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Rebecca's Driver License

Rebecca went to get her Texas driver license switched to a Tennessee license yesterday. This process is an incredible ordeal because the same place does reinstatement of DL's and apparently there are quite a few of my fellow TN rednecks that lose their licenses. All that said Rebecca was waiting for over 3 hours. But as God often does, He used the situation for her to meet someone. The guy beside her started talking, and it turns out that he and his family are new to the area. They felt that God wanted them to move from Florida to Nashville for a reason but they haven't figured out why yet. (Does anybody else get that funny feeling like I get when I heard this?)

After a couple of hours of talking, Rebecca found out that they also have 4 kids, his wife homeschools, and they are strong Christians. She told him all about The Crossbridge and he was very interested and asked lots of questions.

At the end of their conversation, Rebecca gave him our email and asked if his wife could email us and touch base about homeschooling.

We're waiting now for that email and praying that God is going to do something really cool with this "random" meeting.

Newletter 2

I've had several real encouraging calls since the newsletter went out.

A friend in St. Louis is coming down to see us next month (we're praying that they like Nashville so much that they will stay and help us start the church.)

A friend from Atlanta called and said that the design company he works for is going to design a cool portable stage set for our Children's area at the theater and do all the work for FREE. I love free. The company that he works for has done some really cool stuff, check it out at http://www.sgstudios.org/.

Also the friend from Atlanta said his wife has done a lot of fund raising for local charities and she's praying about how she can take some of the techniques she used in fundraising for charities and apply that to raising money for The Crossbridge!

God is still surprising us ever day.

The Newsletter

Wow it has been great hearing from everybody after we sent out the newsletter.

We were able to gather 450+ email addresses and sent it out last Sunday. We're using a service that keeps up with how many people actually open the email (kind of scary huh) anyway 2 days after we sent it, over 250 people have opened the email! Hopefully we'll see a lot more next Monday when people that had the holidays off get back to work.

When you get the email, drop us a line of encouragement at blake@thecrossbridge.com . If you haven't emailed us, I can't tell you how encouraging it is to hear from you after you've read it.

Thanks for all the prayers, The Crossbridge Community is officially real and alive now that I know there are so many of you lifting it up!

Hold on to your hat and welcome to this crazy ride God has set before us.

The 3 Things God Has Told Me

I'm not one to say that I've ever heard God's audible voice, but over the last 7 months I have distinctively felt impressed 3 times that God was saying something to me.

It first happened in May while I was praying through if I was really prepared and equipped to start a church. I was on a retreat to Yosemite National Park and I was reading some scripture and staring at the incredible mountains, when suddenly I felt God say "I am big enough." I took a deep breath and looked around at His incredible scenery and just started worshiping Him.

The next time was in July. I was working out in the yard and hauling off some stuff to the dump. While I was working I started thinking about why we were choosing Tennessee, was it just my desire to be back near home. I started wondering if the whole idea of church planting was just me and not God. Suddenly I felt God say "Don't doubt Me." The power of this feeling was so loud and I started to cry. (I'm glad no body else was out there.)

Finally, last week I was praying about our finances or lack there of. I was questioning why God wasn't supplying more funding. Suddenly I felt God say "Watch Me." In other words we have taken a huge step of faith and I need to keep my eyes on Him instead of staring at all the potential problems.

Now when anything happens I review these 3 statements: God is big enough. Don't doubt Him. Watch Him Work.

It keeps me going!

Angel at Super Target

Okay this is one of those crazy God moments. I had been at Starbucks having a cup of coffee with a local pastor. Rebecca called and asked me to run into Super Target to get some soy sauce. As I pull into the parking lot I notice a front row parking space! I pulled up to the spot and saw the spot infront of this space was empty too . I started to pull all the way through but another car pulled in from the other side. So I put the cruiser in park and got out to go in to the store.

As I come around the side of the car, a man was walking by and said "Do you like your Cruiser?" I said yeah, especially since it was a gift. This led into a 30 minute conversation inside the store about the new church.

After we talked the man looked at me and said that he felt like God wanted him to give me something and he reached in his wallet and pulled out a $100 bill.

God's so cool.

New Theater

Here's a picture of where Crossbridge Community Church will launch on Sept 13th of 2009!

I signed the contract with the theater the week before their Grand Opening. So we were part of the VIP's that got to attend the opening night festivities. We watched the mayor cut the ribbon and then we were among the first group to see a movie in the theater.

The kids couldn't believe that we all got free popcorn and drinks.

I just kept walking around, silently praying for everything I went by. Everyone else in town thinks the theater opened so people in Smyrna don't have to drive to Murfreesboro to see a movie. We know the truth though, God placed the cinema there so in September 100's of kids are going to ask their Mom's and Dad's to take them to the movie church! (Check out themoviechurch.org)

Crazy Snow Storm

Last week Rebecca ran to Kroger to get some groceries. About an hour later she calls and says she's stuck in traffic and wondered if I had looked out side lately. I went and looked and saw the craziest snow storm I had ever seen. You see it wasn't freezing so the snow should have been melting as it was hitting the ground. But the snow flakes falling were so huge and falling so fast, that the sheer number and size were overpowering the melting and lo and behold it was sticking and accumulating! It was about 7:00 at night and we knew the snow would disappear rather quickly so we bundled up the girls and went outside.

We built a snowman and then the neighbors came out with their sled and it was on. The kids had a blast and we got to start building relationships with our neighbors. Thanks for the snow God.

The Search for the Support Church

In December I began my search for a local support church. This is a must for any funding organization. A local support church is a church in the area that supports your vision for planting a church and is willing to back you with finances, people, resources and prayer. I have had several "pastorial" friends who have said I could put their church down as a support church so I could get funding from the Tennessee Baptist Convention but that they wouldn't be able to really help us with any support at this time.

I feel God that if God has given us this vision, then he's stirring a church somewhere in Tennessee to the same vision. My job is to find them.

Over the last two weeks I've begun to emailing every church in the area trying to meet and get to know as many pastors as I can. I haven't found that LSC yet but I've got to eat a bunch of free lunches.

ARC Round Table

The first week in December I got to go to Little Rock to meet with a group called ARC. ARC is a church plant funding organization. Boy those guys are on the ball. They have a very clear vision of church planting and they have an incredible heart to help. Hopefully this trip will result in a connection that will be very advantageous in the future.

Amy Grants Yard Sale!!!

One of our first weekends in Nashville we heard that Amy Grant was having a charity yard sale at a local college for a friend with a special needs child. Rebecca and I love a good yard sale so we headed into Nashville to check it out. We looked around at a lot of the booths and then headed to the center booth that was marked as "Amy's Stuff." And who was there selling Amy's Stuff? None other than Amy Grant herself. Rebecca said we should have brought the camera. I reminded her we were Nashvillians now and shouldn't act like tourist. All that said we did buy a few things from Amy and got to talk to her for a few minutes. Cool.

Our New Home

We got to Smyrna on October 31st. Our first mission was to find a house. I kept all the kids and went and got a newspaper to look for other rental properties. Rebecca had set up a few appointments and she went out ahead to scout out the houses. The very first house she looked at, she loved. It's a country style house with a front porch and set up on a big hill. We knew this was going to be the house we would live in for at least the next year.

The really cool thing was that it was Halloween and the neighborhood this house is in goes completely overboard for Halloween. We brought the kids back there that night and trick or treated at all our "soon to be" neighbors houses.

It was a great first experience for the kids.

PT Cruiser

At the end of October we were packing up the house and a good friend of the family came over. Her husband had just bought a new car and they were going to give their son their very nice old car. They were looking for something to do with their son's car a 2002 wood grain PT Cruiser. She almost jokingly said "Blake you don't need a car do you." I felt a little guilty since we had just been given a '96 Tahoe, but I instantly thought that the cruiser would be lot more gas friendly, it had almost half the mileage, and on top of that I'd look pretty cool motoring around Smyrna in a wood grain PT Cruiser. I confessed that we didn't "need it" but that I could see myself really having fun with it as I drove around meeting people for the new church. She kind of smiled and said she'd talk to her husband about it. A little later he came over and flung a set of car keys at me. And said they would love for me to have the car. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. (Thankfully as we sit here in Smyrna the week before Christmas, the starter went out on the Tahoe last month but the Cruiser is still going strong.)

Super Tater

In October we took a trip to Southside Baptist Church in Tyler TX to share the vision of what we were going to be doing in Nashville . Southside was our first fulltime ministry that we jumped into after seminary. They invited me to say a few words about the church plant. During the service, I shared about a 10 minute vision and then afterward the church planned a baked potatoe fundraiser for us. The whole church turned out and we had a blast visiting with everyone and catching up with each other lives. And the end of the lunch, a few men walked over to tell me how much was raised, we were excpecting a couple of hundred dollars but the total was over $2000. God is so cool. The money came in especially handy when the brakes on the trucks went out during the move to Tennessee. The brake job ended up being over $500 plus we had to stay in a hotel and all the extra food. But God had already abundantly provided for this in advance!

Colonial's Big Gift

In September we saw God do something incredible. We knew that our Church was praying through how they were going to support what we were going to do in Smyrna. Out of the blue, Pastor Tim called me into his office and told me that the personel team decided to coninue our salary and insurance through December. That meant we had 3 months to get settled and figure out what we going to do. I got so excited I gave Tim a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. The gift from Colonial was incredible, moment after I kissed Tim on the cheek was a bit awkward.

The Plan

Pre-launch Phase
November –March 2009
After moving to Smyrna, TN, and secure a meeting space, we’ll start meeting the community and start engaging them through service evangelism. We will recruit and build a launch team and train volunteers to serve at our monthly community outreach events.

Preview Phase
April-August 2009
We will conduct monthly preview services, servant evangelism projects, connection events and follow-up. Church staff will be in place by April. Several friends have expressed a desire to be a part of the servant evangelism projects and the preview services. Please let us know if you would like to be a part of these.

Launch
September 2009
Launch and promote grand opening month. We have this crazy vision that God is going to bring 300 people to our very first meeting!

Growth Phase
After launching large, our plan is to connect visitors to our church through newcomer classes, life groups, and mission opportunities.

The Journey So Far

Here's the recap of our journey :

April ‘08: Blake has this crazy feeling that God wants us to leave our comfortable life and go start a new church. Rebecca amazingly says “Let’s do it!” and the journey begins.

June ‘08 After much prayer and research, we “connected the dots” and the picture became very clear that God was leading to a town just south of Nashville TN named Smyrna.
-Smyrna is located in one of the fastest growing areas of Tennessee. The low taxes, scenic foothills, recreational activities, and incredible school systems are attracting young families like crazy. In fact the town directly south of Smyrna was just named one of the best places in America to raise kids by Business Week Magazine. It’s a perfect fit for our heart and vision to reach young families.

August ’08: Blake tells our church family that we will be leaving in October to start a new church in Tennessee. We put our house on the market and we begin fundraising.

September 08: We accept an offer on the house and go to our first Church Planter’s training conference. The offer on the house turns into a rental agreement as the buyers can't sell their house.

October ’08: We take a tour of Texas, visiting with 3 churches in 3 different cities in 5 days. We share the vision and the plan for what we are going to do in Smyrna. When we come back from the "tour" and we spend the next 2 weeks packing. We squeeze all our stuff into three fourths of a semi-truck (thanks to Rebecca and all the tetris loving packers) and head to Tennessee.

November ’08: We find a house to rent on our first day in Tennessee and we get moved in. Later in the month we launch a website (http://www.crossbridge.tv/), and sign a contract that will make the brand new theater in town the first location of The Crossbridge Community Church starting in September of 2009! We got to go to the Grand Opening of the theater and watch the Mayor cut the ribbon. We keep searching and praying for a local support church.

December ’08: We get our first Tennessee snow! And we send out a Christmas newsletter to all of our friends and family.

Cool things God has Done

Thanks to that $1000 check we were given we are able to pay for our training trip to Tennessee. We're attending a "church planters basic training" up in the Smokey Mountians. It's our first step in getting connected with the Tennesse Baptist Convention. Good stuff and we're getting to meet lots of other church planters.

Before we left Texas we got a contract on our house!!!! It has a contengency attached but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Also, we got a new vehicle. A 1996 Chevy Tahoe was donated to us. It will be great for hauling stuff for the new church.

First Post

Well this is my first time ever to Blog. Kinda exciting. I figured if anything it would be self theraputic to journal our journey to the launching of The CrossBridge Church.

Currently we are getting the house ready to sell and I'm casting the vision every time I get a shot. I've been saying that we are going to start a church, but right now there is no money and no people. Well I can't say that anymore. This Sunday I preached at Colonial and I had one family walk up and give me a $1000 check, so we now have money! Later that afternoon a young couple we know told us God had told them that they were supposed to move to Tennessee with us and plant CrossBridge, so we now have people!

I'm spending some time trying to leverage my FaceBook to connect with some old friends. Hopefully this weekend we will put our house in Wichita Falls on the market, we will send out our first newsletter and we will have a basic website up and running.

A graphic artist friend of mine is working on a logo so I hope to let everyone see it this week.

Well that's all for my first post, I'll try to keep everyone updated.

Blake