Goulash - Misc. News

Goulash: When I was younger, my mom used to throw a bunch of odds and ends and left-overs in a pot and cook it. She called it Goulash. My brother and I ate it with mixed feelings. Here's some blogging Goulash...

PRAYER PARTNERS: We are up to 10. Only 90 more to go! I'm careful not to add anyone on the list, who doesn't specifically ask to be. We all hate SPAM! join us here.

OUR FIRST DONATION! early last week we had our very first donation! I am so encouraged by it! It's just like God to have support come from unexpected places. An old youth group member, who lives in Washington State, used the donate button on our website!

TAX DEDUCTIONS: We are very close to being able to give out tax deductions for those who want them. Clovis Hills (my supporting church) is being incredibly helpful!

ON GOING TRAINING: On January 30th I will be attending my monthly Meeting for church planters in Southern California. The first two weekends in February I'll be in Bakersfield for "Basic Training" - basic training for Church Planters. Please be praying that God help me learn and retain the information.

My Birthday is on Thursday (Jan. 26th). Only 2 more shopping days!

93 to go

7 Prayer Partners. 93 to go. As of today 7 people have agreed to be part of our prayer team. I'm actually very excited about this! Sign up here if your interested.

LAUNCHING - new website, new adventures

Today, I began to put the word out about the website and the church launch. I sent out e-mails and to everyone at my MySpace.com. This feels like the official beginning, as I start the process of raising prayer and financial support. It reminds my of my old YWAM days.

Please, please, please, pray that God supplies!

The next blog will include some amazing news about some amazing people in AUSTRALIA that are praying about joining us and coming on staff! Can you imagine God sending people from "Down Under"? It sounds just like Him! I think God has wonderful plans for this church!

YOU CAN HELP: view 4 ways that you can help. Join the Prayer Team (We NEED you!)

For those who didn't get the mass e-mail, the following is what I sent out today.

Dear Friends and Family.

I am writing to fill you in on a new endeavor and to ask for your support.

As you may have heard, after much prayer and thought, Sarah and I have decided to start a brand new church in Fresno, California. We can’t possibly be more excited!

Here are some interesting facts. No county in America has a greater percentage of churched people today than a decade ago. *www.barna.org
A Gallup poll estimates the American unchurched
population is 195 million (making the U.S. the third largest unchurched nation in the world) *www.barna.org
The number of people in America that Do Not attend church has doubled in the past 15 years. *Church Dynamics International 1,400 pastors in America leave the ministry monthly. *Church Dynamics
International

Although the above reasons (and a million others) are good, we are starting a church simply because we believe it’s what God has called us to.

Our hope and prayer is that we can become a dynamic community that makes disciples of Jesus who are making disciples of Jesus. We need your help. Many, many things are needed to give birth and nurture this new church. The two most urgent needs are prayer and finances.

If you would be interested in receiving emails with an update and specific prayer requests for Axis Community Church (the tentativename), we would greatly appreciate that support.

If you would be willing to donate finances either monthy or as a one-time gift, we would greatly appreciate that support.

Here you will find the new website www.axiscommunitychurch.com Download the “Ministry Plan” to view the full presentation of the church including values, vision, and the direction of the church.

Our first urgent goal is to raise enough monthly support so that I can work at least part-time launching the church. Will you please pray for that?

God Bless!

---Joe and Sarah Green (and family)

The new website: www.axiscommunitychurch.com

Blog #2 - Dreaming out loud

The following was also posted on my MySpace.com. Originally posted at the end of November 2005. I was just dreaming outloud. In the comment section, i posted a couple of the original comments.

Axis is a community of Christ followers looking to impact culture with the message of a personal relationship with God. A relationship that is necessary to live the best possible way. A life that is vital, engaging, whole, fulfilling, and healthy. We want to engage people in a conversation about faith. We want to challenge worldviews and cause people to see God outside the box they've put Him in just as WE are willing to see God outside the box we’ve put him in. Maybe there is no box...

We will look at the scriptures. Study the text. We will learn about those who’ve gone before us and understand the story. We’ll find ourselves in the story. As we look back we’ll find things we need to embrace. We will also discover things that we need to let go of.

We will look at things impacting our lives and culture. We think a lot can be learned by finding and discussion truth. All truth is God’s truth. If that’s true then we can celebrate the truths found in our culture, movies, music and politics. We’d like to stop the mass exodus of our generation leaving the church. Maybe we’ll need to re-define some things about church to make that happen? Maybe there are some non-essentials that we can let go of. Maybe we can create environments to help people see Jesus for who He really is.

As followers of Jesus we can't be complacent living in a Christian box and never engage the world we live in. We want to live the way Jesus did, hanging out with the very people religious leaders turned up their nose at. We can’t embrace legalism and bigotry.

Whether 20 or 50 years into it or just beginning we remember that Christianity is not a destination. No one has it all figured out. And because of that we believe in dialogue -- about Truth, about faith, about freedom in Christ. Dialogue, voicing our doubts and questions is something we feel is vital to our spiritual growth. We need to never stop pursuing Truth and authenticity with passion.

Even though we have questions, we also have firm beliefs. We believe that eternal life and liberating freedom is found in Christ.. We believe that a relationship with Him changes things forever and changes things (for the better) today. You are not the person you used to be after you find Him.

We may not be perfect -- no perfect people allowed -- but we don’t want to live life like we used to.. Jesus told us to be in the world, yet not of it. We're supposed to stand out and make a difference. This church is supposed to live for something bigger than itself. Our church will be more than it’s building.

None of this is something we can magically attain overnight. Following Christ and figuring out what it means to be like Him is a life-long quest. It's the hardest, longest and most rewarding thing we will ever undertake. It is what will define us -- not only in this life, but the life to come.

The first blog

The following is a post from my MySpace.com... way back in October of 2005. It's an interesting bit of history. If you can look past some of the sillyness, you can see the beginnings of the dream that has lead us here, now.

I think I’m going to start a church. Yes, a church from scratch. Not my great grandma’s recipe, but something fresh out of the oven. Crazy huh?

The idea to start a church came out of left field (for you non-baseball fans, that means it came unexpectedly and from an unexpected place). I was at Starbuck’s one fine August morning drinking a cup of Joe (The word Joe is used for everything) with the pastor of the church I go to, (Clovis Hills Community Church) when all of a sudden he asked me if I’ve ever thought of starting a church.

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Then Steve (that’s the pastor I’m drinking Joe with – this could get confusing because I'm Joe, too) told me that I should pray about starting a brand new church and he told me that he thought I had the skill-set to do it.

Well, from that moment on, I’ve prayed about it, read books about it, night-dreamed
about it, day-dreamed about it, talked about it… I’ve even joined a Coaching group for Church Planters down in Southern California. Sarah and I also had a paid professional come to do an assessment of us… he assessed whether or not we had the abilities and giftings to start a church.

So, we definitely MIGHT do it. Definitely. Maybe. Probably.

I dream of a place where there’s room for the doubts that people have… where it’s ok to be in process… where we value dialogue - all stages of the journey together.

I dream of a place where we loose the need to pretend… where even the leaders can be insecure about things… “no perfect people allowed” should be posted outside… where people don’t put on a churchy-face… they just wear the one they woke up with.

I’m dreaming of a place where people can come as they are… where maybe we teach our leaders and congregation to give up trying to fix people… it’s not our job, it’s God’s. I want a culture of acceptance.

There’s more to the dream… wholeness, growth, healing, family, connecting, and truth… don’t even get me started.

That’s it. No ‘big announcement’ from Joe and Sarah, yet. I just thought I’d share what we are up to right now.

What do you think? Would you come to my church? What is missing from our churches in general that you would put into a new church if you had the chance? Let me know your
thoughts.

---joe