The DeChurched Archives - Page 3 of 3

Sentralized 2014

September 29, 2014 by Jules Leave a Comment

My hubs, Matt and I went to an amazing conference this past week. He's attended before and we've been journeying through the paradigm of missional living. You've likely hear be bumble through trying to share what that means and how its fleshed out but this group of people helped me hear in new language and see it through practical living. I just want to start sharing with you some of those things {guess that's a good place to jump back on the blogging-wagon, ehh}. Today though, I just want to tell you a little about Sentralized, the conference we attended, and the foundational verse this years gathering was focused on.

You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.

Isaiah 58:12 MSG

Sentralized is designed for anyone who calls him or her self a Christ follower. It's the perfect learning opportunity for pastors, church planters, individuals, and teams of church members that are working through the issues and ideas of missional living, learning, and leading.
First, we believe there is a need to continue to bring clarity to the missional conversation.
Second, we want to ensure the missional conversation moves beyond theory.

Filed Under: as Jules is living, Testimony, The DeChurched, The ones about the Rothacher Home, The Ones about The Valley Church

Ministering Outside the Wall of “the church”

May 16, 2014 by Jules Leave a Comment

If you've been here for any time at all, you have heard me share about both The Church not being a building but the people chasing after Christ as well as The Valley {church} we have been blessed by helping plant here in central AR a little over a year ago.

The Valley came to this community looking for where God was at working and join Him there. Along with this, we are contentiously choosing to work where others aren't already hard at work. We are here to "build the heard not steel sheep." Because of this, it has been fun finding ways to minister in original and sometimes random ways.

Being the new kids in town, for a year now, we have been fighting to find ways to love on the people her but sometimes shut out because it "wasn't needed". Well, H.E.L.L.O. God is bigger than practicality and also a bigger redeemer than natural disasters.

The most recent storms that hit our town wiped out close to 150 homes and took the lives of at least 9 here in Vtown. We can't believe the doors God is opening through this. Oh, did I mention, God busted out of our "box" via this storm? Yeah, our meeting space was kaboshed giving us an acceptable excuse to love this community in unconventional, non-church-y ways.

Enter childcare and Mom's Night Out stage left:

The morning after the storm, it was evident to me that I wouldn't be able to serve like the rest of the valley church in the way of clean-up or collecting donations and felt useless. THEN another mom suggested maybe we could take turns watching one another children and working in town. YES! I can do that. So the next day I opened my home for childcare to those in our valley families who needed somewhere for their littles to go.

Little did I know that God was birthing this same service opportunity in the heart of an individual at a sister church in Conway. I was contacted about the idea and God birthed it into a huge community blessing. We were allowed to use the local Primary School's "big room" and outdoor playgrounds, restaurants catered for free, and tons of others including Target, Dick's Sporting Goods Store, and out-of-town friends contributed to hundreds of "summer buckets" full of simple toys that were sent home with the children attending the "Playplace".

When school started back the next week and most of our community went back to work, there was no immediate need for this ministry and again I felt helpless as I tried to "get back to normal".

Monday I has glanced at my calendar at once coveted plans and realized Mother's Day weekend was coming up and a girl's night where we were all supposed to be going to see the new movie "Mom's Night Out". That seemed to pale in compassion to the current dismal state of Vtown life.

THEN, I realized maybe I could score some tickets for "needy" women from the movie theater. I mean, Target had stepped up and even though this is way outside my comfort zone, I could try.

They could give me 4...

I decided to compose an email to the Allume team contacting a short briefing on who I/the valley was, what had happened to our town, and how I'd learned about the Mom's Night Out movie via their conference back in October.

Tuesday, I sat and cried as I tried to declutter and reorganize our play/school room. All I could think was "we have Too Much Crap!" I wanted to give it away but all those who needed it had no home to put it in. We were created to bring glory to God and sitting sifting through my stuff, I felt like I was doing the furthest thing from glorifying my God.

Taking a break from it all after my poor hubs tried to comfort my inevitable meltdown, I decided to check out during nap by gracing social media and my email. I was never so shocked to find an email from Elizabeth, of Provident Films saying among other things, "Will you please call me at your earliest convenience and we'll discuss next steps." Call? Next Steps!?

Ahhhh!!!!

I am terrible on the phone {AWEkward} but I snatched up my phone and ran outside. Never had a I been more excited to make a fool of myself if it meant I could be of use to this community in its time of trouble. My world was a world-wind from Wednesday until Saturday night but well worth it!

The night turned out to be a huge success! We ended up having a banquet room in a Chinese restaurant with comped buffet, pre-movie pampering, and a ~~therapy room~~ movie theater FULL of healing women. {That will be a post in itself.} Later, I was told by a guy from the valley that he was bragging on me to someone who expressed her gratitude for the much-needed MNO. I was excited to tell him that,

God had it all planned before me so I just had to find where he was working and connect the dots.

I really do believe it is that easy. Find where He is already at work, grab your pen, and get to work on the pieces that He has already given you the tools to connect to accomplish the ultimate goal. I have been so energized by what God has freed up the valley to do here and am loving watching our lil valley family grow closer together all while reaching out to a hurting world!

Filed Under: Cool Ministries, The DeChurched, The Ones about Jules Life {Randomness}

THIS is The Church in the valley

April 1, 2013 by Jules 4 Comments

Vilonia, formerly Vilsonia, is the city of two valleys.

1 Kings 20:28 (NIV)

²⁸The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Arameans think the Lord is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the Lord.’”

Having already canvassed the neighborhoods, telling of the good news that another move of God was about to sweep through their town, the church in the valley opened the doors of their building to the community on Easter 2013.

The church in the valley has poured sweat, blood, and tears over the redemption of the old dollar general building they’ve chosen to use for a gathering space. In two short months, a family has formed; ties have been knotted; The Church has gathered. With much anticipation of life change, this group of believers is now has a space ready to invite friends, families and other captives to join them on Sundays to celebrate the living God.

As they met early Easter morning, giddiness spilled over the entire place. Bright-eyed after only a few hours of sleep, these people gazed at the parking lot as it filled with cars. Cars full of those in need of Christ and His church. They began to pour in and suddenly men had to wheel in more chairs to accommodate those attending the first official gathering of this new extension of The Church. Prayers went up before the worship service began. Not of fear but of thanksgiving. God had already answered so many God-sized dreams. The fickle prayers had been blown out of the water. These people now sit with their arms open wide. Waiting. Waiting to see how God will show up next. Beyond expectation.

People. Not a space. Are God's Church.

THIS is The Church in the valley:

Filed Under: Cool Ministries, Testimony, The DeChurched, The Ones about Jules Life {Randomness}, The Ones about The Valley Church

What I want you to know about: Church Planting {and waiting….}

March 19, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

My family has been "called" to become church planters in another town.

There are so many things I'd like you to know. What is a church planter? Why do we need more churches? What all does that involve? How do you know your "called"? But first I need you to know what it's like to wait..........

We finished our youth pastor position in May of 2012 with a sign in our yard that had been there since, awaiting the swift sale of our gorgeous Victorian, 3000 sq ft, 4 bed, 4 full baths, living & family rooms, dinning & eat -in kitchen home plotted in the middle of 3 lots in an adorable neighborhood with 2 parks and tennis courts. It's January. 2013! We're still here. In our 2 story beaut'. The walls are moving further and further in on us as our 'close friends' dwindle along with our anticipation of the giant move of God in the next town we plan to plant our lives and new church.

That may sound extreme but it's where we're at. I think we are right where Satan wants us. Sad. Huge lack of enthusiasm and energy. Becoming scared. Withdrawn. Depressed. Anxious.

With so many with very little knowledge about the who's, what's, whens, wheres, and hows of Church Planting; we sit lonely. People scared to talk to us. We're "Those weird people. A little less odd than the foreign missionaries type but getting close." With lack of knowledge comes hatred; or at least lack of love. Now that I've depressed all the readers here at Rage Against the Minivan, let me show you our true personality and shed some light on me, my family, and the world of Church Planting.

My husband, Matt & I have been in full time ministry together literally since we first met in 2003. We have been married since 2004 & actively serving the Lord throughout the state of Arkansas. We've added to the Rothacher clan with 3 beautiful blessings; Magdalene (6/08), Isabella (1/10), and Benjamin (1/11) also known as Maggie, Izzie, and Jamin. We have a deep desire to see God move in and through our generation. Matt loves the Word of God and is passionate about preaching it and helping people apply it to their lives. He is particularly concerned with being someone that takes the Gospel to the ends of the earth and to be a part of the epic story that God is writing throughout the history of the world.

We are going to be instruments for a new move of God through the realm of church planting. Meaning that we are not about starting a church so much as being a catalyst for an outpouring of the Spirit of God, resulting in a new expression of the church. We are going to accomplish that by being about:
“Authentic Biblical community, Strong Biblical teaching, creating Gospel centered lifestyles, and mobilizing to reach the world."

I'm not gonna lie to ya, I don't know if I could explain church planting as concise and as well as Tim Keller so I just want to quote him:

We want to be true to THE BIBLICAL MANDATE

Jesus' essential call was to plant churches.

Paul's whole strategy was to plant urban churches.

We want to be true to THE GREAT COMMISSION.

New churches best reach a) new generations, b) new residents, and c) new people groups.

New churches best reach the unchurched.

We want to continually RENEW THE WHOLE BODY OF CHRIST.

First, the new churches bring new ideas to the whole Body.

Second, new churches are one of the best ways to surface creative, strong leaders for the whole Body.

Third, the new churches challenge other churches to self-examination.

Fourth, the new church may be an 'evangelistic feeder' for a whole community.

As an exercise in KINGDOM-MINDEDNESS

New church planting is the only way that we can be sure we are going to increase the number of believers in a city and one of the best ways to renew the whole Body of Christ. The evidence for this statement is strong--Biblically, sociologically, and historically. In the end, a lack of kingdom-mindedness may simply blind us to all this evidence. We must beware of that.

Find the entire resource at Why Plant Churches.

Thanks for reading. I pray that now that you know about church planting you can better support those starting a church, educate those ragging new plants, or possibly be inspired to be a part of a new church plant! We're all one body with the same goal in mind: Share Christ!

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You can download and listen to my interview on our plant HERE or just head on over to The Valley site. Of course The Valley is on Twitter and Facebook as well!