I am very excited to share the news… we are pregnant.  No - not Elizabeth and I.  We are! The Journey North is going to have a baby; we are planting a church this summer. 

At the beginning of the year I stood up and lamented that we have a stated value of stating new churches, but the value has largely gone unrealized.   In the few short months since then God has done some amazing things. 

First, he showed us how we could fan the flame of a brand new Christian Missionary Alliance church in Brainerd called Pointway.   We gave Steve Ericson (the planter) a hunting license and told our church that we were trusting God to send some of our best and brightest to go and help with this new work of God in town.  Our Leadership Team has gone a step further and is planning to receive a special offering for them the week before they launch.  We are excited to send Pointway both people and money.

Then, we hired Mike Verlennich as our Church Planter in Residency.  He is in the process of raising financial support for this position and The Journey North is matching the supporters he develops.  The plan is for Mike to spend a year with us developing his core competencies and the skill sets that will enable him to launch a very healthy, new church in Central, Minnesota.

Finally, this past week we took on another new church planter.  This is a very fun story.  Two years ago, my friend Jeff Gauss, moved his family to Cushing to pastor a sister church of ours there.  Prior to that he had been the planting pastor of an inner-city church called Lounge Divine.  During this same period of time, I had my first contact with a group of people in Thief River Falls who wanted to start a new church.  They started meeting and are a small growing group who have done a great job without a pastor but have been seeking God for an official church planter to move to the North West corner of the state and build this new kingdom work.

Last week, The Journey North committed to Jeff $20,000.00 of financial support for this new work.  Next Sunday, I will be introducing our church family to his family and you will have all have a chance to cheer them on.  Please be in prayer for the things God will do through them in Thief River Falls.  

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