Our First Gathering is a Success!

Area 10 took a big step this weekend. We went public. We invited the neighbors and had a picnic and talked about the church we want to become. It was an awesome thing to see. We figured that about 83 people showed up for the event, which is just awesome. Major props, to the people who helped make it happen...Emily Harrison, Laura Shibut, and others who showed early to set it up.

Thank you to those of you who came and brought friends. That was so cool to see. This church will grow when people own the vision and bring some friends. And you guys stepped up to that this weekend. Thank You!

Here are two pictures from the picnic! One is a wideshot so you can see some of the crowd. The other is me giving my "I have a dream today!" speech. I don't know what I'm saying at the exact moment of this picture but you can just imagine it was something funny or profound or inspirational...or a bit wacky....whatever.

A guy named Rob came to the picnic. He showed up on a scooter which makes him extra cool in my book. He said he hadn't been to church in 3 years. After the picnic he said. "this is great...How can I help?" Guys like that are why we're here. Welcome to the party Rob.

We're having a picnic

So here we are, a little less than 3 months until we launch and I thought it would be good to get everyone together. We are having a picnic/bbq in Byrd Park this Sunday at noon. We will have food, fun, laughs, and more food. We have a very deluxe model moonbounce type thingy for the kiddies. Should be good times! The weather is looking good so far (although I don't trust forecasts beyond about 48 hours!). And we have about 50-60 people signed up.

Come join us this Sunday. Bring a friend. I invited my next door neighbor. She is coming with her 3 kids. I told her to bring 100 friends. She said she would. I'm holding her to that! :)

We are also handing out 10,000 fliers to invite our neighbors. Say a prayer with me that people would receive those and get fired up about joining us. The more the merrier.

Fire up the grills, let's get some burgers, dogs, and bocas cookin up!

Meet our worship leader!

After many months, I can now announce that we have a worship leader. Aaron Peck is moving to join us in Richmond with his wife Amanda and their tiny chihuahua doggie Sam, in the middle of July.

Aaron is the guy we interviewed from Cincinnati back in March. At the time, he and his wife told us that they wouldn't be able to come join us. We were disappointed as we really liked them and thought they would be a great fit with our culture.

But God did his thing, enabling us to hire Aaron, and giving Aaron and Amanda a sense of calling to this place.

He will be our worship leader on Sundays, he will oversee all our creative arts, and he will also be working with me on discipleship and assimilation stuff. Welcome Aaron and Amanda to the team. We are so glad you are coming!

My Be-Bopping 5 year old

Today, my son Colin came to see me sitting out on the porch. I asked him what he had been doing. He gave me a hug, and told me he had been listening to "Charlie Parker play bebop". I told him this was a good thing and he should keep doing it.

I love kids.

Meet Kimberly Alvord

Kimberly is the lady who we've hired to run Cartwheels and Coffee. She is a woman that comes to us with about a dozen years of management experience. She has started businesses...she knows what it takes to succeed. She loves what we want to do with Area 10 and she loves Jesus. All these things make for a great combination for what we needed. It was a God thing how it happened.

I spoke about a month ago at Journey Church in Midlothian. Journey is a church that is partnering with us to start the Area 10 Faith Community. I mentioned at the end of my message that we would be starting this business and we needed a manager. Kimberly wasn't there that day, but her sister was.

We interviewed several great people for the job. Kimberly seemed to be the strongest candidate of the group. And now she is on board preparing to launch Richmond's best indoor play place for kids.

Welcome Kimberly. Thanks for joining the team. I can't wait to see what God is going to do next!

This thing is getting more real all the time...

We signed a lease this weekend. Our church now has offices and space for kids ministry. We have a business. (see previous post) We have contractors coming out tomorrow to start swinging hammers. This thing is starting to seem quite real and like it's actually happening. Ready or not, here it comes.

I have been meeting with people regularly and talking about the dream of this church. It's been pretty wild. I'm praying that many many people will join us to launch this thing.

On that note, on Sunday June 29th we are having a picnic in Byrd Park to get everyone involved to meet each other, meet some neighbors and talk about the future of the churchatthebyrd.

If you are local, please join us for this picnic at noon on the 29th. We will be grillin and chillin. We will have games for the kids. It should be great. Bring friends!

Cartwheels and Coffee

Ok, I've been dying to blog about this and I can't wait any longer! Area 10 is getting an office space at 2820 W. Cary Street, starting in June. This is exciting because we will have a presence right on Cary Street 3 doors down from the Byrd.

But here's the best part! We are starting a business in the downstairs portion of the building. It will be a kids indoor play place called Cartwheels and Coffee. It will have indoor play equipment for kids and lattes and coffee for adults.

I am so excited about this! There is no business like it in the city of Richmond. In the suburbs, there are similar things, but none in the city. There is some buzz already in the air in the mommy network. Several mommies have already told us they'll be there everyday!

Why is our church starting a business? Well the truth is, we need the space for kids classes on Sunday mornings for church at the Byrd. Since we need the space, why not do a great business in there that also that serves the need in the community? It seemed like a no brainer to us.

We have hired a terrific managing partner for the business. I'll introduce her in an another post.

God is dropping sweet stuff in our lap! I never knew this whole church planting process was going to be this much fun.

To look at the site we have up for cartwheels and coffee- look here.