LifePoint is working hard to follow God on His mission to reach the nations. This is not just a call to cross the ocean but to also cross the street to your neighbor. Hope you enjoy the latest video about The Sending Church. Check out the information concerning the Belgium team.
April 25, 2010 Sending Church Promo from LifePoint Church on Vimeo.
I will leave on this Sat. (3/20) with a team of 10 people for Brussels, Belgium. This trip is for the team members who are relocating in January to help start a work of LifePoint Church. We are desiring to see French speakers come to know Christ and multiply churches that will multiply into more churches. Please pray for our team that we will have eyes and ears to see all that God wants us to see. This is the last time any of our team will travel to Brussels before we move there in January 2011. I am planning on updating as often as I can while I am in Brussels. Thanks for following along and for praying for the team and for LifePoint as we seek to follow what we know God has called us toward.
Team Belgium has started group French lessons each week. We are having a great time attempting to learn a new language since French is a vital part of our church planting process. I have to laugh sometimes thinking about a transplanted Texan living in Middle Tennessee trying to learn a European language. One of my ministry partners once said that I could “butcher the King’s English.” He was probably right as evidenced by my blog post. But, it is so important that our team learn to speak the language of the people we are trying to reach and influence. Pray for us as we gather each week, laugh at each other and ourselves, as we learn to speak French with a southern accent and grow closer as a team for His glory.
We received this from our Team Bangkok leader Bret Cox yesterday. He has asked that we pass the note along to the church.
Dear LifePoint Church,
I am sorry this has taken so long to get to you. We have been balancing reading, class time, ministry, and personal time with our Lord. That really isn’t an excuse though as you dropped everything to rise up and meet our needs. Team Bangkok was completely and totally amazed at the response from our church when we had to relocate to unfurnished apartments. The body went above and beyond by supplying all our needs right down to forks and spoons! This was a picture of how Biblical community is fleshed out as modeled in Acts 2. Since we don’t know who made all the donations, maybe this can be posted on the website. We truly want everyone to know how much we appreciate our Church and their heart for missions.
A special thanks to Pat, Tim, Leslie, Jason and Witt for their sacrifice of time and energy to make the trip to Atlanta and work tirelessly to get the furnishings from the truck to each apartment, then make the late night drive back to Smyrna. What a long day for them! As we are learning in our training, we are blessed to be a blessing and you have certainly been a blessing to us. We LOVE each of you and look forward to all the glory God is going to receive through our faithful body of believers. With sincere love, Team Bangkok
Team Bangkok
The Sending Church Campaign is about to close. We have been in a very unique series for the past 3 weeks @LifePoint Church where Pat has challenged us to be active in the sending process as a church (corporately) and as individuals by giving financially above and beyond our tithe. People have responded overwhelmingly in a positive way with comments about finally realizing the importance of sending to international cities where Christ is not recognized Lord.
One question that continues to be asked and I want to help answer concerns financial partnership with individual missionarieschurch planters from our church. The question has been phrased like this, “If my family is giving to support/partner with a certain family will that money be counted toward the overall goal of $1.5 million dollars the church is raising?” This is a good question and I have a very short and easy answer.
YES!!
Any financial partnership that a LifePoint member/attender makes with one of our church planters on the Bangkok or Belgium teams will be counted as part of the overall goal of $1.5 million. Please make sure and write the family name and country on the commitment card so the financial office can make sure it is directed as desired. You also need to let the church planting family know of the partnership you are desiring with them.
The dollars that are committed to a LifePoint church planting family is designated to that family as salary support. Any dollars that are committed to The Sending Church Campaign that are not designated to a church planting family will go toward ministry budgets and the planting of future local and international churches/campuses.
I am looking forward to turning in our family’s commitment card and bringing an initial offering this Sunday. Join with us as Lifepoint “sends the church to be the church where there is no church.”
The picture below shows both of the church planing teams from LifePoint Church together on the platform with Pat. This past Sunday, Pat, introduced both the Bangkok team and the Belgium team to the church so they could see who they will send out and so they could begin to pray for each family.
There are 30 people LifePoint is going to commission in the next year to go the nations to plant reproducing sending churches so others might know and respond to the Gospel of Christ.
Please pray for these teams.
Lord willing, I will one day be in Belgium working to spread the Name of Christ to those who do not know Him as Lord. Even though I will not live in a 10/40 window country I think we need to have Ms there spreading the Fame of His Name . I never want to be so narrow focused to think that “real missions” happens in “hard places”. I hope people will have a wider view of mission than just what happens in the 10/40 window. In fact, God is sending people from the “hard places” to live in other parts of the world so they can hear His story. I hope this video encourages and inspires you to be involved in His mission.
What do chocolate, lace, diamonds, micro-brews, and the European Union have in common? All of these are found in Belgium.
The Goen family has been on an incredible journey here in Tennessee over the last several months and we love every moment. Amy is in her fifth year teaching fourth grade at Providence Christian Academy. Jordan is fourteen years old and a freshman at PCA. Peyton is twelve years old and entering the seventh grade and his younger brother Evan is ten years old and heading toward the fifth grade. We have all begun learning French recently in anticipation for our next step with God.
God has called our family to move to Belgium to help plant a reproducing sending church that will reach Western Europe for the glory of God. Our church is sending us to the land of chocolate, lace, diamonds, and beer to live and teach what a growing and reproducing relationship with Christ looks like in a Western European culture. Our family is excited about what God has done in our own lives and in our church. There are four other families who are following God’s call to plant their families in Belgium as part of our team.
Belgium is considered a Catholic country. Over 90% of the people consider themselves non-practicing Catholics and rarely attend any religious services of any kind. Evangelical Christianity is virtually non-existent in the southern region of Belgium. In the city of Namur, which will be a target city in south Belgium, there is one evangelical church. The church consists of 25 Congolese refugees in a city with over 100,000 people. Our entry point into Belgium will be the city of Brussels where we will begin to minister.
LifePoint Church, where I serve, is our sending church. We are being sent as church planters to represent Christ, our church, and you, our family and friends. Please pray with us as we seek to obediently follow the call of God for our lives.
