Meat Man March 30, 2013

Chris finished up his church plant residency at Cedar Ridge Christian Church in February.  While it was an awesome learning experience for him, it feels good to get that wrapped up.  Next on the agenda — get a part time job to make money and meet people. 

 

In mid-March, Chris got a job at the HyVee grocery store on Barry Road.  And the best part?  He works in the meat department!  Years of hunting and eating meat makes him a perfect fit for this job! 

 

Maybe that’s not the best part though…..maybe the best part is the nifty hat he gets to wear.  Freshhhh!

 

 

He has to shave for this job.  It’s taken me a while to get used to seeing him without some kind of facial hair!  HyVee’s catchy slogan is “a helpful smile in every aisle.”  Here is Chris modeling his “helpful smile.” 

 

 

So if you’re in the market for some fresh meat, go see Chris at HyVee!  His hours vary but he usually works the 3-10pm shift several times a week. 

 

Paul made tents during his ministry……Chris sells meat.  Do your thing.  

 

~Stefanie~

The Common Place March 19, 2013

As we head toward Easter weekend may we continually be reminded of the good news of Jesus — his life, death, resurrection and reign.

We continue to meet on Sunday afternoons to focus on the “Good News” and how it should sink into every facet of our lives. We are excited to have another family in our neighborhood joining us on Sundays, which has brought a couple more kiddos into the mix. We are planning a 1st Century Jewish meal to share together on Good Friday and while we eat we will focus on the biblical accounts of the night of Jesus’ arrest.

We are now referring to our little gospel community as The Common Place. Our desire is to experience and share the story of Jesus in everyday life. I am working on a very simple website that will help communicate who we are and Who we are about. I will let you all know when we are up and running.

The Common Place is in the process of switching all financial support over to Converge Heartland. Converge will be taking care of our financial records over the next 2-3 years. This week we will be mailing out a large number of letters in order to update everyone on where we are at on this journey. Included in those letters will be information on Converge Heartland as well as how to partner with us through financial and prayer support. If you have been giving through The Heartland Project please click on the Pray/Invest tab at the top of this page to find out new information for giving through Converge (or just wait for the letter in the mail).

PARTNERSHIP
Over the next few months we will be highlighting some of our formal and relational partners.

River Community Church Dell Rapids, South Dakota

“Commissioned and supported by our mother church, Central Valley Community Church, a small group of believers started meeting in 2005 to dream about what a church plant in Dell Rapids, SD might look like. We committed ourselves to “making God’s glory known and felt through worship, outreach, growth and love”. After a couple of “preview” services, we launched our first public service in Easter of 2006. We’ve been slowly growing ever since. We typically have 75-100 people participate on a Sunday morning.

We are constantly aiming to win the lost in our community, to develop disciples, to show love to each other and to Dell Rapids, to raise up leaders, to train pastors and missionaries and to plant churches. In 2008, we planted Christ Fellowship and in 2011 our associate pastor planted Zao Community Church. We’ve had 4 different “student pastors” and a couple interns on staff so that they might be trained for pastoral ministry. And we’ve partnered with other churches in our network to form the Timothy Pastoral Apprenticeship, a free, church-centric alternative to traditional seminary.”

New Beginnings January 29, 2013

With each week I draw closer to wrapping up my Church Plant Residency at Cedar Ridge.  It has been a wonderful time of preparation and equipping as well as a place to really pause and reflect on what God doing in my heart.

 

A dozen of us have started meeting on Sunday afternoons to discover where God is at work in our own lives as well as in the communities around us.  Our focus over the next few months is to better understand God’s plan for His church and our part in that plan.  We are taking a closer look at the life and ministry of Jesus and his early followers to learn how we can best posture ourselves in order to be used by God for his fame and glory.

 

This is an extremely exciting time for me personally.  Five years ago this was just a crazy idea mentioned in a conversation and, though today it is still a crazy idea, it is so exciting to see it hit the ground in real life.  Within this small group, which has been meeting in our living room, God has brought together a group of people of different ages, careers, and backgrounds.  We are made up of neighbors, old friends, and new babies.  Our hope and desire is to become a community that helps lead people into a deeper relationship with Jesus.  Though we are in our infancy many of you have played a vital role in the progress and health of this new gospel seed in the Gladstone area of the Kansas City Metro through your prayers, money, and encouragement.  God is the builder and planter of his church so please continue to ask him to build and plant in our community.

 

Join Us in Praying For:

 

A door to be opened for the gospel in our community and in the relational connections we each have.  Colossians 4:2-4

 

Our group — that God would get a hold on our lives and that we would give our lives to God, each other, and reaching our community.

 

Financial Support — God has been so very faithful in ways we cannot even explain.  We will be doing another round of fundraising in early February to hopefully increase financial and prayer support for the next 12 months.

Part-time Job — I will be seeking a part-time job to help make some money and to build new relationships.

 

Above all, that God would be pleased and glorified with all that we do.

 

 

Partnerships:  

Over the next few months I will be highlighting some of our formal and relational partners.

 

CONVERGE HEARTLAND

Converge WorldWide was formerly the Baptist General Conference.

 

“Converge Heartland is a fellowship of churches in ND, SD, NE, KS,

western MO and OK with a central ministry focus to equip each church

to accomplish what God has called it to do in its community and world.

We are working to saturate the Heartland with new churches that

proclaim the gospel for the glory of God.   We empower God-called men,

teaming with established churches, to provide the God given resources

(people, finances, leadership and supplies) needed to start new

churches to clearly proclaim the gospel as we multiply across the

Heartland and to the ends of the earth.  Converge Heartland is part of

Converge World Wide a fellowship of churches with a network of leaders

working together to start over 500 churches in the last 20 years.”

 

 

We are so happy we get to do this with people we love and care about. May God use you this week for His name’s sake!

Money Money Money December 7, 2012

I (Stefanie) have always been responsible for paying bills, budgeting, and any other financial tasks since Chris and I got married.  Every couple has one — the Scrooge-like spouse who sends texts that say, “Do NOT spend any more money until Friday” or “Why did you spend $22 at Burger King two days ago??” or “If you find a any change lying around you should probably go deposit it into our bank account.”  Haha, okay, I’m exaggerating a little bit but you get the idea.

Since money is my department and I am sometimes practical to a fault, I was obviously concerned about our income when Chris started talking his crazy church planting talk.  When he informed me that we would raise support for our income I had the strong impulse to vomit.  I was worried.  Raising support — so unstable, so uncertain — seemed like the end of the world to me.  BUT I realized that I really needed to let go of the security that comes with a regular paycheck and trust that if God is leading us in this direction that He will provide for us on the journey.

And He has!

Just because I’m officially responsible for the fiscal aspects of our life doesn’t mean I’m particularly good at it.  I haven’t balanced a checkbook since high school and usually only have a rough idea of how much money is in our bank account.  But I think God has used my mediocre bookkeeping skills to our advantage because somehow money stays in our checking account even when it doesn’t make sense.

The monthly support commitments we’ve received add up to roughly half of what we need to live each month but somehow there’s always enough money to get by comfortably.  In fact, I haven’t had to send a “Do NOT spend any more money until Friday!!” text since we started this church plant journey.

In an effort to insure that we had a full paycheck in December, we did not draw a paycheck from Heartland at the end of September and asked them to only pay us $2000 at the end of October.  (Heartland is the non-profit organization that collects all of the support money in an account and then writes us a check out of that account.  If the money is there, we get a check.  If it’s not, we don’t.)

It doesn’t make sense.  How could we live for two months only receiving one $2000 paycheck??  I do some part-time work for my Mother’s business but I certainly don’t make enough money to live on for a whole month.  And it’s not like we didn’t eat during those months — we lived life as we normally do and every time I checked our bank account there was enough money.  Enough.  More than enough.

I told Chris that I’m going to start checking our account balance even less now so that I don’t accidentally catch God putting money into our account!

I’m really, really glad that we took this leap of faith and trusted God to provide for us because He is doing a much better job than we could.  And this whole raising support thing??  Well, I guess I’m okay with it now.  Paul did it and I love reading Philippians 4 in light of our current journey:

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty.

As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help when I first brought you the Good News and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other church did this. Even when I was in Thessalonica you sent help more than once. I don’t say this because I want a gift from you. Rather, I want you to receive a reward for your kindness.

At the moment I have all I need—and more! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

Now all glory to God our Father forever and ever! Amen.

We are so, so, SO thankful for everyone who has supported us both financially and in prayer over the past eight months — EIGHT MONTHS!  Haha, sometimes I can’t believe we’ve survived that long!  Many of you have committed to monthly support or have given us unexpected special gifts at just the moment that we needed it most.  We pray that God will in turn supply all YOUR needs from his glorious riches.

We will continue to raise support during the preliminary phases of church planting and during the infant stages of a new church (so feel free to click on the Pray/Invest tab at the top of the page!  haha!).  Chris’ full-time residency at Cedar Ridge will wrap up in January and then he will be part-time there for a few more months.  In January, he’ll start looking for a part-time job near our home so please put that on your prayer list.   Also in January, we will begin having regular meetings in our home with a group of people who have expressed interest in being a part of our core church planting group.  Prayers for these meetings would also be greatly appreciated!

So there you go!

Everyone always asks about money.  Or if they aren’t brave enough to ask directly they ask a series of roundabout questions to find out how we’re doing financially.  So this is a blog to answer those questions.  We’re doing okay.  We have enough and we can only credit God with getting us this far — and that’s a fantastic place to be.  Fully dependent on God, enjoying each day, and not worrying about the future.

Matthew 6:26-33  That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

More than enough.

Merry Christmas from the Borkerts!  We’re hoping to get Christmas cards out to everyone this year (but don’t hold your breath because I have that hope every year and it rarely happens!!). 

 

****Oh, and one more thing I forgot to mention and thank God for —

After insurance, our bill for Timber’s hospitalization in September was over six thousand dollars.  I noticed on the Children’s Mercy Hospital website that you could apply for financial assistance from the hospital so I thought I would give it a shot, not expecting much.  I assumed that they would knock a percentage off our bill but they recently sent a letter stating that they had covered 100% of Timber’s hospital bill AND what was left of Flora’s hospital bill that we had been making payments on since 2009!  PRAISE GOD!

October November 9, 2012

I think we need a quick recap of October before we jump too deep into the Holiday season.  This October we partnered with a few of our close neighbors and threw a Block Party.  It was awesome!  At the time we thought that it was our neighborhood’s first ever block party but we found out that over 20 years ago our little neighborhood was quite active in doing stuff together.  The few that remembered those parties seemed excited about having regular neighborhood activities again.  Due to weather we had to make a last minute date change but we’re guessing we still had over 60 people stop by.  It was a lot of fun and we feel like some great excitement has been stirred for future community development.

 

The end of October also marked the completion of 4 months at Cedar Ridge Christian Church where I have been doing a Church Plant Residency.  I have had the opportunity to preach once a month and have been learning a lot about leadership and church networking.  Stefanie and I have also become a part of a church planting learning community that we meet with twice a month.  This is a group of like-minded church planter types who are faithfully seeking to develop communities of Christ-followers on everyday gospel mission.

As we look forward we plan to meet once in November with a group of 8-10 adults who have expressed interest in being a part of a new church.  We will follow up with these people a few times in December and the plan is to hit the ground running in January by meeting on a weekly basis.

Prayer Needs:
1. God would bring together a small group that lives out true gospel community
2. Window would be open to sharing the message of Jesus
3. Protection for spiritual attack
4. Spiritual and physical provision

Thanks again for partnering with us. May God be glorified in all that we say and do.

We’re Still Here . . . Just Livin’ October 9, 2012

~from Stefanie~

So, a friend recently asked how she could keep abreast of what’s going on with us in regards to church planting.  My initial response was “Read our blog!” but then I remembered that it hadn’t been updated in a very, very long time.  Hm…

Chris is in the middle of his residency at Cedar Ridge Christian Church and is learning a lot from the leadership there.  There’s not a lot of exciting “news” to blog about but maybe we should be updating on the less exciting things too.  After all, if you are reading this then you probably care about us and might be interested in more than just the front page headlines.

So, here are some Borkert updates —

• Chris has preached twice now at Cedar Ridge and will preach a few more times during his residency there.  The church was picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church on his very first day preaching!  What a welcome!  Haha…  For more on that story, see this post on our family blog.  He also just returned from a 4-day trip to Chicago with some cool guys.  They attended a training session on something.  Ha!  Let’s see — something like “how to engage people on their first and second time visiting a church”??  Or something like that.  Obviously I need to listen more closely.
• Flora started 2-day preschool in August.  We went back and forth on whether or not we wanted to send her to preschool (is it really worth all the money??) but decided to go for it when North Oak Preschool (right across the street from our house!) generously offered us a half-price tuition rate.  That discount coupled with “scholarship” money from some of Flora’s biggest fans made preschool possible.  I’m glad it worked out because she LOVES preschool.  I wasn’t sure how she would do but she is absolutely thriving in the school environment.
• Timber and I had an unplanned 5-day/4-night all-inclusive stay at Children’s Mercy Hospital in September.  He had an abscess in his neck that had to be treated with IV antibiotics.  Every night the doctors warned that they may have to do surgery the next day to drain the abscess but every morning it was a little bit smaller so they held off on surgery.  That was an answer to prayer!  Surgery would have meant a longer, more expensive stay at the hospital, a scar, and, well, SURGERY.  Poor little guy had to spend his 2nd birthday in the hospital but the nurses provided cake and balloons and a really nice birthday gift!  He’s 100% better now — back to his healthy, happy little self.
• Scout is crazy.  He got his flu shot tonight and laughed when the nurse poked him with the needle.  He also just read a Level 1 reader book to me.  He’s endless energy.  I love him….and he is definitely my biggest challenge.
• I have recently realized that I need a vacation.  I don’t know what that looks like right now but my wheels are spinning trying to come up with a feasible, affordable “vacation.”  I probably feel this way because the kids picked up a stomach flu bug while Chris was in Chicago.  You never feel quite as alone as when you’re quarantined in your own house with no one to talk to over the age of 5.  And that’s when I realized that we are  kind of alone right now.  Well, maybe not Chris — he’s made many new friends through Cedar Ridge and other connections — but since I’m only down in Lenexa once a week for church I haven’t really made any new friends there.  And although my “old” church friends and I try to stay in touch it’s just not the same.  There’s an awkward disconnectedness now.  And I was prepared for that to happen.  We were aware that some distance needed to be put between us and our Hope friends and that’s part of the reason we disappeared to South Dakota for two months.  I guess I’m just looking forward to being out of the transition phase and settled into a new church family.   I’ve been thinking about the famous Ecclesiastes passage lately —                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 For everything there is a season,a time for every activity under heaven.

  A time to be born and a time to die.

  A time to plant and a time to harvest.

  A time to kill and a time to heal.

  A time to tear down and a time to build up.

  A time to cry and a time to laugh.

  A time to grieve and a time to dance.

  A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.

  A time to embrace and a time to turn away.

  A time to search and a time to quit searching.

  A time to keep and a time to throw away.

  A time to tear and a time to mend.

  A time to be quiet and a time to speak.

  A time to love and a time to hate.

  A time for war and a time for peace.

  Despite my need for vacation and lack of friends I’m really quite happy with my life.  Haha….it came across as kind of depressing in that paragraph but I wanted to be more authentic than just saying, “I’m fine.”  I am fine though.  Really.  🙂

  So, there you go.  We’re still here.  We’re happy, we’re healthy, we’re stumbling down this path God put us on, and we’re loving it.  Please pray for us.  We need it.  🙂

What Do I Dream About? August 29, 2012

Maybe this is a confession story.  As a child I had a very vivid imagination and would spend countless hours jumping around the house or backyard pretending to live my dreams out.  For a reason unknown to me I could not engage my imagination without jumping around holding a stick.  No doubt my parents must have been a little concerned about their child who spent most his time running and jumping around the backyard with a stick and who knows what the neighbors thought.  I guess this is what happens when you do not have a video game console in your house.  But, it was in this time and space that the world of my imagination was at my finger tips.  With a stick in hand I could slay dragons, win Super Bowls, save the cute girl, and drop a massive bull elk with one clean shot.  I am embarrassed to say how late in life I continued to do this so please don’t ask Stefanie.  Sometimes I will pick up a stick and think to myself “this would be a great stick to jump with.”  Why did I love jumping so much?  I could take any dream and live it out and the cool thing was it always turned out my way.  At the end of the day I was the hero.

As I have grown older I’ve realized that it is sort of sad that many of my dreams have the same ending…I am the hero, the successful hunter, the guy who everyone likes, the church planter who did what he set out to do.  Maybe you dream in a similar way.  As I look within the pages of the Bible there are many heros but the big picture, the big story, reveals a focus on just One.  There is only one true Hero.

What if we were to dream differently?

If I really am the hero of the dream then the dream is pretty sad.  On the other hand, if I dream in the truth that Jesus is the Hero and that He has invited me into His story, that dream is much bigger than my life.  It is exciting but I am finding it is kinda hard.  I like being the lead guy.  I have to be more aware to step out of the main frame. I must stop talking myself up and start pointing people to the Main Character of this great story.

Though I have found this type of dreaming to be difficult at times it brings tremendous relief because…I don’t have to save the day (not like I could anyway).

When I mess up, He doesn’t.  When I am tired and weak, He is still all-powerful.  When I don’t know, He is all knowing. When I sin, He is sinless.  When I fail and let people down, He is completely faithful.  He saves, I do not.  And thank goodness.  It is taking me a while but I think I can get used to simply being cast as an “extra” instead of the lead part.

So what have you been dreaming about lately?

My dream for quite some time has been to help give leadership to a new church.  God is slowly but surely revealing His plan for this dream.  Vision is becoming a little clearer and a few people are starting to come together.  Please, join us in prayer as we faithfully pursue God’s will for this new church.  We continue to face various obstacles along the way but feel like we have received the encouragement needed to keep stepping forward.

May we dream to be a faithful extra and may we invite others into the greatest story ever!

PRAYER REQUESTS

1. Praise: the car that was loaned to me through August has been extended for a longer amount of time!

2. Future Job: We have increased support, which is awesome, but it looks like I will still need to get at least a part-time job maybe as soon as October.  Please pray that I can find work that will allow the freedom to finish up residency and time to focus on the future church.

3. People of Peace:  We have been praying that God would introduce “People of Peace” (Read Luke 10:1-12) in the Gladstone area.  We have identified two potential people in the community! Hopefully, I will be meeting with them in the next few weeks. Pray that God would open doors.

4. Marriage and Family:  Please continue to pray for Stefanie and me as we head down this road.  I hear countless stories of church planters who had a very dark time in their marriage during the early years of planting.  Stefanie and the kids are among my greatest gifts and strengths — please pray for our protection.

Love you guys and thanks for journeying with us!

Chris

Asking Big August 11, 2012

Many of you may be familiar with the story of Nehemiah found in the Old Testament.  If not or if you are a little rusty on the details let me very briefly share a part of the story.

God’s people, the Israelites, had been living in exile in Babylon.  After Persia overthrows the Babylonians, Cyrus, King of Persia, frees the Jewish exiles allowing them to return home.  Roughly 70 years go by and then we are introduced to Nehemiah in the book that bears his name.  Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the King of Persia, Artaxerxes.  He really had a pretty cushy job — he lived in the castle and got to eat and drink the same food the king did.  Of course, he could be poisoned at any moment but overall not a bad deal.

Anyways, Nehemiah has some fellow Jews visit him and he asks how everything is going back in Jerusalem.  Things are not good — the walls of Jerusalem are broken down and its gates are completely destroyed.  This may not seem like a big deal today but at this time in history the walls and gates where extremely important to a city and its people.  Without this protection the people live in constant fear and danger of ongoing attacks by others.  Though they had been “home” for 70 years they had made no progress as a people.  This broke Nehemiah’s heart.  He began to fast and pray for change to happen and he knew that it was going to come through his relationship with the king.

So the big day arrives — Nehemiah is serving the king but on that day the king could tell that something was breaking Nehemiah’s heart.  The king asked what was wrong and Nehemiah shared the state of his people in Jerusalem.  The king responds, “What are you requesting?”

Now remember, this is a servant before the king, the powerhouse of the known world. Here is the big moment, the big ask.  Nehemiah says a brief prayer and then asks the king’s permission to:  1) go to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls, 2) be gone a lengthy time to see the project through (12 years), 3) provide safe passage to Jerusalem, and 4) use the king’s forest timber to rebuild the walls.  “And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.”  Nehemiah 2:8.  Wow!

At different times in our lives God asks big of us.  Maybe it is a career change, a major sacrifice, or trusting Him through a difficult time.  Though we may not be building the walls to protect a city we believe that God has asked big of us.  Just a few months down the road and I am starting to better understand the reality of what He has asked.  God asked big of Nehemiah — leave your cushy job and go travel 4 months to a city and people you have never seen and help them rebuild a wall.  Nehemiah did not have the freedom or the resources to do this so in order to do what God asked him to do he had to ask big of others.  God has asked me to give leadership in planting a new church in Kansas City.  Living in America, I have the freedom to do that but in no way do I have all the brains, energy, people, contacts, leadership ability or resources to do what God has asked me to do. But God does and He has equipped and resourced many of you to play a direct role.

So now I am asking big of you.

.

Resources (Money):

First of all, we have been tremendously encouraged by the support over the last few months.  Families from our previous church were very generous and we have had some wonderful special gifts as well as a group of monthly commitments.  All of these resources have allowed us to meet our needs and currently we look good through August.  Now that we have a few months of numbers in we can gauge monthly giving which gives us a clearer picture of our sustainability over the next 12 months. Below is a simple financial breakdown of how we are seeking to raise funds for this 12-month time frame.  The $4000 amount makes up my salary, benefits and some extra funds for ministry expenses.  If you have a request to see salary and benefits broken down more specifically please do not hesitate to ask.

.

$4000 a month Sept 2012 to Sep 2013

$2000/mo Individual Support

(current monthly support = $815)

$1000/mo Churches or Small Group Support

(currently seeking 4 churches at $250/church)

$1000/mo Part-time Job and/or Organization Support

(possible organization support kick-in Feb.)  

To reach our $2000 from individual monthly supporters we are looking at an additional $1200 a month.  That would be 12 families at $100 a month or 24 families at $50 or…you get the point.  I understand that at first glance it may look like you can’t do it but with a little creativity and a little cutting here or there it may be possible!  Obviously, we are not aware of your situation and maybe it is not possible.  I am just going for the big ask like Nehemiah!  Also, if you think that your church maybe interested in partnering with us we would love to pursue that with you.  Online giving is now available making it easier on you (no more writing checks!).

(for specifics on giving click Pray/Invest on top right corner of the blog)

.

People, Energy, Skills, Prayer:

In scripture the church is referred to as a family and it is also to be seen as a body.  God is faithful to gather His people for the mission of making disciples that glorify Him.  It is going to take an initial team of people to begin to accomplish God’s plan here in Kansas City.  Maybe God has been stirring your heart to be involved in a new vision and mission.  Maybe you are a warrior of prayer and you want to dedicate larger chunks of time praying specifically for this new church plant. Maybe you have some skills and talents that would greatly aid the mission of a new church.  The big ask is…prayerfully consider joining our team as we seek God’s will for a new church.

I will be personally contacting some of you to ask big in a very specific way.  If God has moved you to respond in any way please let me know.  If you have questions or just want to talk and dream a bit, please let me know.  We may not be building a wall but with God’s power we can build communities of disciples that offer spiritual protection and peace.

For His Glory,

Chris

God’s Hand at Work August 1, 2012

South Dakota Recap July 18, 2012

The rolling land of lakes and farms scattered with small towns seemed an unlikely place to start our major step into church planting.  God seemed to have opened some obvious doors for us to spend 5 weeks in South Dakota but as we loaded up the vehicles and trekked to the tiny towns surrounding Sioux Falls I honestly had some doubts.  We departed the busy city life where fast food and grocery stores were minutes away and traveled to a little town that had one gas station that closed at 8pm.  The closest grocery store was a 30 minute drive.  For Stefanie and I this was a dramatic change but for a brief time in our lives this crew of 5 was in need of change.  I needed to slow down, needed to rest, and needed to spend more time and evenings with Stefanie and the kids.

The constant demands and needs, the many nights gone at meetings, and the never-ending feeling there was more to be done…it  just stopped.

And guess what?

The Kingdom continued to grow, people’s needs were met, and life went on without a pause and without me.  This is a good thing!  As we began to slow down and enjoy the evening sunsets  I found myself in a season of abiding in the Vine.  I would spend the next five weeks hanging out with four different church plants, spending a lot of time with Chris Gorman (pastor, spiritual coach, and friend), and focusing my reading and study on Biblical doctrine and the book of Romans.  The load was light and highly relational and God knew it was what I needed at the onset of a new journey.

The first few weeks in South Dakota were especially difficult for Stefanie because all the kids battled multiple sicknesses.  I don’t think I heard one real complaint out of her the entire time.  I often thought of her as one of those poor pioneer wives slowly enduring the long trip out west over the prairies.  Those first few weeks I kept seeing Satan attack Stefanie rather than me, but little did he know he had staged his greatest attack against our strongest unit.  The sicknesses faded and Stefanie and the kids really enjoyed the last three weeks in South Dakota in our cool little lake house basement apartment.   We have made some true friends in South Dakota and no doubt will look back on this time in the future and once again see God’s continued hand of provision as well as His never ending faithfulness.

Pray with us:

1.  Pray this week for the work God is doing in South Dakota and that He would continue to use these churches to glorify Himself. (Central Valley Community Church, Christ Fellowship, River Community Church, and Zao Community Church)

2.   We will be focusing our prayer efforts on the city of Gladstone so please pray God would open doors for the gospel in Gladstone!

3. Financial Support and a vehicle

Aiming to please God,

Chris Borkert