Elizabeth made these awesome peppermint brownies! I can't stop thinking about them.
We had our Bible study explode this last Thursday. We had eight including Elizabeth and four new folks. It was a huge blessings to have those great people in our home. The strange thing was that it is all college students from CSU Chico. I haven't done any outreach on campus but they are showing up on Thursday nights. The students we knew when we moved here have come to bible study and brought friends.
This obviously left me depressed. We are not trying to reach college students, but they keep coming. You know it is interesting... the picture in your head never matches what God actually does in your life. I thought that we would have people our age and older showing up and it is the youngsters that God is calling to his church. God and I had a conversation about this and we have decided to let him build his church and well I just need to be faithful. Praise God for the opportunity to serve him.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
March 2009 Rhodes Family Church Planting Update
Dear Family and Friends,
Another month has come and gone here in Chico. We have been settling well and really like it here. It is a beautiful place full of many great people. We started a Bible Study this month that we are excited about. We have a couple of college students that consistently come and are a joy to have. We are excited to see the study grow as we learn together what it means to be God’s church in Chico.
We are going to be getting involved in some service projects in the area. We will be serving the Easter Meal at the local homeless ministry, called the Jesus Center. We are also looking into to some partnership with the United Way and possibly Habitat for Humanity.
Our prayer requests for this month are that we would meet people who are excited about our vision and eager to get involved. We pray that God would walk before us as we move forward with reaching out to the needs of the community and reaching out to those to who do not know Him. We are also asking for prayer that we would be able to start another Bible Study on a different evening out of another family’s home. We think we may have a family for this and they are prayerfully considering it.
We also have many praises. We praise God that through this time of economic crisis He is still providing for us. Whenever we think we aren’t going to make it, we do and that is only because of him. We praise God for all of you who have continued to faithfully give in spite of this current economy. We also praise God that we are meeting people and developing relationships, with both Christians and Non Christians alike.
Thank you so much for all your prayers and financial support. We are constantly being blessed by your faithfulness and your partnership with us. As we have said so many times we could not be here doing this if it weren’t for your faithfulness in God and in us. If you have not yet sent in your monthly support for March please do so at this time. Don’t forget that you can also sign up for automatic debits at www.sunergeo.org/donate. We have reached our first fundraising goal, but we still have another goal to meet by the end of December so if you haven’t committed support to us yet and would like to you may also go to the above website to do that as well.
Blessings!
Jeremy and Elizabeth Rhodes
Email: pastor.jdr@gmail.com
Another month has come and gone here in Chico. We have been settling well and really like it here. It is a beautiful place full of many great people. We started a Bible Study this month that we are excited about. We have a couple of college students that consistently come and are a joy to have. We are excited to see the study grow as we learn together what it means to be God’s church in Chico.
We are going to be getting involved in some service projects in the area. We will be serving the Easter Meal at the local homeless ministry, called the Jesus Center. We are also looking into to some partnership with the United Way and possibly Habitat for Humanity.
Our prayer requests for this month are that we would meet people who are excited about our vision and eager to get involved. We pray that God would walk before us as we move forward with reaching out to the needs of the community and reaching out to those to who do not know Him. We are also asking for prayer that we would be able to start another Bible Study on a different evening out of another family’s home. We think we may have a family for this and they are prayerfully considering it.
We also have many praises. We praise God that through this time of economic crisis He is still providing for us. Whenever we think we aren’t going to make it, we do and that is only because of him. We praise God for all of you who have continued to faithfully give in spite of this current economy. We also praise God that we are meeting people and developing relationships, with both Christians and Non Christians alike.
Thank you so much for all your prayers and financial support. We are constantly being blessed by your faithfulness and your partnership with us. As we have said so many times we could not be here doing this if it weren’t for your faithfulness in God and in us. If you have not yet sent in your monthly support for March please do so at this time. Don’t forget that you can also sign up for automatic debits at www.sunergeo.org/donate. We have reached our first fundraising goal, but we still have another goal to meet by the end of December so if you haven’t committed support to us yet and would like to you may also go to the above website to do that as well.
Blessings!
Jeremy and Elizabeth Rhodes
Email: pastor.jdr@gmail.com
Friday, March 13, 2009
backwards
I set out to do things differently! Strange how it is so easy to fall into an easy pattern.
My intent in setting out to church plant was to serve first then do the Bible Study. I did not exactly do what I wanted to do in favor of my comfort zone.
You see most pastors, myself included are insecure. We will rely on our strengths because we are afraid that people will find out that we do not have all the answers. If our secret gets out we will not be able to control our circumstances and that is frightening thought.
Psychoanalyzing aside I now find myself going back to do this the right way.
I am inviting people to join us in serving while still having our Bible Study because it is a very groovy thing. Hopefully the two groups will meet down the road in the form of a church. Until then, this is a grand adventure.
My intent in setting out to church plant was to serve first then do the Bible Study. I did not exactly do what I wanted to do in favor of my comfort zone.
You see most pastors, myself included are insecure. We will rely on our strengths because we are afraid that people will find out that we do not have all the answers. If our secret gets out we will not be able to control our circumstances and that is frightening thought.
Psychoanalyzing aside I now find myself going back to do this the right way.
I am inviting people to join us in serving while still having our Bible Study because it is a very groovy thing. Hopefully the two groups will meet down the road in the form of a church. Until then, this is a grand adventure.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Thursday is the best night of the week... sorry Friday deal with it!
This past Thursday we had our fists Bible Study. It was awesome! There was Bible and Study flying everywhere!
We gathered for the first time with the beginnings of our launch team on Thursday night. We are going to take some time going through the book of Acts and talking about our vision. We are looking forward to what God is going to be doing in our midst. I valued our time together as a community we had some good discussion about what Jesus is calling us to do as the church and specifically in Chico and then in our lives. I am excited to get started and look forward to the future. Also how do my readers feel about Fusion Church...
We gathered for the first time with the beginnings of our launch team on Thursday night. We are going to take some time going through the book of Acts and talking about our vision. We are looking forward to what God is going to be doing in our midst. I valued our time together as a community we had some good discussion about what Jesus is calling us to do as the church and specifically in Chico and then in our lives. I am excited to get started and look forward to the future. Also how do my readers feel about Fusion Church...
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
counting down
Thursday is fast approaching and with it our first Bible Study in Chico. If all goes to plan we will have a pretty good sized group. I must admit I am pretty excited! If it all goes to plan... huh... but... who wants it all to go to plan?!
I mean really what is so exciting about a plan. a+b=c HOW BORING!
Lets be honest here... Forget the plan! I want to see God show up in a big way. I want to see God sized things happen in the lives of the people coming and in the community life of our group. I want God to take a hammer to the plan and plant the church he desires. He will anyway I just want to go on record as being on board with that from the beginning.
My favorite Biblical character is Jonathan. You know besides my Savior Jesus Christ. Jonathan was such a great guy, he surrendered his place as king because it was God's will and he was risky. My favorite passage about Jonathan comes from 1 Samuel 14. This is the passage where Jonathan picks a fight with the Philistines and says it may be that the LORD will work for us. No certainty just risk. I wish more Christians would live this way. Lets try it maybe it will work. If the church would risk big everyday, lives would be changed and the gates of hell would be stormed and the captives set free. We have God on our side, it may be that the LORD will work for us. Oh by the way the LORD handed the battle to Jonathan.
So here I sit in Bidwell Perk with a smile on my face. What if God's spirit fell on this place right now...
I mean really what is so exciting about a plan. a+b=c HOW BORING!
Lets be honest here... Forget the plan! I want to see God show up in a big way. I want to see God sized things happen in the lives of the people coming and in the community life of our group. I want God to take a hammer to the plan and plant the church he desires. He will anyway I just want to go on record as being on board with that from the beginning.
My favorite Biblical character is Jonathan. You know besides my Savior Jesus Christ. Jonathan was such a great guy, he surrendered his place as king because it was God's will and he was risky. My favorite passage about Jonathan comes from 1 Samuel 14. This is the passage where Jonathan picks a fight with the Philistines and says it may be that the LORD will work for us. No certainty just risk. I wish more Christians would live this way. Lets try it maybe it will work. If the church would risk big everyday, lives would be changed and the gates of hell would be stormed and the captives set free. We have God on our side, it may be that the LORD will work for us. Oh by the way the LORD handed the battle to Jonathan.
So here I sit in Bidwell Perk with a smile on my face. What if God's spirit fell on this place right now...
Monday, March 2, 2009
for local info
If you would like to check our google web page that has information about the Church Plant for people living in Chico CA go to:
http://sites.google.com/site/plantchico/
http://sites.google.com/site/plantchico/
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