In preparing to leave, I wrote this article below for the DSC E-Newsletter:

I remember waking up that Sunday morning, head pounding from the previous night of partying, but knowing I had to go. As I got ready I kept wondering to myself, “What will this be like?” I had never done this before, but knew it was something God wanted me to do. What was I doing? I was going to church for the first time as an adult. I grew up in the Roman Catholic church so that is all I knew, but even that had been five years past. A month earlier I had given my life to Jesus, but had no idea what any of that really meant. I was still battling a former life while trying to understand this new one. I only knew of the church that the people who shared the gospel with me were attending. I remember pulling into the parking lot full of nerves and unknowns. I walked into the sanctuary already a little late, and probably smelling like a hungover college kid, because that was what I was. That church was Desert Springs Church (DSC), and now nine years later I am getting ready to leave this church, the only church I’ve known.

 

I am leaving to plant another church, Redemption Church. On February 19, 2012 Redemption Church will hold it’s first Sunday morning service; however, the training and preparing for this church plant really started before the foundations of the world in the mind of God. It also started in some ways when I walked into DSC nine years ago. It was here at DSC that I learned what being a disciple of Christ meant, where I grew, was challenged, and learned about sin, grace, and repentance. It was here that I met my wife Lauren, where we celebrated the arrival of all three of our kids, Jordyn, Bradyen, and Cody. It was here where most of my closest friends in Christ are found. I sat under Godly teaching that pushed me to study God’s Word more, treasure Jesus as my all, and trust in the power of the Holy Spirit. It was here that I was saved, equipped, and now sent.

 

In August of 2010 Ryan Kelly announced that I would be sent out of DSC to plant a church in Rio Rancho. Families were encouraged to pray about if this is where God would lead them. At that time the church had two families, ours and Bryan and Sherry Lopez. Combined we had four adults and six kids. A year and a half later we have almost 50 adults and over 30 kids that will be part of this adventure we call church planting. We had no idea where in Rio Rancho we would plant. God led us to a great location on the corner of Southern and 528, the busiest intersection in Rio Rancho. We are currently renovating the space and working with the city of Rio Rancho to get our space ready for our grand opening, coming in March. So on February 19th we will be holding our first service at the French Mortuary Chapel on Golf Course just south of Paradise at 10:00 AM.

 

Jesus has already shown us his power in this preparation time, as lives have been saved, and leaders have risen to the challenges. The small body of Redemption Church is united and excited about what God has for us in the days to come. We are planting to see disciples made for Jesus, to see light pierce darkness, and more churches planted. So while the preparation and sending phase may be coming to an end, the real work and adventure is just beginning.

 

– Carlos Griego, Redemption Church Teaching Pastor

Below is a letter from the Mark Driscoll that was posted on the Acts 29 blog about some structural changes coming to Acts 29. I believe these changes are great, and will be a blessing to Redemption and the movement Jesus is doing in the area through the other Acts 29 churches, Mars Hill ABQ and Blaze Christian Fellowship.

February 6, 2012

Dear Acts 29 Members,

This letter is intended to provide some clarity about where we are, and Lord willing, where we are going. I hope you find it encouraging, compelling, and unifying.

Under the leadership of Pastor Scott Thomas we just completed our most amazing year of God’s grace yet. In the US alone we are now over 400 churches! This is a wonderful gift of God. I want to sincerely and personally thank Pastor Scott for juggling so many duties so graciously.

Our prayer is that this tremendous momentum continues, fueled by God’s grace. Through prayerful discussion, we believe some adjustments are required to maintain this momentum.

In some ways, think of Acts 29 (A29) like your local church. As a church grows, it has ceilings of complexity that have to be dealt with. Larry Osborne has the helpful analogy that as something grows the game changes from a decathlete doing it all, which is most church plants, to golfing foursome of buddies who work together as an informally organized team, a basketball team where the lead pastor functions as the point guard on every play, and football team with different coaches, specialized teams, and playbooks. Tim Keller, Lyle Schaller, and others have noted the kinds of transitions that happen as a church (or in our case network of churches) grows:

• Communication: It moves from informal and verbal to formal and written
• Leadership: It goes from many people to a handful of people making decisions
• Teams: It moves from one team to many teams
• Leaders: The teams can no longer be led by generalists, as every team is a team of specialists
• Financing: Everything gets more complicated and costs more money
• Planning: It takes much longer to plan events and changes because there are so many people and variables involved
• Organization: There is a stacking that must take place as a flat organizational chart leads to miscommunication, chaos, and confusion

Thankfully, our game has changed. Praise God! It means we’re growing. And, by God’s grace, we hope to keep growing. Last year, 157 US churches were planted by A29. Last year we had 382 church-planting applicants, and right now we have 550. At our current pace, Lord willing, we could be over 1,000 US churches running perhaps 500,000 people on Easter 2016, if not earlier. So, much will need to change to welcome all those churches into Acts 29 and all those people to Jesus Christ.

For starters, here is what is not changing. Nobody is losing their job at A29 Central. Everyone has worked hard and performed well, and we want to help them do even more. We are not changing our assessment process under Pastor Tyler Powell. This is perhaps the strongest thing we have at A29 insofar as systems go, and we have hired a second staff to assist Pastor Tyler with his growing workload. We are not changing our approval process—networks will continue to host boot camps and assess planters as we have. We are not changing coaching—Gospel Coach, created by Pastor Scott Thomas, will continue to be used to help ensure our pastors and their families are holy and healthy.

Here is what is changing.

My Investment

By God’s grace, I envision a lasting legacy for Acts 29 with thousands of churches planted across dozens of denominations reaching hundreds of thousands of people. With all that is going on in my life and ministry I do not want to drift away from A29 in any way, as you are a priority. I have cut back many of my duties and travels so I can focus on growing as a leader and help to grow Mars Hill, Resurgence, and A29. I want to give more time and energy to those entities, not less. I want those three entities to serve one another and benefit church planting and evangelism across A29. This will include Campaign resources from me to help other pastors through Mars Hill, helping interested A29 pastors publish blog posts and books through Resurgence, and also hosting training events for their leaders through Resurgence.

The Acts 29 Boards

Every man who has ever served on the A29 board is a blessing. We have experienced uncommon unity and collaboration. But, going forward, we need multiple smaller boards. In the present state, the board has been too big to meet but once a year. We need real accountability, real brotherhood, and the ability to move faster.

The following are three changes that will take place on the A29 board.

1. The Board of Acts 29 will be myself, Pastor Matt Chandler, Pastor Darrin Patrick, and Pastor Dave Bruskas. Each man has been able to hand off their network to full-time staff, thereby freeing them up to go to the next level of leadership and help me work across all of Acts 29 and serve all of the networks that comprise the A29. Each man also has a church staff that is large enough with sufficient funding to do more than one network and help invest in others. Furthermore, Pastors Darrin and Matt can help me be in community with wise counsel from A29 and navigate the ever-increasing complicated waters of the broader church and culture, and represent us in the media and at events, as well as through preaching and publishing. Pastor Dave runs the entire ministry side of Mars Hill and can assist me with the details of running Acts 29 centrally.

With Pastor Scott’s encouragement and the board approval, this means I am resuming the presidency of Acts 29. I want to invest every resource and relationship at my disposal to serve our church planters. Consider this primarily the “Prophet” board. This board is not closed and other men may join it in years to come. This board will be meeting soon in California, long before our annual retreat, so that we have a clear battle plan for the next season of Acts 29.

2. The Network Directors board (ND) will be the collection of leaders from each network in Acts 29. This includes men such as Jeff Vanderstelt, Eric Mason, Chan Kilgore, Tyler Jones, Justin Anderson, Harvey Turner, Hunter Beaumont, Rick White (for Matt Chandler), Bill Clem (for Dave Bruskas), John Ryan (for Darrin Patrick), Ray Ortlund, Ed Marcelle, Matt Adair, and Steve Timmis.

These men will oversee the church planting boot camps and assessments, regional training and events, Gospel Coach, and each month give a report to the Acts 29 Board so that we are abreast of what they are doing and can know how to serve them in growing their church and network.

Importantly, our networks are not geographically limited unless they want to be. We want to in every way expand and not limit the ability of missional movement leaders to plant wherever they can. With the transition of Elliot Grudem, who was overseeing this board, Pastor Scott Thomas will be the president of this board. Consider this the “priest” board. This board is not closed and other men may join in years to come. This board recently met with Pastor Scott twice since Elliot’s transition from Acts 29 staff back into an Acts 29 church and will continue to meet.

3. The back-of-house work will be done by staff at Mars Hill and other Acts 29 churches. This includes such things as retreat organizing, PR, branding, website, media interaction, fundraising, legal counsel, etc. Mars Hill Executive Pastor Sutton Turner will be the president of this board. Consider this the “king” board. This board is not closed and other men may join in years to come.

I know that many of you are unfamiliar with Pastor Sutton. He and Pastor Dave Bruskas are the two executive elders running all of Mars Hill. He was the executive pastor at a large church in his past experience, has an MBA from Harvard, and when we hired him, was the CEO of the business empire of the prince of Qatar, overseeing $38 billion in assets and 1,500 employees. He will help Acts 29 get to the next level organizationally.

The senior “king” on staff for Acts 29 will be Matthew Aiken, who has been on staff with Pastor Scott. We will increase his duties in an effort to help him get to the next level of leadership. We will also hire a new assistant for Pastor Scott Thomas to maximize more of his time for Acts 29 in order to focus on the Network Directors and Gospel Coach.

The Next Season

From the beginning, Acts 29 has existed to serve missional churches, helping them and encouraging them to make more disciples and plant more churches. We do not limit what men can do. We multiply what men can do. We will always live in the tension of pursuing both theological precision and missional conversion. If I’m honest, I fear we may drift more toward precision than conversion, and I want us to excel at both. We want to make a difference and not just a point.

The following is a list of items I want focused on this year and would appreciate prayer for. As you read them, you will recognize we are not changing our beliefs or brotherhood. I just want to help promote and tell the stories of changed lives to help our churches grow by focusing on the air war and trying to catch it up with our ground war:

1. New A29 logo, branding, and look
2. New A29 website with the goal of being the best church planting website. This will include content from A29 members, taking some of our City discussions and sharing them with the world for coaching, pulling in content from outside our tribe, and lots of practical “here’s what we are learning” pieces from Acts 29 Network Directors
3. Fundraising, as we do not currently have a viable way to fund the number of churches we want to plant
4. New church launch marketing. Every week I want a story with photos on the blog promoting the new churches launching that week. The following week, I want follow-up stories telling about changed lives and showing photos of launches to celebrate the grace of God. I will ask every A29 pastor, starting with me, to use their blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc. to push this content. We can easily hit millions of people each week with free viral advertising for new churches, which will help increase attendance at all A29 churches.
5. A manifesto on our core convictions: gospel-centered theology, Spirit-filled or empowered lives, complementarian relationships, and missional churches. I have a rough draft, 100-page version of this completed for Board review and rewrite. Once vetted through the Board we’ll send it to the Network Directors to go through with Pastor Scott. We’d then post it on the City for all our men to go through before we went public with it.
6. Events, including our Annual Retreat, which we fully intend to keep, and including boot camps, network training events, and our one day planting meeting in Orange County as an added bonus day to the first National Resurgence conference at Mariners church, which will feature Greg Laurie, James MacDonald, Nick Vujicic, Craig Groeschel, Lecrae, myself—Miles McPherson and Rick Warren penciled in and awaiting final confirmation.
7. An annual report sent to every A29 church telling the stories and showing the fruit of God’s work through us to keep churches prayerful and generous toward church planting.

For the record, the Board will be covering these issues and putting together proposals for the Network Directors to speak into before we vote.

It’s a big opportunity, and a big responsibility.

I pray this lengthy email is encouraging and clarifying. Every one of us Acts 29 pastors is volunteering their time and pooling their talents and treasures to reach people, make disciples, and plant churches. It’s a great honor to be on mission with you with Jesus!

A nobody trying to tell everybody about somebody,

Pastor Mark Driscoll

Picture via Washington Post

My wife is a “stay at home mom” or “homemaker”. She loves it, feels called to it, but also lives in a culture that makes her feel bad for it. Many women are made to feel that either they are weak or not being valued if they are not working by “just staying home”. A new study below has found that to not be the case. In fact, something I already thought, Lauren’s vocation is worth far more than mine. It seems that all she does could draw a salary of close to $100,000.

The Story: A study conducted by the financial service company Mint found that the sum value of different homemaking duties annually amounts to almost six figures. If a homemaker’s job were salaried, it would draw, on average, $96,291 per year. Tasks accounted for in the study included private chef, house cleaner, child care provider, driver, and laundry service provider.

Read the rest here.

They don’t need to know about Calvin, Luther or the Puritans, they need to know about Jesus.

They don’t need to hear about how quickly your church has grown, they need to hear about how their sin can be forgiven.

They don’t need to hear that you “do church differently”, they need to hear about the eternal savior.

They don’t need to know the stats of this social issue or that social issue, they need to know the Hope of the World.

They don’t care if you call your group a community group or missional community, they need to know they will be loved as Jesus has loved.

They don’t need to hear special and relevant music in the service, they need to hear about Jesus.

They don’t need to hear from Driscoll, Piper, Keller, Warren or Hybels, they need to hear from the Holy Spirit about Jesus.

If your sermon is long and deep but never talks about Jesus it is a failure.

If your sermon is shorty and witty but never talks about Jesus it is a failure.

If you read deep theological books, but never share the name of Jesus you miss the point.

If you serve your neighbor, the poor, and the orphan but never share about Jesus, you miss the point.

They need to hear about Jesus.

They need to meet Jesus.

It is all about Jesus.

Have awesome music, deep teaching, funny and witty sermons, serve the community but don’t forget…The main point is, JESUS!

The first chapter of “Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship and Life Together” by Mark and Grace Driscoll is titled “New Marriage, Same Spouse”. The chapter talks about their testimonies as they came to Jesus, met each other and got married. It discussed the pains and trials they faced as they dealt with past sins, as well as hidden sins that were not revealed until after marriage.

I appreciated the honesty of the Driscolls. There was no hiding behind theological words or theories. Instead they opened themselves up in a way I have not seen from many authors who write on marriage. Some may say that writing on those personal struggles is not good for a pastor to do. I think just the opposite. Many books, good ones at that, deal with the theology of marriage, the gospel and marriage as theory, but never give it flesh. This opening chapter opened a door to see how Jesus works in the real mess of marriage that comes when 2 sinners join to become one.

The chapter was not a “look how we overcame chapter”. It was filled with confession and regret, it was blunt and authentic. It was however, not blunt for blunt sake, it was blunt to show the need for the gospel to be revealed and saturated in a marriage.

Last night Lauren and I watched the first sermon from Pastor Mark that came from the same topic the chapter did. We were moved by the plea by Pastor Mark to not let secrets remain any longer between us. We had a good discussion and also were reminded how God had worked his mercy and grace in our own messy marriage.

Our Story

Lauren and I started dating 7 years ago this month. I was in love with her from the start. The problem however was I began to worship her, and moved away from walking and trusting Jesus. I put her on a pedestal and wanted nothing more than to marry her. Our dating relationship quickly moved into an area of immorality. We began to sleep together regularly. Usually waking up regretting what we had done, promising to “try harder” and “do better” only to fail a few days later. The problem was, was that we were doing it alone, without our focus on Jesus. After another weekend of regret and pain we realized this sin needed to be brought into light. We went into Lauren’s home and confessed to her parents. There has never been a more humbling time than to sit before Lauren’s dad and confess my own failure and disregard for his daughter. Her parents were gracious, gentle and forgiving, they did ask about what would happen if Lauren got pregnant. We didn’t think that was a possibility, we had been having sex for several months without that happening, what would make this time different.

It felt as if God had brought about true repentance in our lives. Over the next few weeks we didn’t struggle or feel a need to be with each other in an immoral way. It was then Lauren realized she was “late” and after taking a pregnancy test we realized we were going to be parents. We were already planning to be married, but this did push those plans up, not out of compulsion, but because Lauren didn’t want to be noticeably pregnant on her wedding day (not that we didn’t want people to know, she just didn’t want to have to have a maternity wedding dress).

By God’s grace we did not sin against each other again during the 3 months of our engagement. We did carry in the consequences of the sin. Our first year of marriage was difficult and filled with tension. I was bitter for having to get a job to “pay the bills” that I did not like or feel good at. Lauren was learning to be a wife and deal with being pregnant all at once. Our intimacy was there but was tainted. We would find many times were we could not be intimate because of the pain of regret and memories of our sin. It took time for that area to be healed and made whole.

Jesus was teaching us many lessons in this time too. We learned about the wickedness of our sin, the beauty of God’s love and the hope found in Him. We learned about the need for grace to be evident in our marriage. We were also blessed with a beautiful daughter who we love and who I am blessed to take out on daddy-daughter dates.  I believe we are now in a place where our marriage is healthier and stronger than ever. We are more in love and attracted to each other than ever. We also have become each other’s best friends, and we really love that.

via Searching for the Light Photography

While Lauren and I didn’t have any secrets like the Driscolls did, we had some big bags we had to deal. And like the Driscolls are learning to lean into Jesus in order to love and care for each other better. Jesus has used our story in many lives around us and we are grateful to be able to share it to help others. We have been blessed to do many couples pre-marital counseling and feel like we can help people avoid the land-mines we ran to and jumped on.

Chapter 2 Review and Thoughts coming next week…

Click here to purchase “Real Marriage” via Amazon

Pastor Mark’s sermon series “Real Marriage” can be found here

I am blessed to be Jordyn’s daddy and am grateful for the life God has given me to watch over.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDYN!!!!

Starting next week I will be reviewing the book chapter by chapter with guest appearances by my wife Lauren.

We hope this journey through this much-needed book will be both beneficial and helpful for many. I encourage you to read along with us, and to join Mars Hill Church and Pastor Mark in the Real Marriage sermon series starting this week.

If you want to buy Real Marriage click here.

Below is a video intro for the book from Pastor Mark and his wife, Grace.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 4:4-7 ESV)

In church planting there are many lessons that Jesus teaches. One of the most recent and biggest lessons I have learned is to hold “my” plans with an open hand. I have learned that I must surrender my own designs, timelines and dreams of Redemption Church fully to Jesus. To not do this, is to sin against the Lord, by saying that this is my church and not His. Jesus is the senior pastor of Redemption Church, and that is something to rejoice in, the Good Shepherd is leading His flock. He is faithful in it. He is wise and full of grace towards us. This has been the lesson that Jesus has taught me recently.

How did He do this?

In November we signed a lease on a location on the corner of Southern and 528 in the Rio Rancho Shopping Center. The location seemed like a great location, that needed some work but not much. We had begun to paint and to make the place ours. We were planning and excited about a January 22nd launch date.

The week after we painted, we learned that this location would not work. We would not be able to have a occupancy needed for a small but growing church plant.

Jesus put us on our knees. Jesus was about to show us that in church planting planning is important, but not as important as trusting Him.

There was another unit in the same shopping center that was bigger, and in many ways better. However it did require more work. There was not another option though however. We couldn’t stay in our current location, and even if we were to move out of the shopping center there was not many other viable options in the area of Rio Rancho we wanted to plant in. So we went to the owner of the building, and he granted us permission to move into this space.

We really are excited about this move, because this space when the work is done will be great and allow us to grow. We are excited about the worship area we will have, where we pray many people will meet Jesus, and the kids area where our children will learn about our senior pastor, Jesus. We now will have space for training events, where we pray more church planters and gospel centered leaders will be raised up by the Spirit.

We now have plans ready to be turned in to the city of Rio Rancho. With this work, and with needing to wait on permitting we have pushed back our launch date from Jan. 22nd to Feb. 19th. We are bit bummed to not be starting sooner, but also realizing that a 4 week delay will be worth it for a great location for the next 4 years.

Jesus has taught me many lessons in church planting. That He is the Good Shepherd and Senior Pastor of Redemption Church, and that He will lead us in love and faithfulness, has been the most breath-taking and amazing thus far.

How can you pray for Redemption?

1. Pray that our leaders and those going to Redemption will continually fix our eyes on Jesus and follow Him. That we would not worry or grow anxious in this, but trust him fully and completely.
2. Pray that our permits will go smoothly and quickly through the city of Rio Rancho. The only thing that would delay this launch more would be if the city would require more work to be done something we won’t know until we start on the renovations.
3. Pray that people even in this delay would meet Jesus and be transformed. We are praying for 4 baptisms on our 1st Sunday! We are excited about a new location, not because we want a comfortable space, but because we are excited about the opportunities for more people to meet Jesus, that’s why we exist.