The Mission Church of the Nazarene

    We are blessed to be inheriting both an old church building and a parsonage for our church plant. This is a blessing, as most church planters search and strive for years to have a building. Some church planters I know have rented a variety of buildings as rents are raised, or policies changed.
     This is a problem we don't have. There is no church yet, but there is a building. This gives us the ability to house events in our building (art shows, large dinners, rained out block parties, weddings, funerals etc.), and to eventually have a beautiful space to house worship services.
    The flip side of inheriting a building, is that we now have a building to care for, with all of it's faults and quirks. There are years of things to go through. Every single wall needs to be painted. Everything needs to be cleaned. There are utilities to pay for. In short, there is a whole lot of work to be done, in order to even have people meet in our building.
    We were unsure of how all of that work would be paid for, let alone executed. So when a friend of mine, who runs a mission trip organization called City Connexx, asked if we had projects for mission teams, my response was an enthusiastic yes!
     That yes turned into 2 mission teams. The first arriving in June, the second in July. These 2 large groups pay for their own projects, and are full of enthusiastic teenagers to complete some of these projects that would take us months to complete.
     One of our regrets of leaving our current ministry at the end of May was the inability to take our teens on a missions trip this summer. At the advice of a friend, we decided to coordinate for them to also come to Hammond. After all, we had 2 other teams coming, the best teens in the world might as well come too! I'd be able to put their mission trip together before we leave, which would make for an easier transition, and the teens wouldn't have to miss out on a missions trip.
    Then, a couple weeks ago, I was contacted by an associate pastor on our new district, and he is bringing a group for a service project in June as well.
   Overall, we have 4 groups coming! The projects we once thought we had no way of accomplishing, are going to be completed by the end of the summer. plus we get the joy of meeting and working with teens in formative ways. It's the blending of many things we love.
    Initially I thought our summer would be quiet and laid back. I was so wrong. Initially I struggled with how we'd get projects done, but God provided above and beyond.
    God truly is up to something. We know the days ahead will not always be easy, but it is so clear that the Holy Spirit is moving; we are jumping into that movement, and trying not to mess things up.