Launch Team Meeting – 29-Aug-2010

Here is the mp3 of the Launch Team Meeting from last Sunday’s meeting… “What is a life worth?” (with translation)

Hier ist die mp3 von der Launch Team Meeting der am letzten Sonntag stattfand… “Was ist ein Leben eigentlich Wert?” (mit Übersetzung)

http://watermarkfreiburg.de/upload/LaunchTeamMtgs/Launch_Team_mtg_290810.mp3

But God…

We often say things like, “I know God is big, but…”  It’s so easy to look at our current circumstances and get scared.  We feel like we’re going to be swallowed up by the things going on around us.

Let’s go back to grade school grammar… remember conjunctions?  Conjunctions join two parts of a sentence (or two sentences) together.  One conjunction is “but”.  This three letter word has amazing power.

You could say, “I like you, but your breath is bad.”  Or something like, “Your mom is nice, but she can be annoying.”  In each of these sentences, the word “but” negates what came before it.  In other words, whatever comes before the “but” is unimportant.  It’s what comes after the “but” that counts.

Look at the following Bible verses…

You, with the help of wicked men, put [Jesus] to death by nailing him to the cross.  But God raised him from the dead.
Acts 2:23-24

By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)
Eph 2:3-5

In each of these passages, we see the phrase “But God.”  Notice that when He comes on the scene, everything changes.  Wrongs are righted, lives are changed, and things that were dead are made alive again!

We can look at the circumstances Watermark is facing right now:

• We only have 22 people involved.
• Since Watermark is unknown, we have no influence in the community.
• Our financial resources are limited.
• We have no building yet. (But we’re working on it!)

With each of these, we could say, “I know God is big, but…”  We instead choose to say, “These things seem big, but God…!”  What matters is what comes after the “but”! 

Our confidence is that although things look tough right now, there’s still the “but God” at the end of our journey!  God has already done some miraculous things to bring our team together… just wait 'til you see what He does through Watermark!

Beginning Aug. 29 we’ll have weekly team meetings on Sundays at 11:00am, up until our church launch on Oct. 24.  If you’re in the Freiburg area, we’d love to have you join us!  Contact us for more information.

Difficult…

We got a Facebook message from some friends that went through the same church planter training I did (with http://arcchurches.com).  Their church is now 5 mos old and doing well, although not yet as big as they had imagined it would be.

One of the things they told me was that the entire process was “really hard in so many ways (way more than we could have ever anticipated or anyone could have communicated), but also rewarding.”

I must admit that this is a bit unnerving.  I know it’s not going to be easy.  I know there will be times we want to give up.  But hearing from someone just a few months ahead of us in the process that it’s REALLY tough kinda gets your attention.

It makes us rethink why we’re doing this.  We KNOW that Watermark is God’s idea, so we’re staying with it.  We’re going to not just persevere and survive, but thrive.  I believe that most churches that fail don’t make it because the people just give up.  I don’t want that said of me.

All that said, we welcome your prayers.  We know the road ahead won’t be easy, but we’re committed.  We want to finish well!

Launch Team Meeting – 1 Aug 2010

Here is the mp3 of the Launch Team Meeting from last Sunday’s meeting… “We’ve forgotten what it’s like to be sick.”

Hier ist die mp3 von der Launch Team Meeting der am letzten Sonntag stattfand… “Wir haben uns vergessen wie es sich fuhlt Krank zu werden.” (Leider nur auf Englisch)

http://watermarkfreiburg.de/upload/LaunchTeamMtgs/Launch_Team_mtg_010810.mp3

Feeling stuck?

New Perrin Ministries Blog: Feeling Stuck - http://bit.ly/bPxRRS

What to do when you don’t know what to do

New Perrin Ministries Blog: “What to do when you don't know what to do” - http://bit.ly/9oJzee