Sunday, September 27, 2009 Connections Tour: Connecting With People and Churches

As this week has flown by, we've driven nearly 1,000 miles across Southern California while bracing temperatures up to 110 degrees. From Manhattan Beach to Pasadena, from Riverside to Rialto, the last half of the week has been about connecting with people and churches.

SUNRISE CHURCH

On Thursday morning, I met with Jim Coyle, the missions guy at Sunrise Church in Rialto. Andrea and I attended and served on Worship Team there years ago. Sunrise is a now a thriving, multi-ethnic church in the heart of the Rialto area. We just wanted the opportunity to reconnect and share a little about Encounter.

PENINSULA COMMUNITY CHURCH

Thursday afternoon was an opportunity to connect with my friend Martin Allen who is the president of Worship Foundations, and the worship leader at Peninsula Community Church in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Martin brought Les Sheckman who works with missions there, and we met for lunch at the LA Food Show in Manhattan Beach. Again, I shared what God is doing through Encounter in Helena and we had some great conversation. At the same time, Andrea and the kids snuck off to jump into the ocean nearby.

MOSAIC CHURCH

Andrea and I spent half of the day Friday with Mosaic Church at the Pasadena Campus. After talking with Eric Bryant last week about connecting, he suggested we sit in on an Immersion meeting as part of the Mosaic Alliance church planting emphasis. Steve Sacconi led a discussion about Relational Intelligence. Really great stuff!

SANDALS CHURCH

Early Sunday morning, we met with some of the guys from Sandals Church in Riverside. They have an awesome, vibrant ministry that is very similar to Encounter. Dan Crowley and Andrew Boganwright both focus on small groups there and we had an awesome conversation about what's working at Sandals and why. If course, we also shared all about Encounter in Helena as well.

FELLOWSHIP BAPTIST CHURCH

Finally, we worshiped with our old friends at Fellowship Baptist Church in Riverside. I was serving at the Worship Leader at FBC over 5 years ago when we were called to Helena, Montana. During worship, we had the opportunity to share some music, a little of our journey, and our Encounter Church Intro video. We also had a great lunch at SuperMex after the service.

FRIENDS AND PARTNERS

In addition to all these churches and the universities earlier in the week, we also had the opportunity to meet with some old friends, prayer partners, and financial supporters this week. It is so great to see how God is also moving in their lives and we were excited to get a chance to say thank you face-to-face. Thank you, guys!

HEADING BACK TO HELENA

It's been a eventful week and also a bit of a whirlwind. We've been praying that the connections we have made will resonate throughout God's Kingdom. We pray that God will be speaking to the individuals and organizations we've connected with, be orchestrating the support we need, and leading some individuals to join the Encounter team as interns, missions teams, or as permanent team members.

Tomorrow morning we begin the 1,200 mile drive back to Helena knowing that God is able to do far more than we can either ask or imagine. If we have not connected with you yet, I encourage you to contact us.

We'd love to hear your feedback, answer your questions, and encourage you to step out of the boat. Become uncomfortable with the status quo and get personally involved in what God is already doing in Helena through Encounter Church.

Read more here to find out how to get personally involved in helping launch Encounter Church.