New Wine Report -
July 2015
In July 2005 our
core team launched New Wine Anglican Mission. Our hopes and dreams
were centered around a vision of building a church around authentic
Christian community. Our motto has been “Love God and Love
People”. We have said it so often it is almost humorous now, but
it has been our foundational thought - “It is all about
relationship”.
After 10 years of
relationships, we can celebrate many lives being touched near and
far. Our hope was to build relationships around “house church”
gatherings we called “Cell Groups”. These small groups would be
incubators where we could grow spiritually and numerically. In these
groups, located in homes, coffee shops and senior apartment
complexes, we have studied, prayed, served and tried to reach out to
invited family, friends and neighbors. Some of our groups have
multiplied but some have served their purpose and folded.
Relationship building takes work and it takes time. Being Anglican
also required that we gather at the Lord's table. At one point we
were pushing 25-30 on a Sunday, but in recent times only about 12-15.
I have shared with
the congregation and now with those who have supported New Wine, for
Deb and I specifically, our financial needs have grown as we try to
prepare for retirement. The current level of support has been a
blessing up to this point meeting our day to day expenses, but it has
not allowed us to save for the senior years. This year we are seeing
the church constantly falling short of our current budget demands.
This has resulted in our bi-monthly support having to be reduced at
the time of payment. For us, but not necessarily for New Wine, this
represents a closing of a door. I worked bi-vocationally beginning
last summer at the market selling cheese 2 days a week. I tried to
work part-time as a Hospice chaplain in January, but it was not a
good fit for me. Both did, however, remind me that my calling is to
pastor a church and to reach out to the lost and hurting world.
Hence, as of the
beginning of July, I have begun to search for new ministry positions
that meet our financial need and will allow me to serve full-time.
It could take a year or longer to find a new placement or it could
be by the end of the summer. We ask for your prayers as we seek the
Lord in these matters. If you know of opportunities first in the
Anglican world, but even in other churches, I am open to these
opportunities. We would prefer to stay in the midwest, even in Flint
if the door opened, but if we dreamt of a perfect location at this
moment in relationship to family members, Indianapolis area would be
ideal. I would like to be rector, but am open and capable of being
in a staff roll in a larger church focusing on discipleship,
leadership development, outreach and evangelism.
Currently we are
pressing on at New Wine. The kingdom work is never done. I have
re-connected with the Revive Flint ministry which prays over the city
and does contact evangelism 2 times a month. I am meeting Christian
faculty for Inter Varsity at U of M in Flint in order to support the
wider work of this campus wide ministry. We are still meeting in
House Church groups looking for ways to connect with and invite new
people to share in our life. I have also been blessed to be part of
a food distribution chapel where I preach once a month to over 200
people. My partnership with Holy Trinity Anglican will soon come to
an end with the calling of a new rector, hopefully before the end of
the year.
As you can see life
has been very much in flux as of late. The church, Deb and I, and
the wider church need your prayer support.
