Not just one About Europe meeting today, but two back to back. We started this morning with a group of ten church planters at the Palm Coast Baptist Association building. It was a great group; very interactive. They say that Monday morning is the worst time to try to do something with pastors and church planters, but we were really happy with the turnout. The whole thing felt like a big conversation.
We had a colleague in Barcelona participate via Skype video call, which was cool. Our dream is to have an entire conference online, but Shapevine isn’t ready with that yet. We still need to iron out the kinks (three hours’ worth of material in an hour and a half is tough!), but it went really well.
As soon as we were finished, we were whisked away to Cape Christian Fellowship for a second About Europe meeting. This one was a luncheon (what’s the difference between a luncheon and just a plain old lunch?) catered by Eric’s Deli. There were more people at this one, too. Church planters, pastors, some denominational leaders. we really enjoyed hanging around talking with some of the guys afterward. They were really encouraging, and excited about the possibility of getting involved in Europe.
One thing we need to do better is figure out what comes next in our relationship with these churches. We’re praying about the best way for us to continue to walk them through the development of their missions strategies. Do they call us? Do we spam them with more ideas? In end what are we looking for from them?
It’s funny, when we started all of this, we just wanted to launch a campaign. We wanted churches to get more directly involved in missions in Europe. Now it’s taking off, and we’re seeing the need for training, networking, and ongoing encouragement. It’s exciting to see things taking shape before our eyes. We’re thankful for the support we have, and pray that the Kingdom will be built through all of this.
More tomorrow after we speak in Lakeland (Orlando). We’re also going to start posting our material here as well, so be sure to check back!
