The Month of June

This adventure continues to be an incredibly fast-paced journey with things to do around every corner.  A noticeable part of the last couple of weeks has been spiritual conversations with a number of people that are not connected to a church and/or Jesus Christ.  Whether I simply walk across the road, take a moment to ask someone at the local coffee shop how their day is going, or faithfully getting together with a friend to read a secular book with him, conversation seems to happen.  It is a lot of fun to watch and be apart of.  That being said, I have recognized my complete dependance and need for God to do something with those conversations which brings to my attention the necessity of prayer.  So, I’ve been praying more :) 


The leaders of our launch team have started to meet on Sunday evenings.  At this “leadership huddle”  we are discussing what it means to live out the gospel and asking the questions, “How do we live out good news in Benton County and what does that mean for us as Re:new Church?”  On a weekly basis we will be challenging each other to be a missional presence in our spheres of influence, sharing how we see God at work in our community, praying for each other, and raising up leaders for gospel-centered missional communities.  Our goal at these meetings is ultimately to make disciples that make disciples, consequently, missional groups that send out new missional groups and ultimately, be a church that plants new churches.  With that in mind our hope is to turn our leadership huddle into four missional communities (re:groups) and that each re:group leader would start the their community group with an apprentice leader.  Our purpose for apprentice leaders is to raise up and train leaders that will be sent out to start new apprentice leaders (and on and on and on).  We don’t want to split our missional communities, we want to send out new missional communities.  Our plan look some like this:

June, July, August:  Raise up four leaders at our leadership huddle.

September, October, November:  4 leaders lead 4 missional communities through a 12 week faith journey.  Each leader working along side their apprentice leader!

December:  Recharge!  Enjoy our families, celebrate Jesus’ birth, get ready for next season of re:groups!

January, February, March: 8 leaders lead 8 missional communities through a 12 week faith journey.  Each leader train their apprentice leader!

April 1:  Tentative Grand Opening of Re:new Church!

April 22 - May 27: 16 leaders and 16 apprentices lead 16 missional communities through a 6 week sermon based faith journey.

June, July, August:  Recharge

September, October, November:  32 leaders and 32 apprentices lead 32 missional communities on a 12 week faith journey.

Ok...  This may be idealistic but it is our strategy and goal.  Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to make disciples that make disciples, plant missional re:groups that plant other missional re:groups, and be a church that plants other churches.
Till next time!  Josh

Hiking, Gathering, BBQ

New photos posted! Check the "Pages" link on the right  -->

June 6 update (Josh's birthday!!)

Over Memorial Day weekend we drove up to Lynden, WA.  Amanda and I both commented how surreal it felt driving down the Hanegen Road to Lynden in our our own car.  We hadn’t done that in nearly 20 years.  After enjoying the weekend with my Mom and grandparents we got back to settling in.

Last week I continued to work on web site and administrative plans but the issue that was at the top of the priority list was picking out a name for the church.  So after asking all my facebook friends, talking with members of the Chamber of Commerce, talking it over with launch team members, polling my neighbors and asking a few random people at local coffee shops we have decided to go with the name Renew Church (or Re:new Church).  Thursday I asked God to make it clear which name we should go with.  Nothing earth shattering happened, in fact, by the end of the day I really didn’t care.  I just wanted to get the decision behind us.  Surprisingly, first thing Friday morning I was unpacking some framed pictures.  One of those pictures was a gift to me from Larry and Marsha Satterla that they had given me when I graduated from seminary.  2 Corinthians 5:17 was on that picture which reads, “If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come.”  That was enough confirmation for me.  Renew Church it is!

On Saturday a few members of the launch team went hiking at Silver Falls.  Wow.  I think we saw eight falls on our five mile hike.  Amazing!  I’m thinking that we are going to start a “Hike for Health” club and try to go hiking at least two times a month.  Later that evening we enjoyed a cook out at a park (down by the river) with our launch team and played some two-hand touch football.  

Sunday was a big day for us.  Not only was it Levi’s 4th birthday, but we also hosted house church and later hosted a party for Levi at someone else’s house (let Jim and Patti know that I am still throwing parties at other people’s homes).  I don’t even have a grill so I had to borrow some from the neighbors so I could grill up some of my famous BBQ Chicken and Ribs.  I used my Sassy Molassy BBQ sauce and rocked it out on the grill.  The whole day was a party on Roseberry Street.  

Today is a new week and my birthday.  Yeah!  However, the long list of things to do continues to grow.  Formulating a specific action plan and objectives now stands at the top of my to do list.  I will also be working on my first newsletter, thank you letters, logo design, web page, setting up our online community, buying a printer, formalizing our leadership huddles and putting together a calendar for the summer.  Never a dull moment in church planting.  

Please continue to ask Jesus to pour out his grace on Roseberry Street, Renew Church, Corvallis and Benton County.  Ask God to equip us for our mission to renew the spiritual landscape of Benton County by loving God and Others.   

And check out our pictures! (Hiking pics coming soon)

Week Two Overview (it rhymes)

(Note on the right a new 'page' of home and Oregon photos)
Making connections was the theme of this past week.  Whether I was making connections at the Chambers Greeters meeting or trying to get internet connected at the office, the week was all about connections.

Monday and Tuesday I spent formalizing our Administration and Facility Teams and hope to set those teams loose in the next couple of weeks on regular tasks that will help us meet both short term and long term objectives.  Not glamourous but the backbone of a smoothly operating organization.  I feel like both areas are off to a  good start.

Wednesday I took the day off to enjoy having Jim, my step-dad, in town.  We hung out in the morning and after school drove out to the coast, enjoyed God’s beauty and finished our trip by stuffing our faces with Abby’s Legendary Pizza in Newport, OR.  Yes, this was Abby’s request and it was indeed delicious.  

Thursday I said goodbye to Jim and trucked up to a LEAD team meeting with other area Christian Reformed Pastors.  It was good meeting the other pastors of Oregon.  For those of you in Michigan it might be interesting for you to know that there are only 8 Pastors of Christian Reformed Churches in the whole state of Oregon.  That’s it!  I’m hoping that we can do something about that beginning with Corvallis.  

On both Friday and Saturday I enjoyed breakfast with cool guys and listened to their stories.  Saturday evening we had a Root Beer Float Social at the church building. After enjoying a time of hanging out and talking about life stuff we sent the kids outside to run around on the playground and then talked about forming a good foundation.  We talked about focusing on three things.  Our spiritual foundation, our relational foundation and our financial foundation.  We desire to change the spiritual landscape of Benton county by loving God and loving others.  In order to accomplish this mission we must build on a common foundation.  So we intend to nurture a strong spiritual, relational and financial foundation.   We ended the evening by spending time in prayer. During our time of prayer we took sharpies and wrote prayers for our community on the existing walls of the church as a symbol of what we hope to see God do not only in the Church building but also in Benton County through us.  

By the time Sunday rolled around we were tired so we decided to stay home from church and have church at home.  So, after eating donuts we gathered in the living room to sing songs, read a bible story and do a craft.  Well, by the time we started Essie had invited the whole neighborhood to come and guess what... four other girls showed up to sing songs, hear a bible story with pictures and do a craft.  It was great.  Essie has the gift of hospitality.

Please continue to pray for Corvallis, for a good foundation in the lives of our launch team and for our neighbors that learn most of what they know about Jesus through the way we live.  

Financial Update:

To date...

Set Up and Renovations:  We have raised $40,465!  $59,535 needed to reach our financial goal.

Ministry Budget Goal:        We have raised $25,950! $34,050 needed to reach our financial goal.

Please consider becoming a financial partner and helping us meet our goals.

Thank You!

Josh VanTil

Renew Corvallis

Financial Campaign

“Houston, The Van Has Landed!"

Just last night six of Essie’s new friends from the neighborhood where over at our house watching Kung Fu Panda and eating ice cream and cookies.  We have been baptized into our new community and it is wonderful.  I love our new neighbors they are beautiful people and have truly made us feel like we are home.

Week one has been busy and fun.  As we arrived at 4823 SW Roseberry about ten members our our launch team arrived.  Four hours later we were sitting at our neighbor’s  home eating their food, drinking their beverages and meeting everyone that we will be sharing life with by virtue of living in the same development. This is the how our week has transpired.  From one thing to the next, running here and there and meeting all kinds of people along the way. 

Monday morning I spent a couple hours at the church site taking down pictures and curtains preparing our launch team for the idea that many thing are going to change.

On Tuesday I enjoyed an Oregon brew at Squirrel's, a local brew pub, with a local twenty-something.  I’m hoping to enjoy his company weekly. 

Wednesday I enjoyed spiritual conversations with two guys at a local bike shop.  By the way, there are at least four bike shops in the downtown area.  Bikes are everywhere.

Thursday I had breakfast with the director of the local chapter of IHOP (International House Of Prayer).  I see some really cool partnership opportunities.  Later I had yogurt with the Executive Pastor of Grace City Church.  This is a local church that has been extremely successful at being missional and reaching both college students and young families.  Then later in the evening I enjoyed coffee with a male member of our launch team that has agreed to meet with me weekly to grow, challenge, and hold each other accountable.  We both hope to see the group grow and become a place to grow leaders.  Exciting.

Friday (yesterday),  I took Abby and Essie to their first day of school.  Amanda took Noah to his new school.  The girls where immediately attacked by groups of girls that wanted to meet the “new girl in town.”  I almost cried.  Seriously!  Later, I enjoyed coffee with the first member of our administrate team then had another cup of coffee with a young musician who is quickly becoming a good friend.  We will be sitting down weekly to dream and grow.  Then later in the evening we made deep dish pizza for all the people in the neighborhood.  The pizza was amazing, if I don’t say so myself :) and our day ended with a bunch of girls sitting in our living room watch the movie.

Today:  In Fifteen minutes we (the whole family) are walking over to Marti’s house to help tear out weeds and turn over soil to make flower beds.  Later I plan on going to the bike shop and picking up some stuff for my main mode of transportation and then tonight we are having a cook out with the launch team out “on the farm.”

What a week!  God is good.  More later...
Josh

We Made It!

We've been in a cyber black-hole for the last few days because I didn't connect the cable at the NEW HOUSE! So here I sit at Starbucks downtown Corvallis - a place where I have a feeling we'll be frequenting - me for fuel and Josh for connecting with folks.

The house is working out great! The first impression for us was that the yard was too small - a 6' strip across the back and a 10' square patch in the front. Noah will have it mowed in about 10 minutes! When he got out of the car he noticed some big dandelions: "I'll have to pull those, Mom!" I had no idea he was such a lawn guy! But we've since learned that the yard is not where the action is - more on that later.

Anyway, the house will work great for all of us. It's hard to untangle among the boxes, but that too is coming along. The kitchen will be a hurdle, but we're going to solve that by shopping weekly as opposed to buying in bulk as we have in the past. And there's two grocery stores within a 1/2 mile - Noah's already run to do a quick pick up for me on his bike. It's gonna be a wonderful life!

We got to the house at 1 pm and by 3 pm we were invited by the neighbors to a gathering where we met 7-8 other neighbors. Amazing! We had been praying that God would bring us the sense of community that we left in Grand Rapids, and we are certainly not in need - Praise God! The neighbors that flank our house are also Christians and wonderful people, and other folks are new to the area and looking for a new church. Amazing!

God is good! All the time, God is good!

More later! We might have internet at the house by this afternoon and I'll post more then.

Hermiston, OR

And that's about all there is to say.  We made it to the booming metropolis of Hermiston. Maybe it's the long hours of close proximity, or maybe it's just that there's not much to report about arriving in Hermiston, but I've run out of verbage for the day, I do believe.

We left my folks' house in Victor, ID this morning around 9 a.m. stopping only 3 times, I think. As we move west, I've noticed the farms getting greener. Not sure what the crop is, but it sure is pretty. Josh questioned again at some point today, "WHY didn't we make this move sooner?" Based on the landscape, I think moving west is a good fit, though we're certainly missing our friends back home.

We should get to Corvallis tomorrow around noonish or slightly thereafter to unload the van. The bummer news is that the van rubbed a hole in the oil pan and therefore dripped out all the oil onto the trailer bed - AND needs to be repaired. It really wasn't in much shape to make the trip anyway, but it'll have a shiny new underpan when cruising through the streets of Corvallis. A-Rrrrrrrr!

Sorry, no pictures today. We only saw whizzing landscape all day - or yet another picture of us eating fast food. NOT a pretty sight :)

Thanks for the continued prayers. Tomorrow will be a big day showing the kids their new city, new home, and unpacking boxes that we haven't seen in over a year. Should be fun!