Here’s a little update from SC!
Well we’ve decided on a church name: Antioch Church. We received a 501c3 (a $3000 gift!) and needed to come up with a name. Our choice may seem to be an obvious one given the influence of Antioch Community Church in Texas on, well, my whole understanding of church, but there’s more to it than that. Because we live in such a polarized area & Christianity is looked down upon in SC we wanted a name that meant little to nothing to the people in this area. We could have chosen the name Vineyard, but there is already a Vineyard church close by & they have cultivated a name for themselves, so we thought it best to allow them sole rights to that name. Antioch, for the people of this area is a town outside of S.F. & little else; therefore, we get to start with no presuppositions attached to our little church.
We have started worshipping together on Sundays. We meet at 10:30am, sing some songs, & then this crazy guy gives a sermon. We started this up because we wanted to get together and worship God. Not getting together to fellowship seemed kinda’ dry, so we church it up on Sundays. I don't think we've invited anyone to this yet, but it will happen.
We also get together for a teaching time on Wednesday nights. We’ve done this twice now & it’s a time where I have been teaching through the theology of our church. We’ve covered: The Mission has a Church-God’s mission of reconciliation & how the church fits into that; &, The Methods of that Mission-Church structures, Pastoral vs. People ministry methods, Program vs. Lifegroup methods. It has been fun, but I need to refine my teachings! Luckily I have a pretty captive audience; sleepers get excommunicated. “Yes, it’s true, I am Nacho.” Next week…The Kingdom of God, but some VLI dude is teaching that one, I ain’t no fool!
Laben, Jeff, & I all have painting jobs. Laben & Jeff are painting the inside of two condos for $3000, which is nice. They start on Monday. I start painting for the State of Ca on Monday too. I get paid $30hr, which is cool for me, but kinda’ high when I think about taxes. All of us have been freaking out about $, but God has totally come through every time Ps. 37 “I was young, but now I’m old, yet I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken.” Me neither, but I always think I’m gonna’ be God’s first slip-up. I still work at the coffee shop, which is a blast. I’m starting to get some real relationships with the other folks & our conversations are a lot different than the ones I had at Yaks! Our coffee shop is right next to a bar & when I close the shop at 12pm I see some interesting stuff. The manager who is openly gay asked me why I moved to SC, & I told him I'm here with a group of people to start a church. No joke, the tension was thick enought to cut with a knife. It was weird for about 20min, but we started joking later about "his people" liking Madonna. He's told me a little about his life (he's from Chico!) & it is really sad.
Linda via. Siena has had two play dates with other moms. She has been going to a library reading time & has run into other moms who have initiated times for our kids to get together. One of the moms came over here & another mom met Linda at the park. Another mom met Siena while she was in SC at the Farmer’s Market with the Jeff & Janine. Siena & her son got along so well the mom asked for our number. Way to go Siena!
Rachel went to the AIDS group here in town & volunteered. She’s not sure if she is going to volunteer there on a regular basis, but she is exploring different community oriented groups in town. Each night I close at the coffee shop & we have extra soup left over. No one takes the soup, so I take it. There are a lot of homeless folks on the streets when I get off, & I figure their hungry & ask if they want the soup. This last time I gave the soup out one of the guys said, “Are you the soup guy?” I guess a little food goes a long way downtown; we’ll see what this turns into. I think we’re gonna’ bake some cookies before I go to work from now on; no brainer.
Since we’re getting together regularly we decided to hire a babysitter. Normally somebody from the church does that, but everybody’s involved. So, we put an add in at UCSC. We had 3 interviews today & it was cool to tell them we were a church to find out if they had a problem with that; nobody did, & one girl whose ride was late sat in the living room with Bean & Laben asking questions about the church. We’re paying $20hr & we’ll see where this leads…global church plants anyone?
For Damien’s 13th birthday we had a right of passage. All of the men got on the Tom Sawyer raft, paddled to the middle of the pond, jumped in, & swam to shore. No we don't live in Buffalo, & yes the water was cold, not frozen, but plenty cold. It was an awesome experience following Damian, the man, into the pond. Afterwards we had a BBQ with our landlords & one of their daughter’s family.
We’ve been going through firewood pretty fast in the mountains & bought a chord for $361, which is crazy; I though it would last us longer, but 3200sqft is a lot to heat with a wood stove. Laben & I have been scavenging for wood when we drive up or down the hill. This last trip we noticed some freshly cut logs on the side of the road & decided to ask the owner if we could have the wood. We drive up to the house & this guy comes out. We ask him about the wood, he tells us we can have it (it’s about a bed full), & asks what we need it for. I tell him we’re running out of firewood, so he says, “You need firewood? See that pile of wood over there? It’s Oak & you can have it all. You see that other pile over there, I don’t need it & you can have it too.” All said he’s gonna’ give us about a chord & a half of wood. More importantly, Laben & I agree this guys a lonely old bachelor who could use some friends, so we’re gonna’ bring him some SC coffee & see if we can’t drink a cup of mud with they guy.
There is more to tell, & God is doing great things in all of our lives. My disbelief in what God had called us to has in no way canceled out what he is going to do, or what he desires to do in & through disbelieving willing vessels like us. We are having a wonderful time as a church, seeds are being planted, & we only have to believe Luke when he says, “& God added to their numbers daily those who were being saved.”
