Next Steps

Since arriving in New Zealand there have been certain milestones that we have been looking forward to. It seems as though we have hit many of these milestones and are now moving forward into our next steps. 

Last week our team spent two days in a team planning retreat. We are excited about how much we were able to accomplish and feel blessed by the way God continues to lead us forward. The first accomplishment of our retreat was narrowing down the ten cities centers that we have been surveying to three cities that we feel like have the most need for a new church plant. We had people all around the world praying for this decision and we could tell by the ease in which this decision was made. The three cities that we ended up with after the retreat were Christchurch, Wellington, and West Auckland. 

Some other things we worked on during the retreat were  making a timeline for the beginning of the church up to the next church that will start as a result as this first church. We also came up with a strategy to reach non christians and de-churched people. We made a general strategy and then narrowed it down to specifics for each of the cities on the list. Though we will end up in only one city, we are looking at different strategies to help us understand each place better.

We were able to begin a budget for our church and cover some other smaller topics. We ended Saturday morning with a meeting with our management team over the internet to fill them in of the accomplishments of the retreat. We were encouraged by their responses to the decisions that we made. 

One of the less intense parts of the retreat was the pleasant distraction offered to us by sweet Liam and Laney! It is such a joy to have these new team members!