I don’t have a clue.

Have you ever felt that way?  Have you felt like you were walking into a situation that you had more questions then answers about what you were supposed to do. 

5 years, 3 months, and 2 days–I walked into a room, stared at the back wall and waited for my girlfriend to come through the doors.  About 20 minutes later I no longer had a girlfriend, I had a wife.  I had read a few books, and observed a few men, but the truth is I really didn’t feel like I had a clue how to be a husband.  Five years later, I’m still figuring it out and I’m blessed with an awesome wife who has been extremely gracious. 

1 year and 20 days-I sat in a hospital room and waited for Noah to make his grand entrance into the world.  He took a little longer than we thought, but finally that evening we were able to hold our son for the first time.  I experienced that immediate transfer of love that you have heard about.  Noah hadn’t taken his first step, said his first word, or served his first ace, but I was extremely proud to be his Dad.  While we sat there just looking at him that for the next couple of days I remember thinking once again, I don’t have a clue what I was doing.  My Dad was a great example of what being a father looks like, but there was so much that I don’t know.

1week 6days from today-The Passage Church will officially launch and one thing I have once again realized is that I don’t have a clue.  Church Planting is a ministry like non-other I have ever experienced.  I have been blessed with a great team, great resources, and great mentors, but that doesn’t change the fact that I am treading on ground that is unfamiliar and sometimes overwhelming. 

In all three circumstances the one constant must be my sole dependence upon Jesus.  It  is through living a life that dies to myself and seeks to allow Christ to live through me that God will be honored in my marriage, in my family, and in HIS church.  People often will say, “I hear you are starting your own church,”  and while I know what they are saying, I hope they wrong.  I hope the day never comes where I view The Passage Church as “my” church, but only a vessel that God will use to bring people to a saving knowledge of His grace and mercy found only through the sacrifice of Jesus. 

As you read this please pray for us as we prepare to launch.  As you read this please pray for our area.  As you read this pray for our leadership.  As you read this please pray for me — cause I don’t have a clue. 

matt

3rd and Final Preview

Let me begin by apologizing for the delayed post.  Our 3rd Preview service was last week (Aug. 9th) and there is really no excuse why I haven’t visited the blog.  I continually pledge to be a bit more regular with the blog, I don’t think I’ll ever be the guy who updates daily, but I hope to get a little better.

Notes from the 3rd Preview and other church stuff.

• 133 people in attendance
• preached from Phil. 2, It was our 3rd D–Demonstrate the love of Christ to a lost world.
• We used our own sound equipment and lights!  That will hopeful save a time and money.
• Our drummer for the 3 previews was a high school student from SC,  we are praying that God would provide a drummer for our weekly services.
• We had a number of people volunteer to serve and we need more.
• The band once again did a great job and we are glad to have our worship leader back in the area. 
• We have a pool party coming up on Aug. 29th, hopefully it will be a rallying point for the Sept. 13th LAUNCH. 
• We are pumped that we have been able to keep momentum through the summer previews and are excited to begin weekly services.
• We are still looking for some churches to sponsor us by paying the rent for a month at the High School, this figure is $2600. 

Personal Notes:

• Noah turned 1 on Aug. 11th!!!!!
• Jenn is heading back to school this week pray for here as she begins a new school year.  I’m going to miss getting to see her everyday at lunch. 
• Trying to plan my preaching for the year.   
• After preseason game #1 I’m worried about the Colts.

We are excited about all that God is doing here, please join us in prayer, in person, or preferably both!

The Final Gameday

In life God has used numerous people and numerous events to reveal himself to me.  I have been blessed with Godly parents who taught me about Jesus from a very early age, I had the best youth pastor on the planet when I was in middle school, I had a great FCA huddle leader in High School, and went to college with some guys that are now in my opinion some of the best Christian leaders and pastors in the Country.  Among all that God also provided me with an opportunity to spend three summers working Crosspoint Christian Sports camp. 

Crosspoint has been a ministry out of Lifeway for 24 years, using the medium of sports to engage kids 4th-8th grade with the Gospel.  There was nothing like loading up a full sized Budget truck with equipment and two vans with college students, hitting the road for 10 weeks of ministry. 

It has been 10 years since my first summer with Crosspoint and I still miss it.  Not a summer has passed where I haven’t remembered those three summers I spent ministering to kids. 

If your not familiar with the Crosspoint format on the final day of sport times we would have GAMEDAY.  It is what you built up to all week long.  Today will be, as I understand it, the final Crosspoint Gameday.  Lifeway has made the decision to no longer offer Crosspoint.  They instead will move the sports tracks into their Centri-Kid camps.  I know that Centri-Kid camps may still end the week with a “gameday,”  but Gameday, Crosspoint style will cease to exist. 

Please don’t get me wrong, I have taken kids to Centri-Kid and it is a great camp.  They have their own traditions, such as OMC, that are a blast and kids love what they are doing.  Centri-Kid camps have grown in some incredible ways, and I’m sure the folks in the office are doing what is best, but as a former Crosspoint staffer it is a sad day. 

I know that you probably don’t care, but I thought I would give some of my “Highlights” (99 theme) of my short Crosspoint career, both spiritual and random.

Spiritual:

3.)  Seeing former campers walking with the Lord.  This week I had lunch with a director I had as camper in 2002.  Taking kids to camp over the years I have been reunited with numerous former campers that were current staff. 

2.)  Cumberland University 99 — week k 2 — The first time I got to lead a kid to Christ at camp.  I remember I was so pumped that night. 

1.)  Bluefield College 2000 — our first week at Bluefield God moved in an incredible way.  We saw tons of kids give their lives to Jesus that week.  I remember trying to fight back tears as we saw a young girl come forward who earlier in the week, finally opened up about an abusive situation at home.  

Random  ( I know I will forget some things, I haven’t really done any brainstorming to come up with these)

3.)  Riding in the Budget truck with the windows down and all of a sudden hundreds of bees were in the cab.  We had to pull of the road and compose ourselves and kill a few bees.

2.)  Going to the wrestling match at the National Guard Armory.  We got to get in the ring at the end and I climb to the top rope (lifelong dream).

1.)  Trey — Kid named Trey who came to me crying one day because he got his hat stuck on his head, just one of many funny things that happened to that kid.  At the end of the week he forgot his nametag and I still have it 10 years later. 

 

I hope my CP friends and formers staffers enjoyed reading and will share their memories. 

matt

Monday quotes and notes

Notes

• We have been working hard to keeping the momentum from the first two preview services alive with our team and our community.
• In only 6 weeks we will be meeting weekly!!!!
• We have a big outreach event this week at Chick-fil-a, we are praying that we get to talk with hundreds of people.
• Jenn got a drum set today and Noah loves them. 
• Noah turns 1 on Aug. 11th — How did that happen? 
• The Cubs are in 1st place, but I don’t know if it will last. 

Today’s quote comes from Mark Driscoll and his book Vintage Church.  The book takes a look at the Church today and some of the important questions we can’t ignore in order to lead.  In the 2nd Chapter he answers the question what is the Christian Church.  I think we all could ramble long enough to put together an answer, but would we really capture what church is about?  

When I was 20 I believed that God was calling me into full time ministry.  Now I am 30 and I believe that  full time ministry will be spent building the church through church planting.  Therefore, I believe it is important that I am capable of answering the question, What is the Christian Church.   Here is Driscoll’s definition based on Acts 2:

“The local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord.  In obedience to Scripture they organize under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and Communion, are unified by the Spirit, and disciplined for holiness, and scatter to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission as missionaries to the world for God’s glory and their joy.”

                                                                     Mark Driscoll, Vintage Church, pg. 38

I hope you have a great week.

Preview 2 – Notes

We had our second preview service on Sunday July 12th.  While we did have few issues out of our control things went well.  The school didn’t turn on the a/c which made for warm worship and kids areas.  This week I’m working on making sure this NEVER happens again. 

All things considered it was a great week together.  The monthly previews are a great thing and give us time to build momentum and talk with people, but selfishly it is not often enough.  I’m already longing for the next service on Aug. 9th. 

Here are a few notes

-we set up and tore down in record time!  I know it is was only our second time, but I was impressed with our team.

-we had 118 people in attendance on Sunday.  Once again we didn’t know what to expect.  There were quite a few folks from the previous preview service out of town. 

-My former youth pastor, good friend, role model, mentor, was able to be there with his family on Sunday.  His son Jonthan played the drums again for us and did a great job.  We also had a great time hanging out with them on Friday and Saturday.

-The worship set was once again a great set list: Spring of Life, Faithful, How Great is our God, Mighty to Save and we ended with All Because of Jesus.

-The welcome team had plenty of water!

-Next month will be our final preview service and we will hit the final part of our vision — To see people demonstrate the love of Jesus to a lost world. 

Thank you for your prayers and support.  I’m sending out our monthly prayer list today if you are not currently receiving it please let me know.

The New

This week I posted on my facebook status that I am learning about and researching things that I never knew existed until I planted a church.  I know that may sound like I’m really knocking out some groundbreaking research or learning a new cutting edge ministry tool, but I’m not.  I’m learning about things that most people may already have under there belt. 

I’m trying to learn how to connect my church.  I don’t mean just connect them to a website, which I’m currently looking for a web designer if you know someone, I mean connect them to each other.  I’m looking at web-based companies that make it easy to communicate with the people who are involved in your church.  Connecting people together with the main idea of connecting them to Christ. 

I’m also thinking through marketing.  For years I worked camps and youth events where my job was to show up and minister to those in attendance.  It wasn’t my job to market and advertise the events.  It wasn’t my responsibility to get people in the door.  After that time I worked at a church in the middle of town.  Everyone knew who we were, for better or worse, and where we were located.  So when I was connecting with people it was easy, because they knew our church and had either driven past or for some occasion been inside it.  What are marketing tools will work to get people inside the doors of our Church?  What methods are effective in letting people know you exist? 

These are some of the things that are consuming my thoughts.  Many in ministry may have this mastered but it is very new to me. 

Any thoughts you have or products and services that have worked for you, please share them with me. 

matt

Finally

Well the big day finally arrived.  Yesterday was the first preview service for The Passage Church.  We began on Saturday setting up at the High School and got a good jump on the work that needed to be done.  Had we not set aside that time on Saturday we would have been way behind on Sunday morning. 

God has given us a great team of people that put many, many hours into the set up and tear down process.  We have people that have sacrificed in numerous ways in order Sunday could get off the ground.  We are grateful for our team. 

The babies, preschool, and children’s areas looked great and from what I understand flowed smoothly.  We didn’t have any issues and all the kids I talked to said they had a great time. 

The worship service had a few moments where we wondered if we were going to be able to project anything on screens, but it came together.   Another way God has blessed our church is with the worship leadership of Jonathan Holliday.  Holliday pulled together a great band for Sunday and also was cool under pressure as he worked to get the projectors up and running as 10:30 approached.  The worship set for Sunday was awesome:

All Because of Jesus

Spring of Life

In Christ Alone

Mighty to Save

The message was from Matthew 19:16-22, the story of the Rich Young Ruler.  I’m teaching the 3-D vision: Decide, Develop, and Demonstrate. 

Thank you all for the prayers and support.  Please keep praying!  We got off to a great start, but it is just a start.  We really believe that this is what God is calling us to. 

We also found out that when we begin in September our rent will be approximately $2600 a month.  We are currently looking for 12 churches to sponsor us by paying the rent for one month.  If you know a pastor who might be interested I would love the chance to talk with him.

The next service is July 12th and I CAN’T WAIT.

 

matt

Countdown…

This week is crazy.  We are only a few days away from our first preview service and I am pumped.  Today I hope to finish the sermon so I can really focus tomorrow on the details of set-up. 

There are still so many things to go and buy and packages we are waiting to arrive.  There have been numerous times this week I have had to repent of my own anxiety and worry, reminding myself that I must trust God.  I understand that nothing good will happen on Sunday morning because of me and my team, but on through the grace of Jesus. 

I will post on Monday about the first preview service and I will close with a few of the final prayer request:

-the lost people that we know will be there

-the set-up process Sunday morning

-the financial needs

-the worship leadership

Thank You

matt

Monday Quote

I know this quote is a day late and it won’t be accompanied by life updates, but I wanted to leave a quick word on the blog.  I will work to get some notes on the blog this week, but will need to knock it out by tomorrow because Thrusday-Saturday is Adavance 09. 

I have been reading a book entitled “Dear Timothy” by a collection of pastors.  It is written from the perspective of the established pastor as Paul and the new pastor as Timothy.  It has contained great wisdom and help, but now chapter has smacked me around like chapter 8 on humility by C.J. Mahaney.  Here are a few quotes:

“Our churches are testimonies to the greatness and graciousness of God–not monuments of our leadership and preaching.”

“Where there is worry and anxiety, there is the pride of self-reliance.”

“All day, every day, I need to keep directing my thought to God, keep standing close to the cross, keep offering thanks for innumerable evidences of grace and keep casting my cares on the One who cares for me with such perfect love and faithfulness.”

Have a great week.

matt

Church Planting Update

About a month ago I was talking with a church planter who has been at it for about 9 or 10 years now.  His church is still growing and still reaching people, we had a good talk about all things church planting.  In our conversation he compared church planting to building a bicycle while trying to learn to ride it at the same time.  After about six weeks on the job I can completely agree with his assessment. 

Currently, we have added families to our core team and are still praying for more additions over the next couple of weeks.  We also will begin a few small groups in the next couple of weeks and are excited about adding some new faces through small groups in our homes. 

Last week Jennifer and I went up to Liberty University for a meeting with their church planting network and the church was approved for funding through the network.  They will send a check for $2,000 a month and will match $30,000, but we must repay that amount beginning on the 13th month of our existence.   Notice a key word in that last sentence was MATCH. We have go to get busy raising $30,000.  If you are reading this post and want to know how you can help.  Please call me at 919.366.6101 or email me at mjwalton33@bellsouth.net.  If you don’t need any additional information and want to partner financially you can do that by sending your gift to:

The Passage Church, PO Box 1807, Wendell, NC 27591

Please continue to pray. 

in HIM

Matt