Town Hall Follow-up

Last week Friday I posted a summary of our Town Hall, which took place on Tuesday, January 15. You can see that summary just below this post. I noted in that summary that on January 25, I would note some "key observations."

After sharing the summary, and talking with a number of you, a few of these "key observations" have become more clear to me.

1. The Outpost core is passionate about their venue. They want to see Outpost succeed. They see it as a key piece in their ongoing spiritual growth (evidence of this includes a very high and encouraging participation in our current "Spiritual LIFEpractices" course). They are mission-minded and want the mission of Outpost to take hold.

Yet...

2. Outpost is a second church and/or worship lcoation for most of the people in the Core. This compromises their own ability to extend the mission, as they believe in it.

Please continue the dialogue. Either shoot me an e-mail (rpeterson@stjstl.net), call me (636.779.2320), or comment on the blog. I am happy to meet with you personally, especially as you react to these observations. I believe they are accurate and describe well our current situation.

I will be in Chicago part of next week at an "Acts 29 Network Boot Camp." Acts 29 is a church-planting organization and network. Kristy and I are very excited to go through "boot camp" in January in Chicago...

Outpost Maplewood Town Hall

This past Tuesday, Outpost Maplewood held a “town hall meeting.” The purpose was to give a ministry update and then discuss our burdens, concerns, and plans for the future. I began by sharing six “talking points.”

Talking Points
**Outpost Maplewood, by God’s blessing, has a great, solid, and consistent core. We are grateful for people who are here every week, engaged in worship, eager to dig into God’s Word, and ready to grow spiritually.
**We have not fully realized our potential to expand our influence through this worship venue, but must do so NOW for this core to keep maturing. The key question that I posed was: Would Maplewood care if we left?
**We must realize and recognize what we’ve been given: a public place to meet, influence with others, and spiritual leadership.
**However, we cannot continue to rent space, pay staff, and organize worship for a core of people, as dedicated as you might be today. It would not be using the resources God has given to us for maximum Kingdom effectiveness. Our core is about 35-40 people. Currently, through our offerings, we are only covering 25% of our expenses.
**The core of Outpost Maplewood must share this burden of being the church in this community. This includes ownership (including financial ownership), investment in others, and inviting others.
**We must decide together, if each of us is willing to be an advocate and shoulder this responsibility and privilege, or if God may be re-directing us in another direction.

After sharing those talking points, I asked three questions for the core to answer:
What are you thoughts and burdens, based on what I shared?
What are you personally ready to do?
Where do we go from here?

As a group, we discussed, asked more questions, and offered thoughts for about an hour. This is how the core answered those three questions:

**What are your thoughts and burdens, based on what I shared?
We need a greater community presence
How can we serve Concordia Maplewood, especially its elderly population?
Someone said, “I have not physically brought someone to Outpost.”

**What are you personally ready to do?
Things in the community, but first we need to better understand the community
The core is ready to serve, but many do not live in the community
Ready to bake cookies and hand them out to new people in the community
Teach ESL
Ready to give financially; but some didn’t realize the need or standard
Some readily admitted that they’re consumers, not ready to “do.” They “work at church on Sundays,” so this is a great place to get fed.
Form a covenant

**Where do we go from here?
Pray about forming a covenant, and then form one!
Is this the best location and venue? The Crown Room has a maximum capacity of 75 people at tables.
Is multi-site realistic, noting that Outpost is a multi-site church?

Summary and Next Steps:
I want to especially thank everyone who participated in the Town Hall Meeting. I believe it was not only necessary, but helpful to discuss the various issues. Because some of our core was not able to attend, and because I want the conversation to continue, I am inviting you to do a number of things over the next week:
**Pray. Pray. Pray for all of us to discern God’s will in moving forward and in having these conversations.
**Reply back to me via e-mail with more additional thoughts, questions, or concerns.
**Make comments on our blog: http://outpostmaplewood.blogspot.com
**Meet with me personally if you’d like to talk more. I am available and happy to meet with anyone who wants to discuss. My e-mail is rpeterson@stjstl.net, or call me at (636) 779-2320.

On Friday, January 25, I will make some key observations from our discussions (both at the Town Hall and also any that occur over the next week). Again, I encourage you to share what you’re thinking, so that we can all discern in the most appropriate way.

I Can't Stop...

what? There are little things (or big things) in all of our lives that have the power to master, or control, us. I'm not sure what it is for you, but "it" is probably something.

"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want." Galatians 5:16-17

1. What did you feel as you read these words?
2. Why do you think God put this passage in the Bible?
3. Is anyone ready to paraphrase this passage in their own words?
4. Who else would like to comment on that?
5. What insight from someone else in the group do you want to take away from this discussion?6. How will this passage affect your life this week?

Begin the discussion...or keep it going...

Discussion: I Can't Control My Mouth

The mouth. A lot comes out of it. Sometimes it smells great. Other times, it stinks. Feel free to comment on the verse below using these questions...

"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” James 3: 9 and 10

1. What did you feel as you read these words?
2. Why do you think God put this passage in the Bible?
3. Is anyone ready to paraphrase this passage in their own words?
4. Who else would like to comment on that?
5. What insight from someone else in the group do you want to take away from this discussion?
6. How will this passage affect your life this week?

Who has a SECRET?

We all do.

Next week, we're starting a new 6 part series called "Secrets." It'll address the many issues we face, some of which are secrets to even the people who know us best.

Here are the titles:

• Nobody Knows the Real Me
• I'm Struggling with Sexual Sin
• I Can't Control My Mouth
• I Can't Stop
• I've Lost My Balance
• I'd Rather Serve Myself

It'll be a challenge to teach this series, but I feel that God has placed this on my heart to share. Please pray for my preparation, and for your preparation as we journey together these next weeks.

Time to update

I spent some time this afternoon updating my Bloglines. If you're in the blogging world, reading this right now, you know what that means, right?

I hope so.

It'll save you a lot of time and tons of frustration. Basically, you "subscribe" to various blogs and can read them like you read newspaper headlines. Currently, I subscribe to 29 feeds, ranging from friends to colleagues to church stuff to technology. People sometimes ask me, "How do you have time to read all those?"

Here's my answer: I don't. And I won't read ALL of them. That's the beauty - it's a no-guilt approach! But organizing them like this allows me to read more of what I want, and not just everything thrown at me.

It's worth a try. Go to http://www.bloglines.com to set your account up, for free. Oh yeah, then subscribe to this blog1

When should we pray?

Next Tuesday, September 18, we're asking that question in the final part of our Vertical series. I hope you've been challenged as much during this series as I have been in preparing for it.

Feel free to respond and discuss these questions:

1. When do you find yourself praying the most?
2. When have you been in a season of life where you just didn't want to pray?

By the way - I'm going to ask a lot more of questions like this in the future. I'm back in the blogosphere, and hope you are too!