Woodfins in Wyoming

We are very fortunate that upon moving to Pinedale we will have access to a church building. The building has been empty for a few years but is still in a good condition and has been well maintained. It is a simple building but includes all the necessities: a sanctuary, a kitchen, office, nursery, and children’s classroom. It was built in the mid 1990’s and the décor reflects that so one of our projects will be to do some up dating.

We are very excited about having a building that we can utilize, however we also want to paint an accurate picture of what we will be doing to plant a church. One of the best ways that we can being to paint that picture is to tell you what we will NOT be doing.

We will NOT start by setting up our sanctuary, passing out flyers, and announcing ‘NEW CHURCH: SUNDAY SERVICE @ 11:00’ and then wait for people to show up. From what we have heard about the people in Pinedale this will not work to accomplish our goal of reaching the lost and expanding the kingdom

Think about us not as church planters but as missionaries to start. We will be going to Pinedale and working to connect with people and engage in the community that is already going on. We want to build relationships with people as we share Christ with them. We will probably look more like an in home bible study to start than a Sunday morning worship service.

We guess that it will take anywhere from 6 months to year before we actually officially launch a corporate church. However that does NOT mean that we will not be utilizing this building in the meantime.

We got to talk to some other church planters while we were on our vision trip in Wyoming. The conversations we had were a major highlight of our trip. We got to talk about what it is actually like to church plant in Wyoming, what to expect and what some of the challenges will be.

One of the things that we learned was that it is weird to invite people who are not family into your home. In the south it is common place to invite new acquaintances, longtime friends, fellow church members, or family into your home to watch a ball game or eat a meal. We think nothing of it. In Wyoming, that is weird. It is reserved for close family. If you are meeting with friends, that is done either out in the yard or at a third party location, NOT in your home.

Luckily we will have a third party location readily available for us to use whenever we need it. We will have a large enough lot to host outdoor event when the weather is nice, and a comfortable inside when weather is not so agreeable.

So one final detail about the building. This might be our favorite aspect and it is not even on property. If you will note the picture above, you will see that there is an old cow pasture right next to the church. As we were seeing the building for the first time, we stood out in the grass parking lot and while we were talking with Don and Carol about the building we noticed a city worker marking the under ground utility lines.

At first we paid him no mind letting him do his job, but then we noticed that he was marking the lines in front of the church and down the road along the field. It was at that moment we realized they are going to develop that old cow pasture into a residential neighborhood.

It is as close to a burning bush as I have every been. We confirmed this with some local Christians that had been in contact with us. The property is being developed due to the increased demand for housing in the area. By the time we move in May there will be the beginning of a new neighborhood, steps always from the front door of the church building. If that isn’t God timing, I don’t know what is.