Pastor Will Morgan just designed our invite cards for Center City Church. We each carry them (business card sized) in our wallets (or purses) and have them available in case someone is interested in checking out what we’re doing!
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I just got back from a three day trip to Wyckoff, NJ to meet with Pastor Don James and Pastor John James at Bethany Church. Bethany is an incredible church in Northeast Jersey. Pastor Don has been there for over 20 years and they give close to one million dollars a year to missions. So inspiring!
They are now launching a new church campus about 15 minutes away from their existing campus. They brought me up there to chat all things church planting. We had such a great couple of days and I’m so encouraged by their vision and creativity.
I love church planting and love seeing how creative churches are being all across the world to spread the message of the love and forgiveness of Christ!
Dara and I share a dream to open a full service coffeehouse/venue in Uptown Charlotte. Imagine it with us for a moment…
Enter on the street level of Uptown. An eclectic blend of the finest furniture our thrift stores have to offer. Friendly and knowledgeable baristas greet you and prepare you a perfect latte. The music is chill. The wifi is fast. The vibe is laid back and engaging.
Can you see it?
The venue upstairs is used for multiple functions throughout the week. Business meetings. Catered events. Parties. After school tutoring. Dance lessons. Yoga. Live shows. And we could turn it into a house of worship on Sunday mornings. If you can dream it up, we can host it.
I can see it.
You see, I’m not sure we ever want to build a “church building” throughout the course of our ministry. We share a common vision that anything we build to host worship services on Sundays should be able to be used by the community throughout the week. And it wouldn’t hurt running a non-profit business that can take all of the profits and give back to the community and overseas missions. Now that’s exciting!
I can feel it.
Not sure of the timing, but it’s coming. God will provide the resources and the people necessary to allow this dream to become a reality.
A coffeehouse/venue in Uptown Charlotte. That’s the dream!
Dara and I believe that God has called us to church planting for life. We want to spend the rest of our lives planting new churches anywhere and everywhere God leads. And we want to do it all from right here in Uptown Charlotte.
We have a dream to pastor Center City Church for the rest of our ministry. 40 or 50 years in Uptown Charlotte doing life and ministry sounds great to us. So that means that our role in planting churches will be more indirect. We have a dream to raise up church planters and send them out healthy, resourced and ready to roll. It’s an exciting dream.
I am spending two days helping a new church plant this week. We are meeting all day tomorrow to go over what needs to happen in the next four weeks before they open to the community on April 11th. This is such an exciting opportunity for me to be able to take what I’ve learned in the past two years and pass it on.
I want to plant churches for the rest of my life. I just want to do it from our home base in the best city in the world – Charlotte, NC!
If you have a dream to plant a church – and your vision resonates with what we’re doing here in Charlotte make sure you connect with me! I’d love to chat.
I went to the mailbox today and found a $1,000 check for Center City Church. It was accompanied by a hand written note from another pastor in Charlotte. I was completely blown away. Speechless.
I sat in my car and stared into the distance for a while after I read this letter. He said that he was excited about Center City Church and wanted to let us know he loved us and was excited to unite with us to spread the Gospel. Wow. What an incredible example of generosity and unity.
I love the fact that God has brought together a group of like-minded pastors in the Charlotte area that do not view other churches as competition. We are all in this together, and God gets all the glory when we are unified. I’m blown away by the generosity of another pastor. And I’m inspired to do the same as other churches come to join arms with us as we spread the message of God’s love.
(If you want to see more about the theme of unity that is happening in Charlotte, please check out CharlotteONE. Amazing ministry that is shining a spotlight on unifying churches in the Charlotte area.)
