Molly...

Last Sunday, Molly, the school custodian sat in during the worship Gathering . Afterwards, I had a chance to talk with her for a significant amount of time as people were leaving. She really poured out her heart to me, and we had an incredible conversation about God and life. Our conversation eventually turned towards me having the opportunity to share the plan of salvation with her. Molly admitted that she had never gone to church prior to Epic coming to the school. She has been going through a tough time but felt that God was drawing her to himself. I then asked her if she was ready to make the choice to follow Jesus. She said that she was, so I led her over to the chairs in the lobby and prayed with her to receive Christ as her Lord and Savior. She said she had a real sense of peace after praying together. Yea God!!! Please pray for Molly and Epic as we help her take her next steps in her new relationship with God.

Open...

This last week, during my personal prayer time, I began praying, "God, would You move in our midst and pour yourself out in our Gatherings in such a way that we can't miss You?"

Last Sunday we showed up to the school an hour and a half before our Gathering started only to discover that we didn't have power. The storms that came through on Friday left many homes and buildings without power. The school had a generator back up but it was only enough power to flush a few toilets and turn on a couple lights. I was so proud of the resilient attitude of our church. We looked things over and quickly reassessed what our Gathering would entail for the day. Instead of focusing on what we didn't have we got pretty excited about what did have.

1. We had a beautiful day.

2. We had an overhang outdoors that would hold everyone and protect us from the direct sunlight.

3. We still had use of the restrooms.

4. We had a wonderful playground on the other side of the school for the kids to play on after their lesson.

5. We have portable chairs, and tables that we could just move outside.

6. We have an incredibly gifted and flexible worship team that was able to put together an acoustic set on the fly. They had to come up with songs that were a little more familiar from their original set list. Then Our drummer realized that he had some paint buckets in his car (which sounded really cool). The custodian allowed us to use an acoustic piano that was on rollers in the music room. We had an acoustic guitar and singers with great hearts and voices.

7. We had a children's ministry that was able to adapt and still make things run with excellence. I heard one of our kids say, this was the best Sunday ever, I wish we could do this every week.

8. We had a Gathering that was full of people that saw this as an opportunity rather than an obstacle and they were grateful for the opportunity to still gather for worship.

9. We had prayer. Prior to our Gathering many of us prayed and thanked God for this opportunity. We asked that He would be our focus and that He would still bring the people.

Afterwards I had so many people comment on what an incredible experience it was. Some even asked if we could do that more often! The presence of God was evident and it was so simple and different. I was reminded at how often I seem to put God in a box and expect Him to work according to MY plans, MY comfort zones and MY traditions. As if to say God can't work outside the lines that I've drawn in the sand. In reality God doesn't need for me to figure everything out for Him, all He needs from me is an open heart!

www.epicmishawaka.org

Journey's

Yesterday, I went to the graduation ceremony for Bethel College as several of our students from Epic were graduating. Yesterday reminded me of just how grateful I am for the college students that have journeyed with us at Epic. Several of them have stepped up in huge ways and are being used by God. This last Sunday was our last Sunday with some and several will be heading home or on various trips throughout the summer. We're going to miss them and were already looking forward to their return! One of our students, Casey Hasselkus recently blogged about her journey with Epic.

http://caseyhasselkus.blogspot.com/2010/04/epic-journey.html

Week 2

We had a great second week as well. During our first week we had a guy from Michigan that came and visited. He was so compelled with our heart for meeting needs and reaching out to our community that he wanted to help partner with us. As it turns out, he is a distributor for an organization that gives away large amounts of free food to other non-for-profit organizations. He ended up getting 1,000 lbs. of apples and 80 loaves of bread and asked us if we could use them to help touch some lives in our community. Our team rallied to the challenge and we distributed every last apple and loaf of bread to multiple families in need. As a result we were able to have so many incredible conversations with people as we started the conversation by simply letting people know that God loves them. So many were blessed and several asked what church we were with (we only told them if they asked as our heart is that people will know that God loves them and that they would get involved in any church that serious about being devoted followers of Jesus).

On Wednesday I received another phone call that challenged our team significantly. We learned that due to a mechanical issue we would no longer be able to use the stage in the gym where we were holding our worship gatherings. This posed several significant issues. First we didn't have any stage (and I'm really short). Secondly, Even if we get a stage we don't have a big enough trailer to haul it in.

As we prayed and talked with others, we ended up having a church allow us to use their portable stage that they were just storing and not using...and they told us we could use it long term. Then, one of our team members posted our need on his facebook status and a guy responded that his father had a 24 foot trailer that he wasn't using and he thought we could use it long term. On that Sunday, we ended up completely flipping the direction and using the new stage and most people said that they liked the feel even better.

We ended up having 105 people (which I found out is pretty decent for the second week) and most importantly, we had 12 first time visitors from the community that came (not very usual...but awesome)!

God continues to go before us and He continues to remind us that nothing catches Him by surprise...it's His church that He's building after all!

Public Launch Sunday...

We had an amazing first Sunday! We conservatively had 198 people in attendance (although we think there were more than that...and we’re double checking our figures). Our team did a really great job inviting and there were several faces that I didn’t know or recognize from within the community. We had two families that came as a result of our promotion (one of which was a single Father who hadn’t been to church in over 7 years).

On a personal note, Ann and I had 15 of our friends from the community and neighborhood show up (plus all of their kids)! Many of them said that they really enjoyed it and are planning to come back. At the end of my message as we went into our second worship set, there were several who were visibly moved by God! In fact one of my friends that was a prayerful and financial supporter came down from Wisconsin posted on our Epic Facebook wall, “One of the most powerful (services) I've ever attended...EPIC is amazing!!!! God is really at work here.”

Friends, it’s apparent that lives are being impacted and changed, and we’re asking God to continue to use us for so much more! Please keep praying for us!

This Sunday - The Big Day!

It's been a long time in waiting but this Sunday is the day! We will be having our first public worship gathering. The team has been working their tails off and I'm so thankful for each and every one of them. The last two weeks we held our preview services at the Meadows Edge Elementary School (where we will now meet) and they went incredibly well. Last week Jennie Kintner spoke and I heard nothing but positive feedback. Again the strength is the incredible team that God has brought to Epic. I'm really excited as I've had several of my friends and family members mention that they are coming this Sunday. We even have some of our supporters from Wisconsin and Colorado coming in to be a part of this momentous occasion. We're so grateful for all of you who have prayed and supported us in so many different ways!

As we go into this Sunday, please pray that God will:

• Bring the people in that need to be there.
• That God will move in hearts and lives would be changed.
• That Epic will have a significant ongoing impact in our community and around the world.
• That God will continue to give us a heart for people who are far from Him.
• That God’s provision and protection would be on us physically, spiritually and emotionally.

On a more personal note, I could use your prayers as Ann and I had a loss in our family this last Sunday night. One minute before we were supposed to start our service, Ann and I received a text that we needed to "get to the hospital now." We had to leave and the team went on without us. As it turns out, our nephew Joshua was born on Sunday night but was only with us for an hour after his birth. We were made aware of this diagnosis prior to his birth so it didn't come as a total shock. However our family is deeply saddened by this and would appreciate your prayers. Please especially remember my brother, Jonathan and his wife, Kristin as they mourn the loss of their first child. Ann and I are so grateful for all of your prayers and encouragement!

Pre-Launch...

Last Sunday night was our final worship gathering at First United Methodist Church. We are so grateful to the leadership and people of FUMC for graciously allowing us to use their facilities over the last 5 months. Our final worship gathering was special as we had several guests from some of the partnering churches along with the 5 senior pastors and their spouses from the 5 lead team churches (which have supplied us with people and finances) came to pray a prayer of commissioning over our launch team. It was a very inspiring night and we're excited to begin this next phase.

I've been in several meetings trying to nail down all the final details before our public launch on March 7th. We are in the midst of a marketing campaign that Josh Yoder is heading up. Josh and the team are doing a great job with the marketing and have been really creative in this effort. Our different ministry teams are working endless hours to get prepared but everything seems to be coming together and I'm being constantly reminded of how grateful I am for the people that God brought to this team. It's so evident that we have the right people with the right gifts and He has continued to meet our needs.

Please be in prayer for our us as we begin this next phase of our church plant:

• Please pray that God move in the hearts of the people within our community and that they will come out to Epic and that we will be faithful in doing our part in their lives as God does His part.
• Please pray for God’s provision and blessing upon us.
• Please pray for God’s protection on our team (spiritual, emotional, physical).
• Please pray that God would go before us and that we would follow His lead.
• Please pray that people who are far from God will be reconciled to Him through this ministry.

Countdown!

I just met with our launch team last night and there is a general sense of anxious anticipation. We are looking forward to our public launch on March 7th at Meadows Edge Elementary School. Our Worship gathering time will be at 10:30 on Sunday mornings. We are calling this "Stage 2" of our launch. With our Stage 2 launch we have re-invited our previous launch team members to re-up their commitment to be a part of this second stage and I'm excited to tell you that everyone has decided to do so and we have the privilege of having new people joining the team.

We are getting ready to start our Home Groups. Currently we have three homes that we will be launching in the next week and there are more that we are prepared to start after we begin our public gatherings. The home groups will be a significant part our spiritual formation process and helping people get connected to Epic.

It's so amazing to see how God is continuing to go before us and meet our needs. When we initially put our plan together in October, we had a goal of raising $50,000 in order to purchase everything we needed to do our launch. As of January we had raised/saved up $24,000 and this seemed significantly off pace for where we needed to be by March. Once again God reminded us that He is building His church and that He is our provider in both resources and people. We have so many talented and gifted individuals on our launch team that God brought and they have been able to be creative and resourceful to the point that it now appears that we are only going to have to spend $10,000 to launch (and still do our ministry with excellence). From God having another church allow us to use their trailer to being able to build things at cost, we are seeing everything come together for way under the initial estimated start price. God is so amazing! What's most exciting is that this allows us to use the additional money to continue in other forms of outreach to our community. Yea God!

Currently we're really heavy into the public marketing stage of our launch. Please pray that this will be effective and that we will have wisdom in this area. Once again, I feel good about my marketing team since I'm working with two young business majors/graduates who have some expertise and creativity in this.

Please pray that everything will come together for our preview services and then for our public launch on March 7th. Please pray that we wont lose sight of what we're about and why we're doing this...that we will remain focused on the vision and the mission!

Finally, please pray for God's hand to move in several ways:

• To touch people's hearts and lives in our community through Epic.
• To protect the hearts, minds and families of those who are a part of this team/church.
• To continue to provide.
• To continue to lead us (and that we wont let go of his hand).

Thank you for your prayerful support.