614 Church Plant!!! The story so far ...

Hello from Columbus, Ohio.  Terry asked me to write down parts of our church planting story, and we’re excited to do so.

Our Church planting experience started a little different to some of the stories I have heard.  Even though for the last 10 years we have been praying about church planting, and even had a few opportunities along the way, until this point, we knew God was closing doors as he continued to prepare us for this journey.  Then early 2014 we moved from Chicago to Columbus in response to a job offer, however with a huge amount of confirmation that this was something God had prepared for us.  After 5 months of looking for a church, Kathy and I (along with her parents who had also joined us in Columbus), heard from God that it was time to start a church.  The words i got was “start small, start easy, start in your basement”.  The next week we started!  We have 4 kids, so the 8 of us met the first few weeks in the basement, and experienced an amazing time in worship, in studying the great commission, and taking the time to pray and hear from God what was on his heart for our new church.  Our kids were involved, hearing from God, through scripture, through pictures, through impressions … it was a glorious start.

Fast forward 7 months (we started November 2014), we still meet in our house, and God has added some incredible people so far.  Most who have had similar God stories in how God has been leading them to a point of wanting to see something new in Columbus.  People who join a small church plant like this seem to be pioneers, leaders, people with great conviction of what God has for them.  From time to time we have had over 60 people here, so our next step will include a bigger venue.  Our church name is 614 Church - and you may not know what this means unless you’re from this area.  614 is the columbus region’s telephone area code.  So we wanted to keep it nice and simple.

I continue to work at a local bank, and our family has settled well into Columbus life.  Our partnership with NCMI and Church in the City (Chicago) has been a life-saver.  After 2 months, Terry Kreuger spent the weekend here, in April Jody and Vanessa Romero were here, followed by Steve and Debbie Sudworth.  Along the way, so many of our friends and fellow elders from Church in the City also came, not seeking platform, but truly coming here to serve and celebrate what God has birthed here.

If you want to visit us, you’re so welcome!  Our website is www.614church.org, and we welcome your prayers.  Pray that God would use us to see many people saved here.  Pray that God would use us to display the majesty of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit through miracles, and signs and wonders!  Pray that each of us would be so effective at loving people at work, at school, in our neighborhoods and in our families!  That’s the community and culture we are believing for God to build in our church.

David and Kathy Swart

Church Planting in Pasadena, CA Part 2 - Specific Prayer Requests

This is the updated Prayer Request for the Church Plant into Pasadena CA.

Please see the previous post on the church plant for the full story ...

Please pray for us!

PEACE: It's been an incredibly intense and quick transition, which has opened us to spiritual and physical battles of anxiety, stress, and the awareness of the potentially lonely season we are heading for as we begin. Pray for angelic protection and peace, that all the practical elements would come together and that we'd be able to give attention to the spiritual elements the Lord wants us to be meditating on. Pray over our minds- that they'd be full of the realities and possibilities of heaven!
MARRIAGE: Pray for our marriage to be strengthened rather than weakened through this adventure- that the things that seem to come against us would fuel our pursuit to draw closer to each other in the presence of our King!
RELATIONSHIPS: Pray for quick and divine relationships to form when we arrive! That the season of being "on our own" would be short (and non-existent spiritually;), and that Pasadena would be soft terrain for us as we arrive and quickly connect with people. We are even praying that there'd be people who have been praying for us to come, and that SALVATIONS happen early and often and are a natural way that our family grows!
KIDS: Pray that our kids (Finn-5; Judah-3.5; Eloise-1) would not be adversely affected in any way and that the entire process would be an adventure where they can grasp the kingdom purposes that are driving this endeavor and actually CONTRIBUTE to the call of God on our family in this. Thus far they have seemed great, but we are leaving an incredible community at CITC and it may be something that gradually effects them as they realize they won't be seeing those friends again...
NCMI PARTNERSHIP: Having a team like NCMI to support and build into a local church plant is a huge blessing! Pray for close relationships to form with those the Lord wants to build into our plant!
RELATIONSHIPS AT USCWM: Pray for the relationships we are looking to make on the campus of the US Center for World Missions. We are trusting that many that are there working in full-time ministry in various areas will be able to lock-arms with us and we can serve them in many ways. Along this line, we are trusting that we can even have full access to the facilities to be able to host various meetings, events, offices, etc.
FINANCES: We're working closely in partnership with the CITC elders on issues related to finances while trusting God to provide. We have the advantage of keeping Christian's full-time job, so are trusting for provision for the cost of living difference in Pasadena, moving costs in order to relocate, and natural planting expenses as we get things off the ground.

Love to you all,

C & S

Cool Video from Freedom City Church in Tempe AZ

Love this Video from Marco Triano at Freedom City Church in Tempe, AZ!

Check it out here ... and check them out if you are in the Phoenix area!

https://youtu.be/0KD8OwKkWJU

Church Planting in Pasadena, CA

Hi NCMI family!

For those that don't know us, we are Christian & Susannah Martinsen. We are elders at Church in the City (CITC)- Chicago, and were fortunate enough to find the church and Steve & Debs Sudworth 8 years ago when we moved to Chicago from San Diego to attend Moody Bible Institute for seminary...  While seminary was an important process of our growth and preparation, it has been the experience in the local church and being apart of the NCMI family that has shaped us into who we are. For that we are eternally grateful.

Sue and I were asked to share a bit about our process and the story of the upcoming plant to Pasadena with all of you. We all know the emphasis the NCMI team has placed on church planting as it relates to the Great Commission, but Steve (Sudworth) really sparked this movement within CITC at an elders meeting we had (actually in our living room;) back in the Spring of 2013. "50 churches; 50 cities; 50 years..." We can still hear his words as we sensed something was shifting in the future of our church and the lives of those who'd been called to serve in this wonderful family.

All we can say is that as we look back to that moment, we truly see the direction the Lord is taking us is truly an extension of that declaration that had been bathed in prayer. We hadn't considered planting seriously up to that point in our lives. We didn't even consider it in that moment to be honest- it was more about what God began to do in response to the declaration of a word that was blessed by heaven. 

Up to that moment, Sue and I had already had in our hearts a unique desire to impact the nations "missionally", and yet felt this needed to be based in the local church. For instance, we thought perhaps we'd be based at CITC and be involved in missions work both here in the US and internationally into other nations. Even as the Lord started stirring for church-planting, we deeply pondered the potential of that call being an international move. The last place we'd ever consider would be the Los Angeles area (which Pasadena sits just north of). LA was the one place we'd both said we'd NEVER move, after being "close enough" in San Diego early in our marriage. We all know how those "I'll never move there" statements tend to work out...

What is so miraculous about this journey is how the Lord used my role at Moody Bible Institute (where I've worked since finishing seminary 4 years ago) to set this transition to Pasadena in action, and begin to unveil part of the reason why I had stayed "bound" to Moody for so many years even after finishing studies (something that has taken me a while to "appreciate" though always knowing God's hand upon it;). 

Moody Distance Learning (my department) was approached by the US Center for World Missions (Now called Frontier Ventures- click link for more info) to explore a partnership on their campus in Pasadena, CA. Because of my role, this was something I was tasked with exploring. Sue and I went to Pasadena in February to simply test the waters. What eventually happened was that Father God revealed that this was the place we were meant to plant- there on that campus- that was dedicated to World Missions. We had no idea that this place even existed, nor the rich history and activity currently taking place there... While we still see in part, we know the Lord is uniting something of the heart of the local church with the heart of world missions in a fresh and unique way.

There is so much more we could share about this process which we'll certainly do as the journey unfolds. We still sense that we are seeing but a glimpse of all the Lord is putting before us, but the definitive direction we know from the Lord is that the time is now, the place is Pasadena, and the mission is to plant a local church in that city that carries a burden BOTH for the local city and the nations. While we don't completely grasp the entire picture, we do have a deep sense that something of the heart of World Missions that this campus community carries is something we are meant to work out in the local church- perhaps to develop and then demonstrate in a fresh and Spirit-led way- something that often gets lost in the task of global mission endeavors.

I will continue to work full-time with Moody as we transition. The irony is that Moody's partnership on the campus is very much undetermined and may never happen, yet through this process I have been allowed to move there to essentially keep my role and work remotely regardless of Moody's future there. The financial burden that this alleviates is a wonderful blessing (though not covering all our needed costs for the transition, it puts us in a nice position;). My superiors at Moody are fully aware and supportive of our sense of calling to plant a church as the sole purpose of this move- we feel God's favor in this!

There are so many ways we'd be honored to have you partner with us in this! Please continue to follow us as we transition. We'll be moving early-mid August and will keep you all updated.

But the most urgent... Please pray for us! We will post a summery of prayer needs soon!

With more love than we can handle

Christian & Sue Martinsen

Please follow us on Facebook and/or Instagram to stay updated!

https://www.facebook.com/christiansmartinsen

https://www.facebook.com/susannah.e.martinsen?fref=ts

https://instagram.com/csmartinsen/

https://instagram.com/smartinsen2/