Tag: church planting

“The Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallun son of Col-Hozeh…”

“Nehemiah son of Azbuk, ruler of a half-district of Beth Zur, made repairs up to a point opposite the tombs ^[b] of David, as far as the artificial pool and the House of the Heroes.”

“Next to him, the repairs were made by the Levites under Rehum son of Bani. Beside him, Hashabiah, ruler of half the district of Keilah, carried out repairs for his district. 18 Next to him, the repairs were made by their countrymen under Binnui ^[c] son of Henadad, ruler of the other half-district of Keilah. 19 Next to him, Ezer son of Jeshua, ruler of Mizpah, repaired another section, from a point facing the ascent to the armory as far as the angle. 20 Next to him, Baruch son of Zabbai zealously repaired another section, from the angle to the entrance of the house of Eliashib the high priest. 21 Next to him, Meremoth son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, repaired another section, from the entrance of Eliashib’s house to the end of it.”

Nehemiah 3:15-21

In this passage from Nehemiah, we see the work of rebuilding the city of Jerusalem being undertaken by a number of people. In the same way that it takes a team of people to rebuild a city it also takes a team to start a new church.

This week, Velocity has a lot of work to do in preparation for our first trial Sunday. The temptation is to try and do everything yourself and many church planters fall into this trap. I believe the work and blessing of serving should not be limited to the staff but should be extended to everyone. Everyone has gifts, talents, and abilities to serve and should be encouraged, resourced, and trained to serve.

Thank you to our plant team at Velocity! Serving beside you is an encouragement to my faith and what it means to “build up the walls of Zion!”

Yesterday the plant team of Velocity visited New Life Christian Church. Chase Gentes our Worship Pastor led a combined Velocity & New Life band through a great worship set. Paul preached a great message from Revelation 3:1 titled, “Some Kind of Zombie.” It was a great morning of worship together and our last Sunday of contributing before we begin to lead ourselves. beginning next Sunday, Velocity will begin its preview service at Baggett Elementary. The preview services are practice for our launch Sunday on September 21. We have much to do this week in preparation for our first practice run on Sunday, please pray for Velocity Church this week.

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing: 2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
” ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.

My devotional reading from this morning begins with these words from chapter 1 of the book of Ezra. Ezra declares that God had given him a vision and calling. In church planting the vision and the call to go and build something for God is often given to the lead church planter. Having spent time with Paul the lead planter of Velocity, it clear that in the same way that Ezra received his call to build something, Paul received a similar call.

Ezra goes on the cast the vision for this new work to others and notice how they respond.

Anyone of his people among you—may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’ ” 5 Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.

God moved in the heart of his people and they caught the vision! I pray that God will continue to move in the hearts of people in Douglas and Paulding County and that they would see the vision of Velocity and would move boldly as the people of Ezra’s time did.