Last blog we talked about the call of God to plant a church. This time, I am going to talk about our journey to Murrietta, and learning to plant a church.
Shortly after my wife and I started to let people know that we would be leaving to Lakewood to plant a church, a first time class became available to us. Pastor Pat told us about a class in California called, "Fit for the Field." The course was for church planters by church planters. There was only one problem, it was a month long. I had a full time job, a mortgage, and no vacation time to take. So we prayed and took the first step of faith. I asked my boss for the month off unpaid. I still cannot believe that I was allowed to take the month off. So now I had the time, but still needed to have enough money to pay for the course, food, housing, my home mortgage, and other bills. So again we prayed. We started an announcement for the need, prayed some more, and got the money for the course covered completely. Later the money would be supplied for all our needs.
So we set out for California to try to learn how to plant a church. Now, if I were to write down all the things I learned, it would fill more than the thick notebook I filled while out there. So we will hit the high points. Several things I took away. The first was confirmation. One of the first people we met there were the Williams. They were from Olympia Washington, just down the road from Lakewood. Daniel's father is the Pastor of Calvary Chapel of Tacoma, and they had children around the same age as ours, who loved playing together the entire month. So right away I knew that we were in the right place. The Williams are in Del Ray Beach Florida planting a church, please keep them in your prayers.
I then started taking the daily classes under Pastors like, Jimmy O'Keffe, Daniel Fusco, Rob Salvato, Peyton Jones, and Sandy Adams. The entire course was led by Kevin Fitzgereld, who planted in Dublin Ireland, and whose time and wisdom I will never forget. The training I received there was like trying to take a drink of water out of a fire hydrant. On Wednesday nights we attended Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, and had private question and answer sessions with Pastor Brian Broderson. In short, all that attended "Fit for the Field" had a great training and were blessed.
There were several people that made an impact on me and my family. One of them was Peyton Jones, the head of New Breed Church Planting. I knew that we saw eye to eye on most things, and had offered his coaching for free, which is good because over and over we were told that church planters are poor, we decided to take him up on his offer and have had regular conversations ever since. You can find out more about New Breed on www.newbreedcp.org.
After a month of staying in a place where all we did was focus on God and learn about church planting, we were ready to go. On the way home, Brittney and I decided to pray about a plan that God would have, because we were ready to pack our bags and go! After prayer and discussion we set July of 2012 to be the time that we would leave for Washington. We still have this plan today, it is getting ever closer, and we are more and more excited to see what God is going to do in Lakewood, Washington.
We have had others join our team, Landon Sutherland, who I am going to let tell you about his calling and decision to join the team. We are so blessed to have a man of his caliber, and so submitted to God to come with us, I know that I am embarrassing him now, but I am thankful.
I want to take the end of this blog to thank some of the people that have impacted me and my family. Kevin Fitzgereld, for his hard work, patience, and wisdom, that I will never forget. Jimmy O'Keffe, whom I will never forget the passion and love for church planters. Daniel Fusco, who has inspired many ideas and am excited to know that will be in Vancouver, Washington, near us. Brian Broderson, for making this class available to us and making it a great experience, as well as setting aside time to talk to a bunch of armatures about church planting. Peyton Jones, who knows that his words made an impact, and are still treasured to me. Sandy Adams, whose love for young Pastors and church planters still gives me courage. Demitri Nikiforos, who has impacted my prayer life forever. Rob Salvato, who taught us that we have to sacrifice our time to take care of our families. There are so many speakers that made an impact that I cannot mention them all here, but I am so grateful for your time and wisdom.
Next time I hope that Landon can share his calling to the team. I will move on to the part of church planting that no one talks about, which is your life falling apart.....
In Him,
Pastor Cam
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