The Portal

For those interested in Automatic Clearing House (ACH), you can now download this ACH form.

When you fill it out, either mail it to us or bring it to CT and give it to Katrina. With an ACH form, you can setup regular, monthly giving straight from your bank account.

Greg said it, you heard it, and now you can see it for yourself – the online presentation by Greg Morscher which highlights three clear Christian responses to opposition.

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6163605780257356410[/googlevideo]

The third quarter is now over. The summer was rough. And September was still poor. Now we enter the final quarter and we need to catch up!

You can see that our expenses are in line with our budget, but giving for the year is $8,372 behind for the year through September. In order to make our budget for the year, we have to average $10,722 per month these last three months, something we’ve only done one time this year! We have just under $10,000 in our buffer which is way below the comfort zone. The lack of pledged giving accounts for most of our deficit: only $6,000, which means we’re effectively stuck and unable to get new ministry initiatives supported!

Impact

October hasn’t started off that strong with only $2000 collected the first two weeks.We are not really able to incur huge deficits without making cuts. But we really do not have room for many cuts. Over 90% of our budget is for paying people to do ministry (the McCallums), to administrate, and for our facilities. The other roughly $10K is what supports our entire ministry, equipment/supplies, and leadership/FST retreat needs. There really is no room to make cuts which won’t be very painful to ministries.

We are being used by God to extend His Kingdom into this dark world. He calls on us to use the world’s unrighteous money to pay for it (Luke 16:9-13). We all have this great opportunity to loosen our ties with the world and to prosper eternally.

We have to do better these last three months!

By the way, October hasn’t started off that strong with only $2000 collected the first two weeks.

Disregarding the Mafia

Chicago is the city of Al Capone and Mafia politics, but it will be swamped this week by hundreds of Christian leaders, and four of them are NeoXenos ministry leaders: Joel Hughes, Keith McCallum, Mark Michalek and Greg Morscher. In a packed Gladiator van they drove without air-conditioning through a deluge of rain and floods that shut down I-94, but they arrived in the big city, starry-eyed and wondering what changes lay in store for the week ahead.¹

Christian leaders are gathering from around the country to learn about radical, new church-planting strategies that break the dusty, old molds of the traditional church.

Multi-Site Exposed 2008 is a conference about "multiplying your church’s impact in your community," their Web site claims.  It is sponsored by Leadership Network, which has been bringing together "innovative Christian leaders" since 1984.

"Leadership Network’s ‘DNA’ is to work directly with pioneer churches who are testing and implementing the new ideas that will drive the Church in the future." – Leadership Network

Cutting-edge Christian thinkers do meet each other at Leadership Network conferences. The leaders of Emergent Village and the Emergent Church Movement first met a through Leadership Network conference.

"If you incubate a weed, you’ll get a lot more weeds," Joel said, "but if you incubate something spiritual and spread that, it’s a good thing." He was stressing the need for real discernment while learning from these other church movements.

The Timely Topics

We came to this conference to figure out, ‘how can we plant churches in other locationsFor years NeoXenos elders were budgeting and watching for an opportunity for advanced ministry training. Greg first spotted this conference as a timely opportunity to examine new church-planting trends in Christianity. For months Keith was writing about these new trends in the NeoZine (see The ‘Real’ Xenos Model, for example), and then at the 2008 July Body Meeting at Hudson park he taught about the trends and the church plants that were coming as a result.

"This ‘Multi-Site’ conference is where we got all those cool teachings from Mars Hill," Greg said, referring to the teachings from Mark Driscoll, the Resurgence, Dave Browning, Matt Chandler and other innovative, young church-planters.

"We came to this conference to figure out, ‘how can we plant churches in other locations, universities and cities, given our meager resources?’" Greg said. The new multi-site pattern of growth was the focus of our July Body Meeting.

"We’re planting new churches this fall, and we need to see what other churches are experiencing" Keith said.

"I want to see one model of how this ‘Viral church’ idea might look," Joel said. "This is one of our options: to have a central hub with multiple churches stemming from that one. You can be in Pittsburgh or Youngstown and still take advantage of resources, teachings and support available back here at KSU," Joel said. "That’s one model — it’s exploratory."

Titles like "Reproducing Leaders: the most important task" and "Campus Pastors: what do they look like?" caught Mark’s attention, especially ‘Campus Pastors’: "That would be interesting to hear," he said.

But the sphere leaders agreed the most promising of all was "Rapid Reproduction: we need to dream big, but start small," by keynote speaker Dave Ferguson, who leads Community Christian Church on Chicago’s West side.

The South Street ministry will benefit from the teaching, "How does a church renew a city?" by Mark Job, pastor of New Life Church, the host site for the conference. This ministry grew in the renewal housing projects of Chicago’s inner city. It is a multi-cultural church, "making changes across economic, racial and community barriers in many sections of the city," they say.

Mark thought New Life would help South Street learn how to "create well-defined roles and ways to direct volunteers into the most effective ministry positions in inner-city work."

Next up: Sphere leaders attend a worship service at Willow Creek.

• 2008/07 Body Meeting - New Church Plants
• The \'Real\' Xenos Model
• Multi-Site Exposed Conference Web site

1. Mark immediately turned the television on and began aimless channel-surfing, while Keith immediately thought of the many brothers and sisters back home who could benefit from a brief NeoZine article about this conference. [↩]

Read this delightful write-up of the 2008 baptisms, see why Christians just love to tell people about Jesus Christ!

“Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:18).

Christ’s Great Commission includes the call to baptize believers, so NeoXenos gathered on September 7^th at the Walton Hills Lake Club to witness ten people get dunked for Jesus. The event began with a potluck, followed by a short teaching by Greg Morscher. After he explained the biblical basis and spiritual symbol of baptism, the real excitement began. Each “baptizee” shared his or her testimony and then was baptized by one or two people who played a role in their decision to follow Christ.

Lisa Kostyak grew up in church but never understood the personal decision needed to know Christ. After coming to Bible studies for over a year, she attended the 2007 baptisms where the testimonies moved her to accept Jesus right away. She said asking for God’s forgiveness was “the easiest thing I’ve done in my life” and explained the overwhelming weight of guilt that was lifted afterward.

Elli Morscher grew up in a Christian home in Xenos, but never knew why she went to Bible studies. Jesus certainly wasn’t in her life, as she was a bossy, selfish liar. But 6^th grade Blowout camp caused her to consider handing her life over to God. She was anxious, but decided to ask God into her heart, and now God is teaching her how to love and giving her “something to live for.”

Lauren Dakters was depressed, anti-social, and self-destructive before she knew Christ. Then she was invited to a high school Bible study and learned about God’s forgiveness, which she decided to ask for some time later. She said now “there’s more to life than playing emo songs on guitar,” and she is a happier and more loving person.

Danielle Fazzio grew up Catholic, but she wasn’t interested in God. Her friendships never lasted and she ended up in an abusive relationship. When her friend invited her to a college Bible study, she made fun of her, but eventually she gave it a try. There she admired the relationships and love in the Body of Christ, which caused her to consider the gospel’s claims. Since she became a believer, Christ has helped her to impact her friends in new ways.

Mike Hudock was a lonely gamer when friends started inviting him to the high school Bible study. Despite his refusals, he was surprised they didn’t give up. When he finally started coming, one of the leaders didn’t give up on witnessing to him, either. Finally Ephesians 2:8, 9 convinced him that couldn’t earn his way into heaven. He prayed to receive Christ and since then he gained confidence, became less selfish, and wants to tell people about grace.

Paul Song was raised in a Christian family but he viewed God academically. He was lonely, unemotional, and trying to earn his way to heaven by good works. For a long time he avoided the questions raised at the high school Bible study, but was surprised people still accepted him. Four years later a friend explained the story of Nicodemus in John 3 and he realized it was his pride, not a lack of information, which prevented him from accepting salvation. This occurred just one day before the baptisms!

Tom Smith didn’t know how to interact with people besides using them. He thought needing forgiveness was pathetic, but Christians’ persistent love for him changed his mind over a period of five years. One man challenged him to ask for salvation and finally his tough shell started to soften. Now he can’t imagine where he’d be if he hadn’t accepted God’s forgiveness.

Shelby Roszkowski was the “cliché” girl in middle school, interested in superficial appearances, gossip, and boys. But as the void in her life began to gnaw, she turned to drugs, dating, using people, and a suicide attempt to numb the pain. Her church background reminded her that Jesus died on the cross to pay for sin. So one day she read Isaiah 40:6, a verse about crying out to God. And she did just that, asking Him to forgive her. She realizes God filled a void she could never fill by herself.

Jordan Yoerger grew up in Xenos with Christian parents, but never really believed what he learned about God. He was a jerk and fought with his parents and brother every day. He also argued relentlessly with one of the high school Bible study leaders, who nevertheless told him, “I will never give up on you.” This melted his hard exterior and that night he prayed for God to come into his life. His new faith has motivated him spiritually in a whole new way.

Jim “the James” grew up in an old-line institutional church but didn’t understand the gospel until he attended the Hughes Home Church. He was working with Michelle and she invited him to home church. He came regularly and started attending CT. He was saved over a year ago but didn’t get baptized last year because of his intense fear of water. However, this year he overcame that phobia because he just had to tell everyone publicly what a difference Jesus Christ has made in his life. He now has loving relationships in the body of Christ and is learning to serve the body.

Ephesians 2:8, 9 sounded as a refrain throughout many of the testimonies: “It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” How freeing God’s gift is when we realize our sin has been paid for in full! Throughout the testimonies, the goodness of God and His amazing grace shone through, as bright as the sun that warmed the celebration.

Family and friends in the audience heard the gospel repeatedly, as well as the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Two people made the decision to receive Christ during conversations after the baptisms. Pray that more spiritual fruit will result from the testimonies people shared.

• Keith McCallum\'s photo album, Neil Brook\'s photo album, Jeff Smalley\'s photo album,