for a week! We enjoyed a
couple days at the coast, Zech & I climbed the dune at Cape Kiwanda, and to
the top of Multnomah falls, we all spent time with new friends, Renee got to
check out some homes, plus we had great Easter services at BCC and an egg
hunt with the boys! And you'll love this story: Zechariah (4) was sitting
down on the grass with all his eggs. He would twist open one plastic egg
after another to find the chocolates inside and eat them. Then, he picked
up a hard-boiled egg, "twisted it open", held the mangled egg out to me and
said, "Dad, it hatched!"
Check this out - God is "hatching" something awesome here! This last
Monday, we had our first informational gathering about "Our Place," the
exciting new church coming to the Orenco Station area of Portland, Oregon in
the Fall of 2001! There was a great spirit there - we worshipped God, Clark
spoke about Beaverton Christian Church's vision to reach "the Valley" for
Christ, Jim Penhollow explained why we need to start new churches, and I got
to share the vision of this new church!
It was only our first opportunity to call people to commitment to this new
church, and here's the awesome news in numbers: 89 people showed up - of
those, 65 made some kind of commitment to the church plant! 26 said they've
prayed about it and feel called to be on the Launch Team to prepare the
church to start and provide a core group of people for the church! Still
another 16 said they are still praying about being on the Launch Team!
Another 6 said they want to get involved when it opens! And another 17 said
they were staying at their home churches, but praying diligently for this
new church!
And the great news is that's only the beginning! There is such a healthy
spirit of enthusiasm & excitement here about the project, and it's spreading
quickly! Many others, at BCC and beyond, are expressing their interest in,
& commitment to, this new church!
Also, these past few days we've been holding our first "assessment center"
to assess some potential Orenco staff members and Northwest church planters.
This will become a great tool in identifying effective church planters and
church planting staff members for this church planting movement in the
Northwest!
We are so - "riding the front edge" of a wave - right now! Life is so
hilariously exciting - and people like you and I get to be in on it! God is
only beginning to draw together an amazing team of people who will lead out
to start this new church - I'm so jazzed just watching and trying to keep
up! Please pray that God continues to "hatch" this vision into reality!
Steve Brooke