If you had to guess how old I was when I took my first roller coaster ride, based on the boldness of my baldness, the stoutness of my “sweet ‘stache,” and generally how I carry myself you might suppose I experienced my first roller coaster ride when I was only three months old. Actually though, you’d be wrong. In fact I didn’t ride a roller coaster until I was in high school! Truth is, I was scared of the suckers! Truth is, I’m still scared of them! In fact I scream like a little schoolgirl when I ride them even today (though I try to pull it off as sarcasm…truly…it’s not)!

Church planting is a lot like riding a roller coaster, and to tell you the truth this ride can be pretty scary too.

The highs and lows that I’ve experienced over the last month have left me feeling like I’m bi-polar. High highs and frustrating lows.

This past week has been awesome for us and the church God is planting here in DeKalb. I was able to attend the Gospel Coalition conference with one of our TcD leaders and was strengthened by the encouragement and exhortation of pastors such as Tim Keller, John Piper, Mark Driscoll and others who taught through 2 Timothy. “Preach the Word!” Encouragement that I needed from the week following our first service, as there is always a temptation to “adjust” your preaching and teaching to appease your listeners and make hard teaching more palatable.

The three-day conference ended Thursday. Friday Cher, Noel, Cal and I made our trip down to Metropolis, IL at the invitation of FBC Metropolis to share our vision for planting a new Gospel centered church in DeKalb – and we had an amazing weekend with the pastors and people of the church there. In fact the only frustrating lows of the weekend were my inability to hit a golf ball very well!

FBC Metropolis has been looking for a church to support in Illinois as their “Samaria” for a few years now and in great ways God has lead them to find us. I was able to share our vision for planting here in DeKalb with the pastors, a Sunday School class and to the church during their Sunday night service. They all responded well to what Jesus is doing in DeKalb through TcD: I had a few young men ask what opportunities there were to move up and help, the church collected a full half months worth of support for us, and they will soon decide at what level they will be able to partner with us both in short term mission trips and through prayer and financial support.

After driving back up Monday I made it back out to DeKalb for the first time in a whole week yesterday. That’s the longest I’ve been away from my city – it was good to be back. Yet throughout the day yesterday so many goofy things happened, some not that big of a deal and others pretty huge. The most frustrating low yesterday was hearing from the Oneals that there might be a complication with their pregnancy (Erin is 12 weeks pregnant). A second level ultrasound confirmed that there is a complication, though it’s something that has a 50% chance of correcting itself. It was a real downer because Aaron and Erin move up to DeKalb this Friday and we want them to come with no worries and much excitement.

Yet even in the frustrating lows yesterday God reveals Himself and His faithfulness reminding all of us not to be anxious but to be prayerful…and thankful. God has blessed TcD and many of us involved in TcD and we’re thankful for that. And through frustrating lows God reminds us to “trust in Him with all our heart and to not lean on our own understanding but to acknowledge Him in all of our ways and He will make our paths straight.”

The response that I typically have once the roller coaster ride is over is, “hey that ride just scared the tar out of me…let’s do it again!” The roller coaster of church planting, like the roller coaster of life leaves us needing to trust in the providential, sovereign goodness of God and to have faith and know that He is causing all things to work together for His will and our goodness.

I’m going to be honest. We’re a church with issues, and I’m a pastor with issues. But as I was driving around DeKalb yesterday I was encouraged that these issues, these high highs and frustrating lows are really the second part of our vision really just being manifested. We want to become a community by the Gospel and a lot of what we’re dealing with right now is a battle between “our way” versus a community way. But the Gospel is so well understood in our church, and is being more understood as we continue to develop and grow our community groups and as we look forward to being able to meet for weekly worship more and more frequently. And as the Gospel is more realized and in our church plant it is more applied the more our vision for becoming a community by the Gospel will be fulfilled.

There is a lot going on this week for The church in DeKalb and many of us involved in TcD. Here are some ways in which you can partner and support us this week.

Prayer:

Pray for Aaron and Erin and their baby. Pray that God would create that baby as perfect as He wants it to be. Pray that A&E would have a great peace knowing and trusting in the goodness of God. Pray too for their move on Friday…we cannot wait to have them here with us full time!

Pray too for some of the other babies we have on the way. Pray for the Nash’s and for Sarah. Healthy babies!

Pray that God would give Cherron and I a safe and quick move to DeKalb tomorrow! We’re excited to finally be out there and look forward to being able to develop so many more relationships now that we’ll be there. Praise God for the blessing of a safe place to live and his provision in us being able to have it.

Pray that God would continue to open doors and opportunities for new relationships. Pray too that God would continue to work in the hearts of many we already know who need to receive the Gospel.

Give:

We surpassed our goal for April fundraising by $1400! Praise God for His goodness! Praise God for the goodness of his people!

Our goal for May is $5000. To reach this we’ll still need to find about 20 people who can give at the $40 a month level and we’ll need some friends and supporters to give generous onetime gifts.

Giving can be done through the website at www.reachingdekalb.net or by mailing checks to Redeemer Fellowship at 1125 Oak Street St. Charles, IL 60174.

Thank you for continuing to support us with words of encouragement, with prayer, and with financial support. Your support enables us to continue to partner with Jesus as He works in DeKalb. Thank you for your partnership with us so that we can partner with Him.

Grace and Peace,
Jamie

I’m sitting in a chair in which someone has sat before me. Specifically I’m sitting in a chair that someone has sat in as recently as this past Sunday, on Easter. And in this chair the person who sat in it on Sunday morning heard the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus died for sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He rose from the dead according to the Scriptures.

Most people who hear the Gospel don’t hear it from this chair – but this past Sunday they and about 60 others sat in these chairs here, at The House Café, and heard the Good News that Jesus was delivered up because of our transgressions and raised because of our justification.

On Sunday morning we celebrated new life through the Gospel and our reconciliation to God through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the first time on a Sunday morning, and, for me at least, it was amazing!

We had roughly 60 people attend The church in DeKalb’s first worship gathering, many of whom were members, friends, and supporters and some who I had never even seen before and have now had the pleasure of meeting.

More importantly God was glorified, Jesus was exalted, and we pray that the Holy Spirit is speaking and applying the words spoken and sung to the hearts of people here in DeKalb.

Our first service was incredibly encouraging for me personally and for many, if not all, of those involved with TcD as members. Likewise it should be encouraging to those of you who are our friends and those of you who have supported us through prayer and financial support as we could not have achieved this apart from Christ, God’s goodness, the Gospel, and your partnership in the Gospel.

Further we hope that the success of this first Sunday morning worship gathering will serve as some of the first fruits of God’s calling us here to plant a new church in DeKalb and will encourage others of your to begin to support us by partnering with us in prayer and financially.

One of the most key things that I have learned since Sunday morning is the incredible need we have both here in DeKalb generally and with TcD specifically for prayer. There are deep spiritual obstacles in place here that through much prayer need to be removed. I feel that we are on the verge of having many people become new Christians; there are a half dozen in my mind right now that are so close to grasping faith in Jesus alone.

So, with that, here are some ways in which you can support us this upcoming week:

Prayer:

Pray that God continues to work in the hearts of people who we’re meeting and who are becoming involved with TcD, that the Gospel would become clear to them and that they would receive Christ and trust in Him alone.

Pray that God becomes the most desirable thing on our people’s lives and that God and the Gospel becomes the sole motivation for our love for each other and our city.

Pray that God would enable us to bless the people of DeKalb with good works and to encourage them with the Gospel. Pray that God would provide financial support, time, and energy along with open doors for beginning new relationships.

Give:

We still need about 20 people who can give at the $40 a month level. And we’re still looking for churches to come on board and partner with us with financial support too.

Our goal for this month was to raise $4000 which is used to accomplish the ministry we want to accomplish in DeKalb. This week we received $2508.67 through our offering and outside support! That means that we’re just about $220 away from accomplishing our goal for April.

If you would like to support TcD by becoming a financial partner you can give both through the website at www.reachingdekalb.net or through mailing checks to Redeemer Fellowship at 1125 Oak Street St. Charles, IL 60174

God has been tremendously good to us! I’ve rejoiced in that all week! Praise God for a great start! We look forward to growing our ministry and influence here in DeKalb.

Thank you for your partnership in the Gospel!

Grace and Peace,

Jamie