Parkway Wesleyan

So here's our church...Parkway Wesleyan. Max seating: 130. Office space: a bit. Sunday School rooms: 3. Kitchens: 1. Basketball hoops: 1. Black congregations meeting in our building on Sunday nights: 1. Pianos: 1. Overall theme: 1960s. Bright green pillows for sitting on: 1.

From what I've heard, small churches are great "first churches." And this one will be especially great. The community is ripe for the harvest, and the church is ripe for change. With God's timing and grace, we'll be reaching quite a few people for Christ and making disciples like crazy. The city has plenty of churches, though only a few of them are evangelical, conservative churches. Us, a Nazarene church of 50, and a Bible church of 125-150. Other than that the Lutheran churches, UMC, Congregational, and Catholic church are fairly liberal.

One of my goals is to meet with the pastors of any and all churches regardless of their doctrinal statements. Hopefully we'll all be able to have community-wide services here and there. I'll get a better picture of the community through the eyes of pastors who've been ministering there before me. And I'd really like to get involved with the black congregation meeting in our sanctuary. I know God allowed them to be there for a purpose...we'll see what that is soon.

Another goal is to meet needs of the city through kids programs, teaching parenting classes, cooking classes, basketball tournaments, daycares, etc. I hope to have one "big" event each month at the church or in the surrounding area. Hopefully some of the people who attend those events will come to the church on Sundays. Along with that, Jamie and I want to spend a few hours each day driving around Baraboo, getting to know area businesses and the people who frequent them. Just like a missionary bonds with his/her new community by jumping into it right away, so we will jump into Baraboo.

And my final and biggest goal is to bring our church to its knees in prayer. It will be easy to jump in and go it alone, working as hard as possible while forgetting to ask for God to be with us. We'll start with once or twice a week prayer meetings. And during Sunday morning services, prayer will take more of a central spot in worship. We'll pray as if it's not a transition from singing to the sermon. And then we'll see what God has in store!

Please pray for our church when you think about us. We'll do our best to keep you updated so you know how best to pray.

Blessings,