Hi Friends!
I haven’t sent out a ministry update since early September and—WOW—a lot has happened since then! Here’s our latest:
Care Net: As most of you know, in my full-time day job, I’m the Executive Director of Church Outreach & Engagement for Care Net, an umbrella organization that serves 1200 pregnancy centers across the United States and Canada. In that role, I lead a five-member team as they equip pregnancy centers and churches to offer compassion, hope, help, and long-term discipleship to women and men facing pregnancy decisions, as well as strengthen fathers and families. Here are two of my favorite happenings from the last two months:
- The main ministry tool we use to equip churches is called Making Life Disciples (MLD) and we’re about to release version 2.0! You can learn more about that here and also see a video clip where I explain the main part of what I do at Care Net in about 4 minutes.
- On 11.11, I was invited to be on a panel with Dr. Kathleen Patterson to talk about the church’s response to abortion. It was sponsored by Regent University’s School of Divinity and you can listen to it here.
Mantua Creek Church Plant: Our website is up and running, and above is the most recent pic I have of our core group that’s now meeting live Sunday mornings to prepare for our official digital launch on January 9th. The only problem is the pic is already out of date as we’ve grown from 11 to 16 in the last 6 weeks! As a reminder, our tent-making model is focused on a three-year plan that adds monthly physical gatherings by the end of 2022 and weekly physical gatherings by the end of 2023. Some of our team’s ministry work is private and can’t be shared in a forum like this. However, I was very encouraged to receive this note over Thanksgiving: “Thank you for being there for the most trying time in our lives…”
I’m in a season of fundraising now and, based on what I know right now, we have 17.5K of the 20K I need to raise by the end of the year for 2022. If you’d like to partner with us and invest in what we’re doing, you can do so through our mother church, Ashland EPC, at this link.
Personal: My mom continues to be cancer-free! In fact, I just got a call from her this morning and she had another PET scan that, again, showed no cancer. Her blood has also returned to healthy levels after the chemo which means they will finally be able to take her port out. Additionally, you will remember that my dad came to live with us at the end of June. And, although it was the right thing to do, his care was significant and more difficult than we imagined. About six weeks ago, he went into the hospital with urine retention and in need of oxygen. The long and short of it is he’s now out of the hospital, doing well, and in Rehab. Further, God has been so gracious in the details… It’s a longer story but due to the timing of his hospital stay, we were able to secure a permanent spot for him in an excellent long-term care facility that’s just 19-minutes away.
Writing: With my dad’s care, I’ve not been able to make significant progress on my forthcoming book Irreplaceable: Recovering God’s Heart for Dads. I do plan, however, to take a little time off before Christmas to work on completing it and my new goal is to have it finished by the end of January. Regarding the blog, I’m so honored to have new friends that are reading, some that don’t identify as Christians and/or aren’t part of a church. Here’s a kind note I just received: “I’m enjoying your website. You offer thought-provoking commentary from a perspective from which I’ve drifted.”
For Prayer:
- That God would bless the launch of Making Life Disciples (MLD) 2.0 and that we could use the current political attention on abortion as an opportunity to equip the church to lead with awareness and love on this issue. Truly, the courts can make abortion illegal but only God through his church can make it unthinkable. BTW, as many of you know, a big part of my ministry is to encourage “listening conversations” where we treat others—especially those who disagree with us—with gentleness and respect. And here’s a rare example of a respectful forum on abortion that a friend just sent me. It includes some really interesting exchanges that help give insight into how differently people process this topic.
- That our 16-member Mantua Creek core group would grow in love for one another and commitment to our mission as we prepare to launch weekly digital services in January; that God would give us unity, insight, and initiative to express love to our neighbors, friends, and family in ways that also point them to Christ.
- That I’ll make significant progress on Irreplaceable: Recovering God’s Heart for Dads by the end of the year and have it ready for final revisions in January.
- For my dad to connect the blessings and love he’s recently received with God’s heart and love for him.
Please do drop me a line to let me know how you’re doing. Your notes and feedback mean so much. And, if you don’t have time to do that right now– and if you’re reading this in your inbox– would you kindly just hit “reply” and let me know? Thanks so much!
With love and prayers,
Greg