Anytime Tadd links to my blog I start getting hits from people all over the place that have NO IDEA who I am.  If you are one of those guys who doesn’t know me yet…welcome to my blog!  Also, a year from now, you still won’t know who I am. 

The Patio is a church plant that currently exists for about 400 families.  That’s how many people live in our community (you might call it a mission field).  That number will grow in the next decade, but right now that’s all folks.  We aren’t exclusive.  We welcome people believers who are looking for a new church home (It is VERY unlikely someone who isn’t a Christian would stumble in unless they live in Reedy Fork Ranch), but those believers learn really quickly that they are expected to join us in being the church in our community.  This summer a family of 5 and 2 single women are all moving into Reedy Fork!  Instead of a mission trip they are making a life decision to live missionally!

The great thing of having such a defined, specific “mission field” that I live in is…well…there are a lot of great things:
1.  No drive time: I wake up and I’m there.
2.  Cheap “outreach”: I make more contacts taking my 10 month old son for a walk than if we send out mailers.  Poker night, ladies night, and flag football all are big hits too!
3.  Fun “outreach”: Yea, poker night is our biggest hit.  OK, it’s not “outreach” in the traditional way, but that’s another blog for another time. 
4.  Easier schedule: I read a lot of pastors blogs, and one common thread is that they all seem really busy!  I work very hard, but let’s just say I get to spend a lot of time with the people I love.
5.  No classes (this one may be a sin…I’m not sure): we don’t have membership classes, spiritual gift classes, and we definitely don’t have leadership classes.  In another setting I would be all for it, but for The Patio it just doesn’t make any sense.  Another blog for another day.

Anyway, there are a lot more, but this post is long enough and I don’t want to discourage any potential future readers!  Do I sound desperate?  Haha, trust me, I’m not. 

I believe church planters can even learn from people doing things that are WAY different than what they do, so I encourage you to stick around, email me, shoot me your blog site.  Heck, call me if you want: 336-209-2329 (Please don’t call while the Astros are playing…you can check ESPN to find out game times). 

By the way, Tadd’s doing some awesome stuff out there isn’t he?

Opening Day baby!  In 5 minutes my beloved Astros square off against Peavy and the Padres.  For the first time ever I have splurged on a MLB package so I can watch all the ‘Stros games (month by month thing).  I haven’t seen more than 4 Astros games in a year since I lived in Houston so I am pretty excited!

Later this year I will be making a trip to Atlanta to catch a couple of games.  All baseball fans are welcome!

Starting this week we will have cd’s of our messages available to anyone who missed Sunday or just wants a copy.  Pretty soon we are going to make the technological leap into podcasting…cutting edge, I know! 

I’m sure in the beginning we are going to be so excited to have cd copies of our Sunday morning that we will be leaving them on doorsteps, but as the newness wears off you can ask whoever is working our visitor table on Sunday mornings and they will hook you up. 

Our first available disc will be “Suburban Legends: The Legend of the Nosy Neighbor”

Sick day at the Reeve house.  Kristan isn’t feeling to well, and Nolan and I have learned a hard lesson on how lost we are when she is out of commission! 

It looks like Kristan will be fine in a day or so.  Thanks for praying!

“Those who practice improve.  Those who don’t, don’t”
- Timothy Koegel

One of the biggest differences I personally feel leading a “post-launched” church is the quality of our Sunday morning theme.  I by no means am “the man” when it comes to teaching/preaching.  This isn’t an ego trip.

There are two things that have contributed to the raising of the bar with the communication of our teaching themes each week. 
1.  Weekly a group of us get together and talk through the message scheduled to be delivered one month from that meeting.  Every message I have ever given has been my brainchild…and I have learned that my brainchildren all look exactly like me.  The best thing about this group is that a spectrum of backgrounds, opinions, pet causes, and beliefs all are shared in the pursuit of developing the best possible message for our congregation.  It’s awesome!
2.  My preparation time has tripled…or more!  I feel a very deep sense of responsibility to show up every Sunday morning ready to deliver something I feel God has for The Patio.  I do a lot of things, but my main time commitment is preparing for a 25-35 minute span of time. 

If you are a part of The Patio I want you to know that I am committed to this for your benefit.  I absolutely believe that my responsibility is to show up ready to teach.  Don’t misunderstand, I don’t show up ready to give you the warm fuzzies or to “blow you away” with something amazing.  It’s my responsibility to speak…it’s up to you and the Holy Spirit for your life to be changed. 

We have some great stuff coming up over the next few weeks!  Are you ready?

I will be.

I knew there would be a difference when we officially “launched” The Patio.  We have said for months that we had essentially been functioning as a post-launched church, but 3 weeks in I am really seeing how wrong I was.  It’s different. 

And it is a very good difference!

This past couple of weeks has been really great in Reedy Fork.  The community is beginning to respond favorably and our contacts have gone through the roof.  I set a personal goal for 15 new contacts this month and we have blown that way out of the water.  Every time I check my email there is a new family that wants more info on church, small groups, ladies night, or poker.  It will take a while for everything to really start fitting together, but I believe 6 months from now The Patio will be seeing community happen in a really amazing way. 

I think the biggest difference being “post-launch” is consistency.  We really know where we are and where we are going.  I think this makes everyone more comfortable in our core team, and it makes us more accessible to the community.

I bought a bike today.  The last bike I owned had brakes that were triggered by peddling backwards…its been a long time.  When I test rode it at the store I was terrified that I would hop off the curb and turn right into a parked car. 

Anyway, I figured that this would be much easier on me than running.  Not only is it better on my knees, but it has to be easier.  Right?

Wrong.  Well, it is easier on my knees, however it is tough to climb those Reedy Fork Ranch hills!  Not to mention that I don’t know how to work the gears so going down hill I was in 1st gear and going up I was in 312th or something.  No joke, I seriously contemplated hopping off and walking up that last one! 

Well, I made it home and about passed out.  I guess that is the price you pay for good health. 

Today I received some feedback from a buddy of mine who visited The Patio last Sunday.  Although he and I do not share the same beliefs I have a ton of respect for this dude and he gave us some really valuable thoughts.  Sometimes it’s easy for us as Christians to start ”doing church” the way we like it that we completely forget that there is a lot of stuff we do that could make someone like my friend uncomfortable. 

* I’m not talking about stuff like mentioning Jesus.  We are worshipping Him on Sunday morning so that’s not changing.  I mean the stuff that doesn’t matter, that we can change without compromising.

Anyway, after all the input he gave me he concluded by saying, “I’m not a church guy, but I really enjoyed it and would come again if only for the community aspect”

In case you haven’t been reading this blog long or don’t know much about The Patio, we have ONE core value (not 3-7 like most churches).  That one value is “Community”.  We opted with this and this alone so we would be sure to be perfectly clear about what’s important to us.  My friend saying what he did is a huge win for us! 

Last week, right before our launch service I wrote a note to the neighborhood inviting them to participate in deepening our community.  In the envelope was a response card for those interested in more information on stuff going on.  I seriously expected 2 or 3 to come in.  I was telling people that, “if one person is interested in community it was all worth it”. 

The response has been OVERWHELMING!  I feel like I have done nothing this week but respond to little yellow response cards.  All of a sudden I know a lot more people in Reedy Fork!  It’s been really awesome chatting via email with some of these folks, hearing their stories, and making plans to catch up with them at Poker or church on Sunday. 

I love my community!  Not only is it a great place to raise a family, but it’s a great place to be a part of a church.   

After a year and a half of preparation we have launched The Patio!  I knew there would be some mistakes on our first official Sunday, but I didn’t expect to have a “dream problem”.  We ran out of chairs right at 10am.  Our team was pulling office chairs from all over Morrisette Paper to give everyone a place to sit.  I totally did not see that coming!

Thank you to everyone who came out to support us last Sunday!  You guys rock.  It was great for you to come and celebrate with us on a very big day.

So now we enter transition.  What began a year and a half ago is becoming something new.  It’s been a wild ride so far and I can’t wait to see what’s next. 

Blogging world: I’m back!  Keep up with us b/c God is going to be doing some amazing things out in Reedy Fork Ranch.  You don’t want to miss this.