Thursday, July 27, 2006

Some thought regarding a location for our church plant

We thank the Lord for all those who joined us in our recent Prayer Meeting at our Lake home. It was truly a blessed time! We were joined by about 45 people who spent time together, enjoying good food, fellowship and fun on the water- and then had a rich worship and prayer time. The topic of this week's session was WHERE. Sue and I have been praying and seeking the Lord about this question for the past 7 months now...we believe that the Lord is confirming in our hearts that we seek to plant a church in Morristown. We have researched, prayed, talked with various people, visited various communities. These are the factors that have led us to focus more on Morristown:
-It is outside of the 12 mile radius that was given to us from the May 11th meeting at Hillside
-Because of my involvement in the "Concerts of Prayer" movement in NYC, our hearts are being drawn back toward New York City. Therefore, our hearts are being drawn east rather than west.
-Morristown is the county seat, and a place of major influence and opportunity for our entire county
-There are over 100,000 people within a 5 mile radius of the town center ("The Green")
-There is more ethnic diversity in this town than many other towns in Morris County
-Morristown also has a long influential history, dating back to the time of the revolutionary period of our nation. George Washington's headquarters were in Morristown during the major turning point of the Revolutionary War (Winters of 1777 and 1779-1780).
-Although there are many churches in the town of Morristown (about 30), there is a significant need for a vibrant evangelical church in the town of Morristown at this time. Other mission churches have met the challenge in that area as well-but, only a few.
-Morristown is a small city, rather than a large town, and thus is more likely to accept a ministry that is more "progressive" (a "church without walls?").
-Morristown has a number of vital ministries that impact the entire county, including Market St. Mission, First Choice Women's center, a branch of Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army, Prison Ministries, etc. These ministries provide opportunities for service for people from our church to be involved in.
-We are engaged in discussions with the General Manager of "Clearview Cinemas" about meeting in the Clearview Cinema in Headquarters plaza for worship (please pray about this!). This setting is well-know to people throughout the town and throughout the county.
-We have met a pastor and his wife, David and June Griffith (they were at our last prayer gathering), who have expressed interest in our church planting efforts. David had resigned from his parish ministry in New Brunswick over a month ago, before he even knew that we were in prayer about our church plant. He felt a strong leading from the Lord to be involved in some way in church planting in the town in which he grew up, Morristown. I liken David to the "man in Macedonia" in Acts 16:6-10, who called upon Paul to "come on over and help us". He also has a network of people who have indicated interest in our church planting efforts.
Pray that the Lord would confirm HIS plans for us. We are always willing to be moved and corrected, but the strong leading that we feel seems to be genuinely from the Lord to move into Morristown.

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