UPDATE 10/09/2006
(FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN THE GORY DETAILS, READ AWAY. FOR THOSE WHO JUST WANT THE BOTTOM LINE, SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM FOR PRAYER REQUESTS.)

I've received several good nuggets of advice since I arrived in NE. It's kind of difficult to figure out what a church planter does and should do - there's really no outward forces exerted on you to make you do certain things. In many respects, it's a very fluid thing. Mainly, I find myself just trying to meet people and build relationships with them on various levels - some are "prospects", some pastors, etc. (As a sidenote, this is rather draining for an introvert like myself. By Friday last week, I wanted to crawl into a cave for a few days.) Oh yeah, I was talking about advice. . . well one nugget was that "church planting is often about following every lead that comes up. The secret is to praise God when they work out and not get too down when they don't." I've had several ups and downs and these may or may not have come through in the blog entries. It's weird that these things come and go rapidly, so I find my life is much like riding a serious roller coaster (without the bar to hold you in:)) Another nugget was "Your biggest challenge is keeping your sanity and taking care of your wife and kids." Wonderfully encouraging words about your new job, huh?

That being said, I have a really interesting lead to pursue. It could be very crucial to what is taking place here. Westside Church is the "mother ship" here in Omaha. It is the SBC mega-church. You may be familiar with their ministry through the works of Calvin Miller - he was once pastor there (in fact he may have been the founding pastor - not sure). Anyway, I had been told that they were not really interested in helping with church planting. Since I've been here, I've been praying that God would give a vision for church planting to the pastors who could help with the work here. Last week, we had a pastor's meeting and I met two of their staff members. Both of them were very interested in the work we're doing. One of them (John) worked to take me to lunch on Friday and give me some advice. It was a really helpful meeting for me because he has planted two churches and served as a church planting strategist. He suggested that we join them for church Sunday (which we did). After church I met their pastor (Curt), who told me to contact him because he would like to take me to lunch. This is all to mention a BIG prayer request for this week. Please pray that God will work this out - that we will be able to make contact, that he will catch a vision for church planting and feel a desire to help a poor church planter out. In particular, I am praying that they will send some people our way to help with the start. All of these guys have planted before and know what it's like, but sometimes you forget. I told J'line that I had to polish my sales pitch, but then I said, "No, I've got to pray harder, because this will be a God thing." I truly believe that, so I'm asking you to join me. God will work this out either way, but their support could be a critical thing.

A second prayer request is for people. The number one hurdle to this whole deal is pulling together a core group. I'm trying to get a Bible study started - in fact, I just asked the owner of the coffee shop if we could meet here and he said we could. Now I just need to find the people to fill it. Pray that God will lead us to lost peole that will be receptive to doing this. Also, you can pray that pastors will be willing to share some of their people resources with us and that God will lead some of their people to catch the vision of being a missionary/pioneer. (Another nugget was that "there are a lot of settlers, but few pioneers.") Most people would rather sit back and see if things are going to work before they commit, but at this point every single person who commits to help makes a HUGE impact. Another thing related to this arena is that God will bless our home and hospitality. John said the best thing I can do is fill up every breakfast and lunch making contacts and have a ton of people over to our house. We've been talking about that very thing and plan to do it. In fact, as we were raking the yard last night, I noticed J standing there doing nothing and got a little perturbed. As I peeked around the van, she was talking with our neighbor from next door and the one across the street. We're planning to have them over soon. I'm also looking for ways to meet people in our target area, which is tricky since we don't live here. Another piece of advice from John was to move in this area ASAP (which you can pray for too). Pray for wisdom in finding the most profitable places to meet people and build relationships.

PRAISES:
We had a great time at church yesterday.
We have made some good contacts with church leaders who can help.
We are building some good relationships with neighbors and others.

PRAYER REQUESTS:
Meeting with Westside's staff members. Pray that they would be receptive to partnering with us.
We need core members.
Profitable contacts with potential members.
Wisdom for the places to invest myself in meeting people/building relationships.
Aaron, Nicki, Brad, Mandy, Kimberly, Jeff, Kelly, Todd, Christine, Art, Valerie (these are all "prospects" in one sense or another).