June Highlights!
I just counted. We had 53 Local Church related meetings in the month of June! We are so excited to update you about our potential building locations, new team members, and all of the new friends we have made in the last month!
Location, Location, Location.
The question we are asked the most is where Local Church will meet. In last month’s newsletter, we shared that we didn’t have any reasonable options for locations. We began the month praying hard that God would direct us to a building. And at this point, we have two great choices! Honestly, I was waiting to write this update in the hopes that we would have finalized a lease with one of these places, but negotiations are still in process. It’s a slow and fragile process, but either location is what we would call a best-case scenario. We would be renting space from an existing congregation at either place. Hopefully, we will have a lease signed at one of these locations within in next week or two. We can’t wait to update you when the location is finalized and the lease is signed!
Here is a breakdown of both building options:
Option Two:
It would be our own wing of a large church building. The people we have been negotiating with are really great and excited to have us in this space. This is a bit of a stretch financially. It’s right at the top of our budget and also requires a lot of investment to update the space. For example, there are basic accessibility issues to accommodate people with disabilities and an unfinished children’s space. We can seat 80-100 people comfortably. This is located directly in the heart of where we want to be.
Option One:
Here, we would be sharing with a very small congregation - meeting at different times. The auditorium can easily seat 150-200 people. It is very simple with a big open basement. The price is way under our budget. We would be paying per month what we were budgeting to pay per week. It is located 25-30 minutes from where everyone on our team lives. The biggest hang-up is negotiating service times and what kind of updates would be permitted to make the space a bit more contemporary and welcoming.
Our team is growing!
Our launch team started with just the 4 of us and has now grown to 11! This is the group of people who are committed to seeing Local Church start and who will volunteer their time and energy to make that happen. We get together every Sunday morning to spend time together and then we visit other churches that we love. It’s been fun and insightful to get to know each other and talk about the vision God has given us for Local Church. It has also been really fun to visit so many awesome churches! While each church has things that make them unique, they have all been equally welcoming and inspiring. We feel really blessed to have so many churches behind us right here on Long Island. If you want to join our team, don’t hesitate to reach out! We’d love to have you.
We are so thankful for each and every part of our team. One way to get involved from a distance is by joining our monthly support team! Financial supporters play a huge role in making a new church possible. Click below to learn more about donating to Local Church.
Starting Point.
Each Wednesday, we gather for Starting Point. This study will be offered regularly at Local Church for those who are new to church and/or faith. It is an 8-week study designed for people to explore faith and experience community. If you are familiar with Alpha, we think it is a similar concept on an even more basic level. It has been both insightful and fun to go through this study as a team! We are learning more about each other and more about the essentials of our faith.
Here’s a look at Wednesday nights with our team.
New Friends!
We shared last month that a lot of our time has been spent reconnecting with old friends. This includes some friends from all the way back when we were in middle school! In fact, we recently connected with a friend that Michael has not seen since he was in 9th grade. Now we spend most Sunday nights at his house playing Catan with a bunch of new friends. As taxing as it is to start a new church, it has been fun to find groups of people like this who are completely outside of our church circle to enjoy our free time with!
One of our Sunday night Catan gatherings!
Each week we spend 2-3 days working from a coffee shop in town. We have always believed that this would be an effective way to naturally meet new people and share about our church in a natural way. So far, we have met many “regulars” and even built a relationship with a couple who is now part of our launch team!
Michael is also starting to play gigs in the community. This is both fun for him and strategic for the church (since it allows us to meet people outside of the church world).
Here’s how you can pray 🙏
If everyone receiving this newsletter took 5 minutes to pray for the following 5 things, that would be 36 total hours of prayer for Local Church! 🤯
CLICK HERE to let us know you prayed!
- Please pray for the final negotiations with our potential church building!
- Pray for the existing congregation at the church we will be going into. That they would be open to change and excited to see new life in the church that they love. Best of all, that they would even be compelled to join in with our church.
- That we would continue to meet new people and build meaningful relationships.
- We are praying God will bring along musicians and a kids team!
- Ask God how He wants YOU to get involved with Local Church!
Answered prayers:
- Praising God for 11 members on our team.
- We have 2 building options!
- We are approx. 45% funded for our low-impact budget.
- We and the Fosters are feeling very much at home here on Long Island.
🤍
Thank you for following us on our journey 🎉
We are looking forward to all that God has for us, for you, and for Long Island! ⛪️🌱
