We had a great meeting on Friday!  After eating some good food courtesy of Christ Church Brenham, we spent over an hour with Chris Seay.  In round-table format, Chris shared the stories of planting University Baptist Church in Waco and Ecclesia in Houston He encouraged and challenged us in many ways from his two decades of experience in church planting.

I filled up several pages of notes from our discussion, but I'll give a few highlights. Chris noted that many young churches make the mistake of taking on anyone and everyone in order to feel like their churches are growing.  However, Chris wisely said that unless people are on board with the mission and are ready to love one another, they will end up making problems in a small, fragile church plant.  Chris also pointed out that church plants have the tendency to spend all their time and money on the church rather than on mission.  Sadly, this often results in furthering a consumer culture that is based on felt needs.  Finally, Chris encouraged us to live incarnationally, intentionally looking for ways to engage the culture to meet real spiritual and physical needs.

If you weren't able to make it to the meeting, we hope you will join us on Thursday, November 18th as we hear from Chad Karger.  In the meantime, please let us know how we can serve you best!

Our second bi-monthly BVCPN meeting will be held Friday, September 18th from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Living Hope in College Station. The building is located at 4170 State Highway 6 South, 77845. Lunch will be provided for all attendees.

We will have the privilege of hearing from Chris Seay, pastor of Ecclesia, a progressive Christian community in Houston, Texas.  Chris is a third generation church planter/pastor and is recognized for exploring spiritual questions and breaking new ground in art, music, and film. Chris is the author of many books and articles and serves as the President of the Ecclesia Bible Society. He lives in Houston with his wife, Lisa, and their four children.

Please let us know if you plan on attending the meeting by going to
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=115712133476&mid=f00e90G7f3e33G7995f2aG7.  You may also email Allen Duty (allen@newlifecs.net) or Justin Hyde (justin@ccbrenham.org) to RSVP.

We look forward to seeing you in September!

The first official BVCPN meeting was a great success.  In attendance were church planters and pastors young and old, new and experienced, hopeful and proven.  After we enjoyed a time of fellowship over some great Layne's chicken strips (thanks to my good friend Mike Garratt), Justin shared the heart and vision of the BVCPN.  He outlined both what the Network is and is not, and clearly defined the purpose - to connect, resource, and encourage missional church planters in Central Texas. We closed our time together in small groups for encouragement and prayer, which was a great blessing to every person in attendance.

The Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation, and successful church planting most certainly cannot be done in isolation, either. The field is too large, the demands are too many, and the work is often too discouraging to go it alone.  Our encouragement to you is to share the vision of the BVCPN with like-minded church planters and pastors so that more men and women can be reached for Jesus through the avenue of successful church planting.  We are committed to the idea that the best way to engage in missions is through church planting, and that the best way to ensure that church plants succeed is to ensure that church planters succeed.  We hope you will partner with us for the glory of God through the advancement of the Gospel.

Our first Brazos Valley Church Planters Network meeting will be held at Living Hope Baptist Church in College Station on Wednesday, July 22 from 11:30AM-1:30PM.

Lunch will be provided. All members will receive a free book. The event is free. All are welcome. Feel free to forward this email to pastors and planters.

By way of introduction, I\'d like to share the story of New Life with you.  Every church plant has a unique story, and ours is no different.  My hope is that our own story would encourage and challenge you as a church planter hoping to see God do great things.

In May 2008, Living Hope Baptist Church was at a crossroads.  After 10 years of ministry in College Station, the church had grown from a few dozen people meeting in a school to 700 members and 1,500 in attendance each weekend spanning three worship services.  At this point, growth was forcing us to make one of three decisions:  build a larger facility, start another service, or plant more churches.

I had been serving on staff at this point for three years as the Student Pastor.  My wife and I were members of LHBC in college, and they asked us to return to serve on staff about a year and half after we graduated from Texas A&M.  I sensed that God desired us to plant new churches, and I hoped that God would allow me to have a part in the process.

The church voted in May 2008 to begin two new churches (one in Bryan and one in College Station), and the groups began informally meeting in June 2008.  About 9 months later, I was called to serve as the preaching pastor and as one of two founding elders of the church.  We launched on March 28, 2009 with a core group of about 50 people, and reached a peak of 150 people just before the spring semester ended.  Currently, we are shoring up everything from our preschool to the practice and teaching of our theology in the hope that God is going to bring hundreds to us in fall 2009.

It is my hope to learn from you all and to serve you as well in the months and years to come.  We hope you find the BVCPN website to be a great tool for ministry, and look forward to connecting with you at our inaugural meeting on July 22nd.

Join us on Facebook.

This will be the best way to keep up-to-date on events and gatherings.

Though we're still in the initial stages of finalizing structure and adding content, the site is now live. It's sparce now because we want this site to be a communal project. So please comment on how to make it more useful to you as a church planter and pastor in the Brazos Valley.

Enjoy.