The Wehrles

Yesterday, I spent most of the day outside in unseasonably cold weather  for North Carolina. My greatest shock was when I realized that the giant “rain drops” that fell on me with some serious force for several minutes were not raindrops at all but pieces of ice! So what was I doing in the cold and “falling ice?”

I was making contacts!

Church planting is a contact sport, and I have been trying to make contact with people who need to discover or rediscover loving relationship with Jesus. Yesterday, I was helping the Cleveland Draft House with its first ever golf event to raise money for the MS Society. It just seemed like a perfect opportunity and I met around 60 new folks. Plus, I know where to find them to make subsequent contact - the Cleveland Draft House.

It just seemed like the perfect opportunity. I don’t want to stereotype the folks who spend their time in bars, but it seems to me that these are not usually the most “on fire” Christians. Without judging too much, they seem to be the type of folks who would benefit from a connection - or reconnection - with Jesus. And… I find I like these folks! So… I measured who was “closest to the pin” at the third hole and sixty people came to me. I introduced myself and TRINITY to all of them! It went really well.

Where would Jesus be anyway? He would be where there are people who need him. That’s what I’m trying to do. My coach says I need to do that with 50% of my time.

So, pray for my contacting and networking. Pray especially that some of the people I contact would actually “stick.”

I give thanks to Jesus for contact opportunities I’ve had lately with school administrators and thorugh the PTA. And also an opportunity this week to preach and make contacts at a larger United Methodist Church in the area that was started only 10 years ago.

This week, “we” at TRINITY hope to try to leverage Halloween to love our neighbors. And… I’m actually talking about a “we” that extends beyond my immediate family. Another family in our neighborhood will be joining us to help feed trick-or-treaters. We’ll hand out 500 postcard invitations in six subdivisions surrounding and including our own. We’re inviting them to stroll by our home to pick up a hotdog, bag of chips, and a coke. We are praying for 150 individuals to stop by.

Please pray for our Halloween outreach.

On Sunday, two families will join the Wehrles in our living room to begin work on our prototype community life group. We hope to establish many of these groups in the future. They will focus on building Christian community through growing in our relationship with Jesus and one another. We hope that these groups will be holistic in nature and include elements of study, prayer, accountability and support, outreach and mission in the neighborhood, worship, fellowship, and sharing. That’s a lot for these groups to do, so please pray for us. We’d like our community life system to be the backbone of our church.

Please pray for the beginning of our community life groups system.

Two weeks ago, I mention my preaching opportunity at Mount Zion United Methodist Church. That went very well! Mount Zion continues to develop into a fine partner for this church start project. Pastor Leonard at Mount Zion will focus his letter to the congregation in this month’s newsletter on the TRINITY church start.

We also asked for prayer for Janet to make connections in this new place. She has actually pursued a relationship with a woman we met this summer and it is becoming a real deep friendship. I feel like this is a true answer to our prayers.

On a similar note, I have approached both a potential mentor and a potential coach to begin two intentional relationships that will help me become a better person and a better church planter. Please pray that these two men will enter into relationship with me and that we will be able to develop a mutually beneficial covenant.

Here’s a summary of things we are praying through and working on that we would like your prayer and partnership for as well:

• Gabe’s healing - the next surgical procedure in Cinci is on 11/10;
• Contact work - From PTA to Cleveland Draft House to Rotary to walks through the neighborhood…;
• Halloween “just-4-them” event;
• Virtue captial campaign - we are up to about $14,000 in giving toward 2009;
• The beginnings of our community life groups system.
• Mentoring and coaching for Dave.

We are so very very thankful for your continued partnership in this endeavor! We are praying that God will bless you through it.