Yesterday Jeff Leake made the trip from Pittsburgh to Detroit along with Andy (one of his staff members). We've been brainstorming for a few months about some ideas for connecting young church planters. God is using Jeff to raise and release young guys who are called to pioneer. In fact, his story of mothering churches out of his church in Allison Park was one of the primary influencers in how my dream for Church of the King took shape.
We spent several hours together yesterday and dreamed about winning cities for Jesus by launching networks of church planting movements. Every now and then you meet someone who has been down the road you're walking. Jeff is one of those guys for me.
13 months ago, we started Origin Ministries as the tool for planting our first daughter church. Since The Oaks launched at Easter God has been shaping a picture in my mind for how Origin will develop in the future into a strategy that will allow us to fill Metro Detroit with new church plants.
At breakfast I shared the Origin dream with Jeff. His heart is connected to it. I'm not sure exactly where our relationship will lead on this. All I know is that our hearts seem to beat with the same values.
God-given dreams are interesting things. They seem to take shape over time, becoming clearer through strategic relationships. I was in junior high when God first gave me a dream to impact a city. The details and pictures have come together little by little over the last 14 years, often through people God purposefully brought into my life. For me, strategic relationships have been the fuel that have caused my church planting dream to progress.
Jeff is one of those guys in my life. His friendship has already impacted several things I've done.
I think there's alot more to come.
We'll be launching one of the key components of Origin's development in the fall. More details to come on that very soon:)
This sounds really exciting. There is a ton of momentum in collaborative networks. The kind of movement you are talking about is emerging in many places. The Church Planting Network (www.churchplantingnetwork.com) was recently founded to help champion these types of networks.
Also, next year's National New Church Conference (www.startingchurches.com) in Orlando FL on April 23-26th is about networks.
Posted by: Todd | July 27, 2006 at 05:12 PM