How to Pray

There is something really exciting that I forgot to mention in yesterday’s email. On New Year’s Day I was blessed with the opportunity to preach at CrossPointe Orlando. In God’s kindness to me, it just so happens that the text that was up in the sermons series in Mark is also one of my favorite passages in scripture! Mark 8:31-9:1.

You can hear, watch, or download the sermon here :: http://www.xpointe.com/media/sermons/sermon/the-center-of-gospel-centered

A note to our financial partners.

If you contribute via the mail through First Reformed Church (not online) it would be helpful if you would download and include the following form each time you contribute :: Partner Contribution Form.

How to Pray ::

• Thanksgiving :: I am so thankful for the opportunity to share the gospel of our crucified and resurrected Messiah.
• Transformation :: Pray that God would continue to use this series in Mark to transform lives to see Jesus for who He really is.

I have run a website called BibleTogether.com since the beginning of 2010. The purpose of BibleTogether is to help people read through their Bible while combating the isolation and discouragement that can often make this difficult.

This year I redesigned the site to engage with the teaching through which I am leading the church plant in Viera.

If you are looking for a way to read through the Bible and could use the encouragement of other people, and if you are looking for another way to following along with what is happening in Viera, I invite you to join us at BibleTogether.com in 2012!

A note to our financial partners.

If you contribute via the mail through First Reformed Church (not online) it would be helpful if you would download and include the following form each time you contribute :: Partner Contribution Form.

Moving into 2012 we are still short of our need for monthly financial partnerships and our reserved funds are running short as well. Please consider joining us in 2012.

Gospel Community

We have begun!

Last night we had our first gospel community (small group) gathering in Viera. We met at Peter and Paula Dribble’s home. Five couples and thirteen kids gathered. I guess we already have a thriving children’s ministry!

Hopefully two more families will join us next week. We will meet together through February and then open up the Gospel Community to our neighbors and others with whom we have developed relationships in Viera and Brevard County. It is exciting to listen to the couples share about people that will be joining us in the near future.

Truly, God has answered our prayer that we would find a place prepared by a movement of the Holy Spirit. It is our desire to draft behind what God is already doing.

If you are interested in what we are studying our first week you can either visit BibleTogether.com or download this sermon series outline.

Building Christmas Tree on a Firm Foundation (Systematic Theology Books)

Who says Florida isn’t a mission field? Just look at these jungles!

Yes, they’re ice skating on plastic in snow that is actually soap suds.

Titus on a Playground in Viera

• Thanksgiving for Provision :: God brought us exactly the funds that we needed to make it through the end of 2011.
• Pray for Provision for 2012 :: We are still short of monthly commitments for 2012 and our reserves are running quite short. Pray that God will connect us with people who have a desire to reach Central Florida with the Gospel.
• Gospel Community :: Pray for us over the next seven weeks as we build a solid foundation of the gospel in worship, discipleship and missionality among our launch families.
• Housing in Viera :: We need to move to Viera! We desire to be there before March. Pray that God will connect us to the right people and right opportunities so that we can find a home that is ready to host guests as we establish further gospel community in Viera.
• Our Neighbors :: We are already beginning to mourn that we will be moving away from the people we have met in our neighborhood. Pray that God will continue to use our family to build relationships and share the gospel in Orlando.

When we arrived in Wisconsin a few weeks ago Titus said,

“Why is it that we drive three days to Wisconsin and we miss our friends in Florida. Then we drive back to Florida and we miss our friends in Wisconsin.”

Truly absence makes the heart grow fonder. And we are truly fond of all of you who have come alongside of our family in so many ways.

When we were in Sheboygan County, WI, we had the opportunity to share how God has worked to give us both prayers answered and prayers to pray in recent months. Here is a summary of what we shared.

Prayers Answered ::

• CLOSURE :: Friends and Ministry in Sheboygan Falls – We were so thankful for the way that we were able to wrap up our ministry in Sheboygan County. God blessed us with such a sense of sending.
• RHYTHM & LIFE :: Growing roots in Central Florida – God’s provision for this request is best seen in Titus’ quote above.
• OPPORTUNITY AND MINISTRY :: Friends and Neighbors – Hopefully you have seen these things being answered in these newsletters. From beginning a community group to having neighbors over for ice-cream or cookies we have had more opportunities for gospel ministry than we have known what do do with.
• PROVISION :: Man does not live by bread alone – Not only has God provided for our every physical need He has more importantly given us a real peace in every moment that we are solidly in the center of His will.

Prayers Requested ::

• LOCATION :: More on this in a minute, but this has been one of our top two requests. We are thrilled to see how God has been moving to show us where He desires to use our family to plant His church.
• PROVISION :: God has provided and He will provide. The money that God used to get us to Florida is almost gone. We sent out a letter to over 200 of our friends around the country. We are praying for 25 partners to invest $100 per month as we move into 2012. Please consider how God might use you to be a part of the answer to this prayer.

A note to our financial partners.

If you contribute via the mail through First Reformed Church (not only online) it would be helpful if you would download and include the following form each time you contribute :: Partner Contribution Form

Viera. This will require “faith”.

WE BELIEVE GOD HAS ANSWERED OUR PRAYER FOR LOCATION!

This has been a four year long prayer request for our family. It started with faith, and now it has ended in faith. LITERALLY! The location that we are taking steps toward is called Viera, which is Slovak (the language of the founders) for “faith”.

What caught my attention the most is that Viera is a community that I believe God has been preparing to become launchpad of a movement of church planting in Brevard County. Brevard is a huge and diverse county that needs many gospel-centered churches to bear witness to the truth of God in the face of Christ.

Here are a few bits of demographics that have captured my heart and vision for Viera.

1. HOUSEHOLDS AND FAMILIES :: 87% of residents in Viera are in family households. Most of these are single income families just beginning their families in single family homes.

2. GROWING :: 16,000 new residents in the next ten years. How many of these 16,000 souls will never connect with the fellowship of believers and not celebrate the glories of God in the face of Christ?

3. SHARING THE GOSPEL WITH THOSE WHO AREN’T EVEN HERE YET :: If we bent our mission toward those who are new to the community over the next 10 years the field of mission would truly be expansive. So many who come to Viera will be in transition in their lives, their homes, and their families. This provides a great season in which to engage these households with the gospel.

If you are interested in more information about Viera you can visit Viera.com. So much has happened in the past two weeks. I have met so many people and so many doors have been opened to the vision that God has given my family. Look for a lot more information about what God is up to in the very near future!

• Pray for our funding :: We need to see donations begin to arrive by the beginning of 2012 in order to move forward toward Viera.
• Leaders :: God has already connected me to some excellent leaders in Viera. Pray that we will have clear discernment for what part God would have us play in His mission in Viera and Brevard County.
• Connections :: I am spending one day a week in Viera. Pray that I am able to make connections in the community.
• Orlando :: God has continued to open doors for ministry at CrossPointe Church and out of our home in Orlando. Pray that we will see the gospel’s power at work in the lives of our friends and neighbors.

I’m either quite odd or simply blessed, but I’d have to say that the best week we have had so far since coming to Orlando is this past week when my in-laws came to visit. I loved seeing the joy on my children’s faces when they got to see Lynn and Jim. They are such godly examples of steadfast love and faithfulness in the kids’ lives and in mine.

The family spent the day on Monday at the beach. Unfortunately we don’t have a picture of them all together, but here is a photo of Eli and a jellyfish.

What do you do all week?

Since becoming a pastor I am often amused by how many people are convinced that being a pastor must be the coolest job because you only have to work on Sundays. Must be nice to have Monday through Saturday off. The second coolest job must be being a teacher since they only work nine months of the year.

Now if you know any teachers or pastors personally you know that this simply isn’t the case. But the question remains, “What do you do all week?”

So here is a little glimpse at some of the ways I’ve had my hand to the plow of late.

1. Let’s start with Sunday :: Besides arriving early and often staying late I have had the opportunity to share in the Welcome and Benediction portion of the services here at CrossPointe. It has been a great joy to use the rest of Sunday mornings making many connections mostly with new people to the church, inviting them into deeper community. There has hardly been a week that has gone by that I haven’t had a chance to step to the side and pray with someone about a present concern in their life.
2. Young Marrieds Community Group :: Sandy and I have begun leading a young marrieds community group on Monday nights.
3. Men’s Fight Club :: I meet with a small group of men on Friday mornings to fight against idolatry and to seek to worship God in the opportunities and responsibilities that God has given us as men, husbands, fathers, workers, and friends. This group will soon become three or four groups as we continue to grow.
4. Preparing for Planting :: I am preparing the first six months of sermon outlines, community group curriculum and family devotional material for the launch of the church plant.
5. Apprenticeship :: I am reading a number of books and working through a year-long apprenticeship process that addresses the Man, the Message, and the Mission under Pastor Chan Kilgore.
6. Sweating :: The first week I was here at CrossPointe I helped the worship leader load a trailer full of equipment in 95 degree heat. When I came into the office Pastor Chan said, “We like our church plant apprentices sweaty.” There are a lot of wonderful things happening at CrossPointe and it is my privilege to leverage my gifts and a good bit of elbow-grease toward helping these things come to pass.
7. TIME :: One of the most important habits I have been forming during this season in preparation for church planting is simply making myself and my family available to people from the church, our community, and our neighborhood. This means about half of my meals and coffee breaks are spent meeting with someone who needs some help or inviting a neighbor over to get to know them better. This not only takes time, but it takes intentionality with the use of time. I think that this is going to be one of the best things I do during this apprenticeship season in order to prepare for ministry in a church plant next year.

So there you go. If you can get all that done all on Sunday then you would be a pretty good pastor. For myself, I find that it takes a good five or six days to accomplish.

• Pray for our fundraising efforts. We are sending out a support letter to many of the people that have been involved in our lives in the past. Pray that God would prompt those whom He wills to join us in our ministry in Central Florida.
• Homeschool is well underway. We praise God for how well the children are responding. Pray for wisdom and energy for Sandy.
• Jeremiah is making a number of contacts in the next month regarding the future location of our church plant. Pray that these conversations will be fruitful and God would use them to lead us into the future.
• Our family has begun to pray for the salvation of a few specific people that we have met since we moved to Orlando. Please join us in praying for the Holy Spirit’s work in their hearts and boldness in our lives.

You remember that last month we asked you to pray for our children and the relationships they are building in Orlando. Well, within days Eli and Titus were asked by a little 10-year-old girl to be a part of a play that she had written and was going to perform at her home. This family isn’t even from our church and yet God, through a web of His own making, connected us to them.

Eli was cast as Jesus and Titus played the dual roles of “leper” and “boy raised from the dead”. They spent Monday and Tuesday afternoons practicing and we watch the debut performance last night. It was wonderful to see such creativity in this small group of children and to see our children joining right in.

We asked for prayer … you prayed … our good God was pleased to give.

Praying is Investment and Praying for Investment ::

Because of your great faithfulness to pray for us (and the kindness of many of you in financial investment) I want to share with you these three specific prayer needs.

1) Please pray for our faith and perseverance as we await God’s perfect provision for our needs in the coming months and year.

• God has provided two separate grants through the Illiana & Florida Classis and the RCA Church Multiplication office for $15,000 each.
• As we left First Reformed Church in Sheboygan Falls we were abundantly blessed and encouraged by numerous financial gifts to aid in our move and send us into mission.
• We have received a number of monthly commitments and have received such joy and connection with our friends around the country as we have begun to receive the first of these gifts.
• Though we are short of our financial needs for the year we see these investments as signs of God’s blessing as we pursue His call.

2) Please pray about personally investing financially.

• I want to emphasize that this is a prayer request and not a giving request alone.
• We need to raise an additional $2,500 in monthly commitments within the next 60 days. These commitments will fund the remainder of my apprenticeship at CrossPointe Church (Check the bottom of the page). These commitments along with future grants will also carry us into the first months of the church plant next year.
• For more information about investing in our church planting mission visit our Online Giving Page or download a Donor Commitment Card.

3) Please pray about connecting us to others who would consider investing.

• Most of the people that provided for Paul during His missionary journeys Paul did not even know before he began. It was because of the hospitality of many partners in the gospel that God planted the seed of the gospel through His ministry.
• Please share our website information (JeremiahFyffe.com/prayer) with others who you think would consider joining us in this endeavor in both prayer and financial investment. I would love the opportunity to share our vision with others whom you would recommend.

How to Pray ::

• Pray for our fundraising efforts, that we will approach this process with humility and faith.
• We thank God for some of the connections that our kids have made even in the last week! Thank you for your prayer so quickly answered by the steadfast love of our God!
• Pray for our Mondays as we continue to commit Monday afternoons for our search for a location for the future church plant.
• We have begun reserving our Friday evenings specifically for meeting the people in our immediate neighborhood. Pray that God would open our home and our lives to those around us.

This morning was one of the most touching & heart-rending moments since we came to Orlando. Sandy, Titus, and I were standing in the kitchen. Titus was helping Sandy cook some eggs for breakfast when he began to explain that he had a dream about his friends Makayla and Hayley from back in Wisconsin. Makayla and Hayley are two kids who lived across the street from us and became very precious to our whole family during our time in Sheboygan Falls and.

After sharing about his dream, with a strained voice he said that this just reminded him that we had moved away from them. In a way that only Titus’ precious heart can do he drew his mom in for a hug and they both spent a good deal of time comforting each other.

We are certainly not the first family to move to another town and leave friends and family behind. But sometimes we feel like we were uniquely blessed with our friendships in Sheboygan Falls which makes our sense of loss seem quite great at times.

Of first importance we want you to know how precious each of your friendships have been to us. You have encouraged us in countless ways. You have had an eternal impact in your love for us and for Christ. You have given us great joy as we have grown close to you and alongside of you up into Christ.

Of equal importance we want you to know how important your friendship and partnership continues to be in our present mission. God is blessing us with relationships here, but nothing can replace what our friends in Wisconsin and elsewhere have become to us.

We treasure your continued prayer, your words of encouragement, and your phone calls and cards to our children. We are feeling more and more the reality of Paul’s words to the Philippians,

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

My our partnership continue for the building up of the body and the glory of our great God!

Sandy and I have decided to devote our Monday afternoons to our search for a location for church planting. Like we did last week in our visit to the Melbourne area we are visiting an area just north of Orlando called, Altamonte Springs. Please pray for our monday adventures. We are praying that God would give us clear discernment not only for an attraction to and burden for a place, but also for a small group of two or three families that will share our vision of bringing the gospel to this new community.

One of our primary goals in the coming months is to seek a people and a place. We believe that God has already prepared a small group of people that will join us in mission and ultimately become the core team of a future church plant. We just haven’t met them yet. Yesterday (2011-07-25 – Monday) we took a family field trip along the Atlantic coast (near Cape Canaveral) getting to know the towns along Highway 1. This is one of the areas that we are praying over. In the picture below we are driving over one of the many huge bridges that connect the mainland to a long strip of beach that runs for miles along the coast.

Next week we are going to take a similar trip just north of Orlando to investigate another area. It is exciting to drive through these areas looking at businesses and churches and neighborhoods. Sandy and I spend that time praying and dreaming together about who we might meet someday in these communities.

Every time I shake a hand of a new person that I have met and every time I drive through a new community I wonder, “Is this person going to become a future partner in ministry? Is this the neighborhood that God is going to use our family to ignite a gospel movement?”
We invite you to join us in prayer that God would cause us to meet with just the right people in just the right place in His perfect time and according to His perfect plan.
The Lord Bless You & Keep You

How to Pray ::

• Prayer for us as we search for a people and a place for the church plant.
• Jeremiah is now in his third week in the CrossPointe office. Pray for Jeremiah as he establishes a routine.
• We have begun reserving our Friday evenings specifically for meeting the people in our immediate neighborhood. Pray that God would own our home and our lives to those around us.
• Pray for our fundraising efforts, that we will approach this process with humility and faith.

For those of you who still think that we moved to Florida for the beautiful weather you might want to take a good look at this video of our daily thunderstorm (or as Titus says, “Twice a day!”).

Our family was formally introduced to the CrossPointe community this past Sunday along with CrossPointe’s new family pastor. We are so very thankful to be here to serve and to grow alongside the believers at CrossPointe.