The Redeemer Church Journey Update

Well it's been almost a month since I blogged about the church plant. Since then we have visited several church plants, and starting meeting on Sunday mornings! Wow.

So we visited three different church plants during our "Sunday's off" between SGBC and the start of Redeemer. It was very encouraging and helpful to see what others have done, and hear their encouragements to us for the journey. These are the people who have been there and know the battle ahead, so to get wisdom from them was very sweet.

On Oct 12th we met for the first time on a Sunday morning at Bristow Elementary. It just so happened that Bro and Haven decided to have Baby Eden on the 11th (she was due a day after me, so almost 4 weeks early!), so plans changed quite a bit for the 12th! Ha! I will do another post on precious Eden, but know that her and momma are both fabulous and I tell Haven daily I am mad that she isn't pregnant anymore and I am! Haha.






So we decided to just do a very scaled down version for our first Sunday. Jennifer led worship by herself, and it was sweet and simple. It was a humbling morning I think. There were just a few of us, and it was our first time in the school. It felt perfect to me. God just preparing us for what He wants to do in this area, and Him reminding us that it won't be by our plans or big show that hearts and lives will be changed. It will be by His doing alone. It was a great lesson at the perfect time.

So the next week we were all pumped and ready to go! We had a few visitors and wonderful worship and a great message. It was refreshing and exciting.















Now we are trying to spread the word. Our core group will be going out and passing out info this weekend, and we are praying for ways to reach the community around us.

Will you pray with us?



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What's Next? Getting Started with this Church Plant thing...

Last Sunday was our last Sunday on staff at Smiths Grove Baptist. It was bittersweet and of course I cried. But now that we have no more responsibilities there, the reality has set in that we are planting a church. Which leads me to ask myself, "what next?"!!

We have been meeting with our core group for Redeemer for a few weeks, but that is all. We do not plan on meeting on Sundays for a church service for several more weeks. So now what?

We are taking this time to visit some local churches and just see what others are doing and why. We are getting supplies together for a "mobile" church (we will be meeting in a local school gym). We are looking at logos and trying to set certain policies. And we are praying. A bunch. That God would change hearts on Louisville Rd. That He would redeem souls from death to life. And that He would give us wisdom for this completely uncharted territory we are entering into.


This is what we are toiling for- that we may present all mature in Christ.

I'll keep you posted on how things are going. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.

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Our journey towards church planting...

This weekend I shared that our family will be stepping out in faith and planting a new church in the Warren East area of Bowling Green. I left off at us praying about the opportunity...

Our church pastor and Mr.Pate had talked for awhile about the need for a church in that area, as well as a neighboring county that's really close to us. Another local church planted a new church in that county and it is thriving today, there was definitely a need. We could see it, but our church just wasn't at a point where we could do it at the time.

We had some friends move out to the Warren East area and asked us where they could go to church. We of course suggested Smiths Grove, but they felt that was too much of a drive (although really it's a ten minute drive, but I think bc you are driving north people perceive it as far). They really didn't want to keep driving into Bowling Green either. We realized there were no Southern Baptist churches in that area that we felt comfortable sending them to. Wow. The Lord really opened our eyes that day to this area.

Not long after, Mr.Pate ran into the pastor from Living Hope in a sporting goods store. He mentioned to Mr.Pate that they were really wanting to plant a church in that area. Wow! We had been seeing the need, and now it seemed there might be a means!

Over the next year, Mr.Pate and I did lots of assessments for NAMB (the North American Mission Board) and the KBC (KY Baptist Convention. We also began looking for houses out in the warren east area. We passed all of the assessments, were approved by the LH Elders, and things just kept seeming to affirm this was Gods next step for us. We bought a house and sold our house within a week. Wow.

So we have begun meeting with a core group who will help plant this church, and it is a very exciting time. It is also a bittersweet time, as this Sunday is our last one at Smiths Grove. We love this church, and it is the only church Griffin has ever known. Leaving definitely makes me so sad, but often God does not call us to easy tasks. We hope that through SGBC being a planting partner and prayer supporter that we will still have lots of interaction and be able to keep up with everyone.

Please be praying for our new church, Redeemer Church Warren East. Pray for the core group (which is a mix of people from Smiths Grove, Oakland Baptist and Living Hope) to bond well and quickly. Pray for our supporting churches and for this to also bless their congregations. Pray for our leadership, especially Mr.Pate. And pray for The Lord to prepare peoples hearts in that area for the gospel.

What a Fall this will be! New church. New baby. Settling into a new house. Whew!!! Right now I am clinging to the song "Called me higher" to remind me that all I have to do is abide in Him and step where He leads, He will do the rest.

http://youtu.be/FgAzLKXqcDk

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That post I have wanted to write for a long time...

I rarely blog period anymore, and when I do it is usually a recap of what we have been up to. Most of the time I just do not have the mental capacity at the end of the day to write anything of much weight, but I do miss blogging about things I am learning or thinking. Over the last year and a half, there has been a major development in the Pate family that I have wanted to share but could not. It's now finally time!

Mr.Pate and I are planting a new church in the Warren East area!

Pretty big news really. For those that don't know tons about us other than my family posts here, let me give you a brief history. We have been serving at our present church in Smiths Grove for 6 & 1/2 years. Mr.Pate started as the youth pastor and then became the Education and Discipleship Pastor (which covered children, youth, college, community groups and outreach events). It has been a true blessing and home for us.

He got the call to interview the night of my thyroid surgery, and went to interview the day I got out of the hospital! For the first 6 months we were there, I could barely speak (after my surgery I lost my voice for quite awhile) so the youth thought I was very shy an low key. Haha. Once I got my voice back, one of the girls commented I was way more outspoken than she thought. Haha.

We had just come out of a very very hurtful church experience, one of the ones where most people leave the church and don't come back. Smiths Grove ministered to our souls and loved us through it. They are great at loving :-)

We have watched children who were in our k-2 classes come into our youth group. We have graduated many of the youth on into "adulthood". And we have loved serving them.

About a year and a half ago, an opportunity presented itself to pursue planting a church in an area of town close to Smiths Grove where we had already seen a great need. We began praying then, not sure what The Lord would do with it....

(More soon...)


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