Reaching Out

The past two months most of my efforts have been concentrated on trying to bring some order and unity to Imago itself. Of course, we have been reaching out and will always continue to have to readjust within the walls. But there are seasons of emphasis.

Given the changes Imago has gone through in the past two months (new pastor, new service time, access to the building), you can imagine that these events can shake up a congregation and demand care and attention.

I believe that Imago is at a place where our outward efforts need to be stepped up. One of our committments in the Moundview Community is to meet the needs of the families here. This month, in honor of Thanksgiving, we will be partnering with a local school and providing hats, gloves, and scarves for the children. Furthermore, we are working with the Mound View Neighborhood Resource Center (which is housed in our building), and coordinating a clothing give-away.

Imago Christi seeks to be a place of refuge in this neighborhood. These are just a couple of ways that we believe we can be a blessing to the community. Please pray that:

God will be good to us as we seek to strike that balance between meeting the needs of the congregation and serving the community.

And, that God would use Imago to proclaim His excellencies through these service opportunities.

Thanks so much for your prayers,

Donovan

Change is in the Air

Hello all,

I want to thank for your continued prayer and support. Imago is doing well and we are excited about what is happening.

One big change on the horizon is the service time change. For the past two years, Imago has been holding an evening service. Now that the previous congregation has moved out we have the freedom to move about the building at will. After much consideration, we have come to the conclusion that the morning service will be a more appropriate venue for our context. Please pray for us as we transition to the new time. May it be the blessing we hope it to be.

I want to invite you to take a look at our website. There you can listen to sermons, read our vision, and just get a feel for what we feel makes Imago distinct. Here is the link:

http://www.imagochristicp.org/

One of our passions at Imago is to create “third places”. We believe that there are many people who are interested in spirituality, yet are not interested in the church (yet). So, one place people can meet is the church, a second place is the home, a “third place” is a public venue conducive to the exchange of ideas. A couple of the creative and missional guys here at Imago began something a while ago called Voicebox. It is a poetry slam held at a neighborhood arts center. That being said, it is not a Christian venue. It is a “third place”, a neutral ground. However, it was created by Christians with a missional mindset. So, as we enter this community and provide the opportunity for the expressive juices to start flowing, we can engage people with true relationship and gain a foothold from which to proclaim the good news.

Check it out here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=95072432267&ref=ts

Please continue to pray for us as we seek to engage our culture in appropriate ways. May God provide just the right divine appointments, at just the right time, with just the right people. We have been blessed with many people who love Jesus and who have servants hearts. And we are beginning to see the fruits of engaging the community in relationship, and beginning to draw curious people. One of the things that it appears that Imago will be particularly effective at, is reaching the de-churched. This means that there are plenty of people who may or may not be Christians, who grew up in the church and now find it repulsive for various reasons. Imago’s fresh approach is often appealing to these people because it stands out against many of the things they are rejecting from their previous experience. One example is that often people have rejected the church because they have observed the church mix gospel and culture in a way that is inappropriate. Thus, rather than proclaiming the good news, these churches ended up proclaiming their culture. When they encounter a church that is more culturally flexible (or relevant to them), they take a second look. This second look affords them the opportunity to either re-enter the church commnity or maybe even discover the claims of the gospel for the first time.

Please pray for:

Wisdom, Courage, Movement of the Spirit, Unity, Energy, and anything else on your heart

Blessing in Christ,

Donovan

And…we’re in!

Hello all,

This is a really exciting time at Imago Christi. We have been sharing a building with the existing church for almost 2 years and they just moved out. That means we can free reign over the building and do fun things like bible studies and redecorating. It also means that I am now the official janitor and have my hands full with a huge building. We will be sure to post some before and after photos as we go so you can follow the progress.

Aubrey and I landed here 2 weeks ago and all is going well so far. Everyone has been terribly halpful and welcoming. We even found a beautiful rental house. You can go to Aubrey’s facebook if you want to see where we live.

Praie the Lord for his faithfulness in paving the way for us to get here and for meeting all of our needs. It is really easy to see the hand of the Lord right now, too many things have fallen right into place for this to be the hand of man.

Please pray for us as we continue to meet people. We want to be a blessing to those we came to serve. Pray that we would strike a healthy balance between family, friends, ministry, work, all the same things that all of you have to wrestle with. may God help us all as we seek to be as balanced as Jesus.

Praying that all is well for you,

In Christ,

Donovan and Aubrey

Ohiowa…???

Hello all,

For those who are interested, we will be keeping you posted on the progress of Imago Christi through this blog. Please keep us in prayer as we seek to serve God in this new churchplant.

For now, we are in Ohio until mid-August, when we will make the move to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I know that many of you in California think there is not much difference between Ohio and Iowa. You are correct. There is not much. But there is some. For example, Iowa is much colder. And I will share with you an interesting anecdote I heard from someone who heard from someone else who knows someone else in Iowa…  Yes, we grow corn in Ohio. But Iowans must be laughing at our efforts. I have heard of a corn farmer in Iowa who, when it comes to harvesting the corn, drives the corn picker through the field for 12 hours in one direction. Then his brother takes over and comes back the other way, the process goes on. That is some serious corn!!!

For now, we will settle for Ohio corn fields and dream of the day when we can stand in awe of the Kings of Corn.

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