Prayer Focus: Brant Bosserman & Trinitas Presbyterian Church, Everett
Brant Bosserman, lead pastor and church planter of Trinitas Church is advancing the Gospel in Everett, Washington. Brant and his wife, Heather, joined the Spanish River Church Planting family in May 2013.
For the first six months of our meeting as a core group (prior to our formal launch) we did an in-depth study of the character of Biblical worship. This study left our core group members feeling like they rediscovered the purpose of the sacraments, prayer, observing the Lord's Day, preaching, song, responsive readings, confessing our faith together, catechizing children, corporate confession of sin, etc. With this rediscovery that there is a way to indulge the Gospel in the Christian Life as worshipers together, there has been a tremendous zeal among our members to see the church grow, and to share its message with others. Literally every member of our core group has invited friends, family, nominal Christians, and unbelievers to hear the Gospel preached, and see believers worship together.
We have been tremendously blessed by special events in church (our launch service; several infant baptisms; visits from missionary preachers; etc.), and special gatherings outside of Sunday worship (Summer BBQ's; Monthly Lady's and Men's Outings; Play-dates for mom's and children; and Discipleship Groups). At this point, none of our events have failed in their intended purposes or in their ability to draw attendants. I can accredit the eventfulness of all such gatherings to God the Holy Spirit as he has worked within our core group members to bring about a joy and excitement to be present, and to invite others. There would seem to be no substitute for genuine joyfulness to gather on the part of church/core group members. In the next six months we are especially excited for (a) the opening service in our new meeting space; (b) our member reception service; and (c) the continuation of our weekly discipleship groups.
We would appreciate prayer regarding regarding our facilities. As our plant grows, we are in need of facilities that can facilitate that growth with sufficient nursery space for our children, and sanctuary seating for adults and visitors.
Prayer Focus: Caleb Davis, Denver
Caleb has spent most of his life in the major cities in the Northwest – Portland and Seattle.While in Seattle, Caleb helped to start two new churches, one in Downtown Seattle and one in the Rainier Valley (the country’s most diverse zip code). Caleb and Sara have been praying about planting a church in Denver for the past 7 years. After sensing God was leading them to make this move Caleb transitioned from his responsibilities, they were prayed over, and sent by Caleb’s fellow pastors in July of 2012 to begin a new work in Denver. Recently Caleb sent us this update: “Things are going great. We just had our 8th service yesterday. We've been going through 1 John, which is such a great book on authentic Christianity. It's going slow and one person at a time, one conversation at a time, one sermon at a time but it's really cool to see what has been happening. Every single week we have had new people come and check things out - some have stayed and others are still TBD. Almost every week we have had non-Christian people come which is encouraging. We usually have about 40 people there on a Sunday. One thing I'd love your prayers on is for some strong team/leaders to come our way. I'd love someone else on staff. Don't really have the funds at this point to make that happen but I'd love for God to send us someone that would be willing to raise support or someone that would be a solid teammate that could work for free until we could pay them. Other than then smaller tasks that I can delegate to people in our church I'm doing everything and it's a lot!”
Prayer Focus: Pete Armstrong & Dwell Church, NYC
Pete was born and raised in Olympia, WA, and educated at Calvin College, Fuller Theological Seminary and Calvin Theological Seminary.
Pete and his wife Lily moved from Seattle to NYC to start Dwell Church.
Dwell Church is a growing gathering of New Yorkers exploring the life of God in community. Their vision is simple: connecting the Mission of God to the Bowery. That means that they both encourage people to be in relationship with God but are also fully engaged in serving their neighborhood. They started meeting in an apartment in September of 2011 and launched public worship on April 15, 2012.
Some have been Christians for a while and others are investigating Christianity for the first time. Many live in the neighborhood of the Bowery but others commute from Brooklyn, Queens or uptown. There is a strong sense of internal community but they are also enjoy reaching out to serve the neighborhood and city.
Pete writes how God is at work at Dwell “two more people recently came to faith and would like to be baptized. God be praised! I'm going to take them through a short course on the meaning of baptism. I find that this is often when spiritual attacks come from the enemy. So I want to pray protection over Susie, Janay and myself during this crucial season. They are hoping to be baptized on December 8. Susie is an Ivy League graduate (married to another Ivy League grad, of course!) who works as a consultant. She is Korean-American. Janay grew up in the projects in Brooklyn and works in retail. She is African-American. I am so thankful that God is drawing folks across borders of class and race together at Dwell. May He bless our times together and not let anything stand in the way of their baptism and growth as they follow Jesus.”
Pete and Lily are thankful for: believers being called to NYC to build God's Kingdom here, my brother and sister-in-law worshiping with us, seeing the fruit of their prayers the last few years, a powerful testimony in worship from a Columbia grad changed by God's love, ready to change the world, more folks than ever connecting through our gospel communities, a wonderful core group who gives of their time, leadership and finances, powerful times of prayer and worship together, financial faithfulness of friends who continue to support us, the opportunity to serve Christ in a wonderful urban environment, increased confidence and marvel at the gospel through preparing and giving sermons, Lily taking classes for a counseling degree at Alliance Theological Seminary.
Pete asks that we join them in praying: for a bigger vision of what God wants to do with Dwell in this city that He loves, for more families and children from the neighborhood to join up with Dwell, for the teenagers who live, study and play along the Bowery, for deepening relationships, especially with those who don't know Christ, for connecting our faith in Christ with our busy days at work, for new and emerging leadership at Dwell and in Christ's church more broadly. for our Leadership Development Network currently ongoing, for ways to connect with couples and other young marriages we can pray for and encourage, for a larger space we're hoping to move into on January 1, for favor from landlords and for the finances to make the move into a long-term sustainable space for Dwell.
Inauguration of Training Center at Sarampet
A note from Pastor Sudhakar after the first training held in the Bad News Good News Training center in India.
Dear Brothers in Christ,
Its a great joy and blessing to see the work completed and the first batch of church planters trained this week at Sarampet.
For two days I spoke about the Bad news and Good news and God has given me more clarity and also new illustrations while I was speaking to them. The more I speak about this the more I am getting to know and experience.
Also we had each church planter demonstrate preaching the complete Gospel so that they would learn more effectively and also learn to practice.
Out of these ten church planters few of them have really understood most of it and have demonstrated very well. I was so happy to see the seeds being sown on good soil.
Your prayers and support will bring a great impact in the region of Telangana.
Ron On The Road: A Baptism in India
On a recent trip to India, I had the privilege to experience a picture of the Church when it is being a true community. It was near the end of a rather long journey, which took me to England, Scotland and India. It was a 20,500-mile trip that included visits to 11 different airports. On my last Sunday in India, I had the opportunity to preach at a church in which most of the congregation were Hindu converts. The service was held at 1:00pm on a warm day in a very small room. Needless to say it was extremely uncomfortable in the building. After the service the Pastor of the church asked if I would be willing to baptize a new believer in their Church. I agreed without much thought to what that actually meant. The thought of being involved in this young mans baptism was exciting until I realized that Hindu converts would only be baptized by full immersion. I have traveled enough in India to know that the rivers are not exactly the cleanest in the world. We agreed that we would meet the next afternoon, and find a river that be sufficient for this baptism.
That Monday I taught a pastor’s conference in which 415 pastors and leaders of various churches in the area attended. It was an exciting yet exhausting day. After the training, I met the young man and his pastor by the local river. The river was brown, smelly and fortunately way to shallow for a baptism. The pastor suggested we meet early the next morning, and travel up to the mountains where he knew of a stream that would be perfect for a baptism. So, the next morning we drove some 4-wheel drive vehicles up the mountain to search for the river. After getting stuck in the mud a few times, we finally started hiking up the mountain. It was at this time that I started feeling how much effort we were going through to baptize just one man. I was scheduled to leave in few hours and started feeling the pressure of time. I was also concerned that I may not have time to shower and change clothes before boarding a 20 plus hour flight back to the states. As all of these selfish thoughts came to me, I forgot what was really important. When we finally reached a section of the river that was deep enough for a baptism, I was exhausted from climbing the mountain.
The new believer was a young man from Nepal, he was engaged to be married in only a few days. When I asked him his testimony, he spoke very clearly about his faith in Christ. As I was bringing him up out of the river, I heard this loud alleluia coming from the banks of the river. I looked up to see about 25 people that had climbed that mountain to be a part of this young man’s baptism. All those people had been walking up this mountain with us, but I never noticed them. I was too consumed with my own discomfort to notice what God was doing that day. This was a picture of the Church being the Church. These 25 people spent a good part of their day hiking up this mountain to be there with their friend. But, even more important is the fact that they walked back down the mountain with this new believer. They walked back into his life to love and care for him and his new family. This was a great picture of the Church, and something that I needed to see that day.