Sunday, May 25, 2008 The Start of Something New

AN UPDATE
We wanted to update you on what's been going on. Since December, we've felt seriously nudged by God to get involved with a church plant (start a new church). More specifically, I've felt the desire to reach out to people that "traditional" churches are not effective at reaching - what I call "this generation" and "those who are far from God." Not knowing how this might take place, we've been praying and waiting for God to show us more.

The "more" came into clarity when we came into contact with representatives of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. Some of you may know of the lead pastor there, Andy Stanley. While recently being listed as the third most influential church in America, North Point is a dynamic community near Atlanta that has proven effective at reaching this generation and leading them into a growing relationship with Jesus. That's our desire, too!

Recently, North Point has ramped up their initiative to launch "strategic partnership" churches throughout the country - and we have been talking about partnering with them as a Lead Pastor to start such a church. We are just in the beginning stages of this process, but need your prayer, support, and feedback.

HOW YOU FIT IN
We would love to discuss with each of you personally to tell you more, answer questions, and share concerns. For now, we've attached our vision for this church plant (pdf), which we are calling "Encounter". Please look it over to see how God might be using you to be a part of what He's doing in Helena.

WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS
Please pray for us and this process. Pray that we would have the boldness and clarity to effectively communicate the vision of Encounter. Please pray for direction and guidance as we seek to partner with North Point Ministries.

We ask that you pray for people, even yourself, to consider God's call to be a part of Encounter as either a founding member or support partner. And please pray that God would prepare the people of Helena, especially those who are far from God, for a new community like Encounter - and that we would be effective at leading them into a growing relationship with Jesus.

Thank you in advance. For those of you who are not here in Helena with us, we miss you guys.

Meet The Pastor

Pastor Eric and the Powell family are grateful to have served and impacted the Helena community in this journey. Right now, we are seeking God's direction to plug into a new vibrant ministry or church planting team. More specifically, Eric is passionate about worship, media, and arts in an authentic and relevant ministry environment. If you know a team looking for a worship/media/arts guy, please direct them to Eric's website here.

Meet Eric Powell, lead pastor/planter of Encounter. Eric and his wife Andrea have a deep passion to connect those who do not resonate with traditional church — those who have given up on church — with a passionate and purposeful faith in Jesus that goes beyond once a week and into our everyday lives.

While this is Eric's first role as lead pastor, he has served in ministry for nearly 20 years in the areas of worship and youth. He and Andrea have helped challenged traditional ministries to move outside the box in communicating Jesus' unconditional love in non-traditional ways.

With a desire for all ages to discover a full and fulfilling life, Eric is intentional about serving the needs of our community. He currently serves on board of directors for Youth Connections and is an active member of Downtown Helena.

Eric also has a deep love for the creative arts. He is an accomplished musician and songwriter currently instructing keyboard at "Montana's School of Rock" Capital Fret in downtown Helena. With a graduate degree in Worship studying ministry leadership, he has served as the Worship & Arts Pastor at three different churches building effective artist and musician teams from the ground up. He also has an undergraduate degree in Communications with emphasis in marketing and graphic design.

The Powells and their two sons Andrik (16) and Kellin (11) live in the Helena North Valley. They enjoy meeting new people, riding bikes, card & board games, watching movies, songwriting, listening to music, and reading books, all while developing a growing intimate relationship with Jesus in the the context of real life.

Get together for coffee with Eric & Andrea here.
Read more of Eric and Andrea's passion here.
Read more of Eric and Andrea's journey here.

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Our Journey To Start Encounter

The journey toward planting a new faith community in Helena began in 2004 when Eric Powell accepted the Worship Arts Pastor position at Hannaford Street Bible Church.

While Helena's churches seemed effective at serving specific groups of people in the community, it was in this capacity that Eric and his wife Andrea began to sense a lack of connection and passion for those of this generation and for those who do not connect with traditional ways of doing church.

They soon felt God moving them to take a risk on a passion that He’s planted deep within. Not knowing what this risk might entail, the Powell family began praying and patiently waiting for God to show them more.

Some of that “more” involves what Bill Hybels talks about in his book Holy Discontent. Hybels says that God places within us the ability to see “broken things” in areas that we are passionate about. God is not calling us to complain or fret over these “broken things,” but to let them serve as fuel for action to follow His leading.

CALLED TO BROKEN THINGS

Having not grown up in the church, Eric has the ability to see what in done in ministry from the un-churched person’s point of view. He has seen the ways that our churches struggle to connect and share the life-giving message of Jesus with people who, for the most part, see church as irrelevant. He has also seen the way the church has had difficulty speaking into the lives of young people. Essentially, our churches are effective at reaching certain groups of people, but with those Eric and Andrea have the greatest heart for — our effectiveness is “broken.”

God is calling us to step out and attend to this “broken” thing.

More specifically, God has given Eric and Andrea the vision and desire to reach out to people that “traditional” churches in Helena are not effective at reaching; what we at Encounter call “this generation” and “those who are far from God.” We desperately resonate and identify with those who are not familiar with or who do not connect with traditional church models — who see traditional church as lacking or irrelevant at best, and repelling at worst.

BEING COMFORTABLE WOULD BE EASIER

Rick Warren says that “neither past nor future generations can serve God’s purpose in this generation.” What Eric and Andrea realized is that God had been preparing them for such a time as this. Moving from worship to planting a church is not so much a new direction, but a wider emphasis. Eric says, "Now God is asking us to encourage people to worship God not just with song, but with their whole lives."

As they first explored this calling, Eric and Andrea learned that planting a church would be easier somewhere else other than Helena. Some church planting groups would be much more likely to provide substantial support if Encounter were planted in a larger metro area.

But that is not where God has shown them a great need for a new faith community to connect with this generation and those far from God. Andrea says, "We believe God is not calling us to plant where it is easy, but where there is a need, and specifically where we have a heart for the community."

Craig Groeschel says "In order to reach people that no one is reaching, you have to do something that no one is doing." That is exactly what Encounter is all about. This is such a large endeavor, we know we will completely and utterly fail without God. And that is the best situation to be in — completely dependent on Him.

We invite YOU to take a risk as part of Encounter — to make a difference in Helena to help create a new kind of church. A church for people who don't like church. A faith community for imperfect people looking to share an imperfect journey of faith with one another.

Check out the menu links above find out more.

Our Heart And Passion For This Generation

The heart and passion behind Encounter is to gather a new community of believers specifically focused on reaching the unconnected of this generation. That especially refers to those unchurched and dechurched in their 20's and 30's who haven't found church to be relevant and essential to their lives.

So while we are creating a faith-community that is welcome to young and old, believers and nonbelievers alike, we will design our gatherings and events for a younger audience. Experiential, relevant, and technologically-enabled gatherings are more likely to reach a younger generation AND also reach older adults. But the reverse is not true. When we design our services for an older audience, the younger crowd will not show up.

These are environments where people can be excited about bringing their friends; where people will experience something so different, unique, and life-giving that they want to come back, whether they believe the teaching or not.

These are environments where people can experience God through "touchstones" in their life experience and culture; environments where things are done with excellence and where people will encounter a creative God as a result of everything we do. This is our passion and the embodiment of both our vision and strategy for Encounter.

Why The Name "Encounter"?

We are no longer meeting together for worship gatherings, and are bringing the Encounter Church ministry to a close. Click here to read more.

The vision of Encounter is to "be something out of the ordinary that catches people's attention so they can encounter God."

It is derived from Moses’ encounter with God through the burning bush in Exodus 3. Those far from God are living their lives apart from His will and purpose.

In the Exodus account, Moses was tending his sheep when the Lord "appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, 'I will go over and see this strange sight — why the bush does not burn up.'"

Much like Moses, we are presented with potential "encounters" with God that will lead to a transformed life through a growing relationship with Jesus. But we are often too burdened and distracted to recognize and respond. Part of what Encounter Church is about is freeing people from those burdens and distractions and allowing them to take that next step.

No matter where someone is spiritually — skeptic, new believer, returning to the faith, growing believer — we want them to be moving forward in their faith relationship with Jesus Christ. That's because we see discipleship not as a goal to achieve, but as a process of becoming more and more intimate with Jesus Christ.

Read more about our vision, mission, and 3 essentials here.