July 25, 2007

Greetings friends. If you missed our first launch teem meeting last Sunday you missed... well... our first launch team meeting. You also missed a good time. We talked about how the devil is going to try and stop what God is going to do through us and one of the major ways he will try this is through division. We talked about all the amazing things we have in common through Christ and committed ourselves to defending the unity of Deep Water.

We also discussed Worship venue and there was cool sense of agreement on where and what and all those good things. We are hard at work researching the over 30 possible venues we brainstormed Sunday night, lots of non-options, a few real solid possibilities and a bunch of stuff that is still in process. Special thanks to Kimberly Trites, Dan Freeman, and Bryan Wiens who are helping me with the leg work for this project. Please continue to pray that God would lead us to a great venue and open the doors for us to get in.

Next week we will be discussing a concept called code breaking. It's basically figuring out what types of things will best connect with the people we are trying to reach. This is going to require all of our help to make happen over the next few weeks. Please be thinking about what things are most important to your unsaved friends. What kind of music they listen to, what their felt needs are, what things they enjoy doing the most, what has held them away from church so far etc...

We will also be talking a bit about finances next week. We need to know how to budget and how to plan so we need to know what we can expect from you the launch team. We are going to accomplish this through the same basic system you are used to from hillside. We will hand out some cards on which you can record your giving commitment, they will go to our book keeper Greg Macleod and be see by his eyes only. He will simply supply me with the total and we can move forward from there. Please be thinking and praying about what the Lord would have you to give this year and come prepared to make a generous or even sacrificial commitment. If you are unable to attend the meeting this week I would be happy to arrange an alternate method for you to inform Greg of you financial commitment for the year.

My wisdom teeth (or more specifically the holes where they were) continue to heal and Kelly and I got to go out on our first date in about 3 months last night. Harry Potter in IMAX 3D. Good times.

And now you're in the loop.

AJ

AJ Thomas
Lead Pastor - Deep Water Church