Woodfins in Wyoming

So today I want to address the questions of how we are going to go about planting a church in Pinedale, and what are we going to be doing when we move in May? We get these questions a lot and these are not unreasonable questions, however they are not easy to answer. A lot of the detail about the ministry work we will be doing we won’t know until we get there. I look forward to the day when I can share those details with you about how we are specifically ministering to people in Pinedale, and how we are share the gospel and expanding the kingdom. I know that once we move to Pinedale and start to connect with people in the community God will reveal to us how we can best minister, serve, and share the gospel in Pinedale.

Now that does not mean that we are going in blind. We have an outline of a plan. We have a vision for what ministry looks like, God has already shown us some of the needs in Pinedale, see my previous post About Pinedale . So our plan or model is not overly complicated, in fact it is simple and logical.

We want to start with engaging the community with the Gospel through ministry, building relationships were we can lead lost people to Christ.

Once saved, the lost become Christians, we continue to build relationships, disciple these new believes and encourage them to grow in their relationship with Christ.

As they grow in their relationship with Christ and become mature Christ followers, they will want to live our their faith and be apart of a community of believers (the church) and seek to engage lost people with the Gospel through ministry and service in the community.

Like I said this is extremely simple and very logical, however it is also vague and broad in scope. But it is a starting point, and as we get into the context of our church plant, we will use this as an outline to direct the focus of our ministry.

When we move in May we are going to be looking for ways to connect, volunteer, serve, and engage in the community. The summer is full of different events and gatherings. When we were their in August, every shop and buisness had a billboard or window displaying all of the events, concert, tournaments going on for the next few weeks. We want to get involved in all of that and see who God connects us with.

We also know about a few ways that we can go ahead and start serving in the community including a local food pantry and volunteer fire and rescue. We believe that looking for ways to serve in Pinedale will be the main way that we are able to show God’s love to the lost and begin building relationships with people.

We have been asked if we would look at getting part time jobs once we move to Pinedale. Our answer has been that I would not, my focus would be on assisting Kent in the church plant and then home schooling and raising our three children. Kent would be open to a part time job if and only if it falls into the scope of our vision for planting the church. A part time job would be used as a way for Kent to connect, serve, and minister to people for the purpose of sharing the gospel.

Our goal is to raise enough support that we do not need another job to make ends meet for our family. We want the freedom to have our full focus be on planting a church and growing a community of believers who want to engage their community with the gospel, and expand the Kingdom of God in their town, their state and the world.