3 ½ Years ago, we were living in Greensboro NC, going to Daystar Christian Fellowship; I was serving faithfully and working in Corporate America. One night, I put my head down to bed and had a dream that we were planting a church back in Boston. I didn’t tell anyone until the dream wouldn’t stop. Five nights in a row the dream would come until I told my wife and we prayed about it. Because I was young, we submitted the call to plant in Greater Boston to 4 of our pastors and asked them to release us when they felt we were ready. One year later they released us and we pursued an assessment with a church planting network.
Three years later, my wife and I, along with our 4 children, sold everything and moved to Greater Boston. We had no friends with us, no worship leader, no people; just us, funding and a God given dream. Within weeks, God began to send us a team. I met a worship guy who had just left his church for no other reason than “God was leading him away”, I met another guy who was looking for a church who knew the ins and outs of technology, video, etc. A month later my father in-law, who was a senior pastor for 30 years, moved to help with administration stuff. In December the North Shore Magazine, (Largest Local Magazine in Northern Boston) did a featured story on us and allowed me to explain the gospel to the 200,000 people who read their magazine. You can read the article online at
http://nshoremag.com/meet-matt-chewing-man-gospel/
God’s hand was all over the church plant. The local YMCA contacted me and asked us if we would meet at their facility for “FREE”. Are you kidding me? We didn’t even have people yet, and I’m being asked if I need “FREE” space. God knew what he was doing.
Since we had a few people interested, we wanted to have a “Vision Night”. The first night, 30 people showed up. The next “Vision Night” 40 people showed up. I can’t fit 40 people in my house, so we scheduled a launch service for January 23rd 2011 and we thought maybe 50 people would be there. We did no marketing, we did no mail outs, no posters; just a website, word of mouth and the magazine article. 120 people showed up for our first worship experience. We had to keep adding rows so we would have enough seats. Are you serious? We thought for sure we would be a part of the stats and only have 50 people show up for week 2. But we were wrong, again 100 people showed up and we had to add more and more rows.
Here is why this is so crazy. In a 12 mile radius of where we moved, there are only 30 Evangelical Churches. There are 700,000 people in which 90-98% (depending which resource you read) do not consider themselves evangelical or attend an evangelical church. Churches do not get off the ground in our area. In 2000 SBC planted 20 churches and only one ever got off the ground and is still around today. And here we are, only living in our city for 4 months and Christ is making himself known through Netcast Church. In 4 months we have more momentum than anything I have ever seen.
Pray for us as we desire to steward this thing well. Pray for wisdom as I am only 28 years old and in way over my head. Pray for discernment because we know that the enemy desires to send wolves and bring division. Pray for us as I work to preach and teach the word of God with authority and point people away from myself and towards Christ. Then, Praise Him for his faithfulness and blessing over us. We love you.
Three years later, my wife and I, along with our 4 children, sold everything and moved to Greater Boston. We had no friends with us, no worship leader, no people; just us, funding and a God given dream. Within weeks, God began to send us a team. I met a worship guy who had just left his church for no other reason than “God was leading him away”, I met another guy who was looking for a church who knew the ins and outs of technology, video, etc. A month later my father in-law, who was a senior pastor for 30 years, moved to help with administration stuff. In December the North Shore Magazine, (Largest Local Magazine in Northern Boston) did a featured story on us and allowed me to explain the gospel to the 200,000 people who read their magazine. You can read the article online at
http://nshoremag.com/meet-matt-chewing-man-gospel/
God’s hand was all over the church plant. The local YMCA contacted me and asked us if we would meet at their facility for “FREE”. Are you kidding me? We didn’t even have people yet, and I’m being asked if I need “FREE” space. God knew what he was doing.
Since we had a few people interested, we wanted to have a “Vision Night”. The first night, 30 people showed up. The next “Vision Night” 40 people showed up. I can’t fit 40 people in my house, so we scheduled a launch service for January 23rd 2011 and we thought maybe 50 people would be there. We did no marketing, we did no mail outs, no posters; just a website, word of mouth and the magazine article. 120 people showed up for our first worship experience. We had to keep adding rows so we would have enough seats. Are you serious? We thought for sure we would be a part of the stats and only have 50 people show up for week 2. But we were wrong, again 100 people showed up and we had to add more and more rows.
Here is why this is so crazy. In a 12 mile radius of where we moved, there are only 30 Evangelical Churches. There are 700,000 people in which 90-98% (depending which resource you read) do not consider themselves evangelical or attend an evangelical church. Churches do not get off the ground in our area. In 2000 SBC planted 20 churches and only one ever got off the ground and is still around today. And here we are, only living in our city for 4 months and Christ is making himself known through Netcast Church. In 4 months we have more momentum than anything I have ever seen.
Pray for us as we desire to steward this thing well. Pray for wisdom as I am only 28 years old and in way over my head. Pray for discernment because we know that the enemy desires to send wolves and bring division. Pray for us as I work to preach and teach the word of God with authority and point people away from myself and towards Christ. Then, Praise Him for his faithfulness and blessing over us. We love you.
3 comments:
What am I chop liver? LOL j/k
God ia great, He can move in ways we can't explain. I will pray for you, that your doors will open up to many that are seeking to know our Lord and Savior .
www.marriagewithgod.blogspot.com
The Daystar Christian Fellowship is a very worthwhile cause. I have heard many positives and very few negatives.
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