Radiate 2012

May updateFOR SBCV MEETING ON MAY 23

major eventsNew facilities for Gatherings & 2 year lease!

Added 1 new Lifegroup

2 salvations: Jon and Sonia

4 added to Core: Jon, Julia, Noah, Ben

1 new family added to inner ring: Dennis & Denise and two children

All-time high attendance on Easter Sunday - all friends for whom we’ve been praying

Major answers to prayer: new babies, new friends now in mentorship

Y2Y instituted “First Fridays” as a 1x/mo. outreach event

New youth mentorship model: LINK

New visitors 15

Team teaching!

New film studio and have added new artists

financials✓Per request, see subsequent Radiate financial statements: Jan-March as pdf files in ISSUE - available for download.

2/9

01/01/11

-5/4/12

Derek Melissa Mike BrittanyDavid M. Laura M. Rob JosiahEric Anissa Chris Joanie David

Noah, Julia, Jon, Benjamin

Cathy, Chris, Jennifer, Arina, Violet, DennisDenise, Karis

Michael, Sean, Pete, Bill, Tyler, Evan, Parker, Violet, Nancy, Waterman children (2), Rob, Drew, Frederick, Dave

Peter, Myra, Kelly, Kathy, Sara, Roger, Laiza, Chris, Pam, Nancy, Bill, Martina, Melissa, Loyd, Fred, Jim , Cindy, Michelle, Teresa, Tristan, Chris, Lenny, Tristan

& Kirsten, Katie, Greg, Burt, Frederick, Lonnie & Connie, Rick, Nate, Matt, Dani

30

16 (7-4-1-4)

8

15

73

radiate 2012

personal prayer items

Weʼve been incredibly blessed this year and have taken real leaps of faith. Itʼs been amazing to see whatGod has done in conjunction with our various series. We being “doers of the Word” and not “hearers only”.So when God asked us to have courage - fiscally and relationally - to move into a facility with a 2 year lease, our Body moved.

In addition, weʼve seen more folks come to know Christ through our mentoring materials - the Radiant Life. This was something Iʼd developed in the fall of 2010 as a pre-requisite for joining the Core. All of us (myself included) have gone through it. But itʼs real power is that it helps our folks have an opportunity to meet, gives some structure to mentoring, and then provides many opportunities to respond.

So those have been very encouraging things.

Hereʼs what you can pray for:

1. Growth : Weʼre in a season where weʼre “packing the snowball” and just now starting to see it “roll”. But the type of work weʼre doing is slow and time-consuming. Weʼre not re-organizing saved folks, but bringing lost folks into the kingdom. Thatʼs a tough task in the best of times. Please pray for supernatural growth.

2. Focus : Iʼm personally very focused that we do not allow our Gatherings to be the de-facto engine of the church. What drives Radiate should not be a once-per-week church service. So far, it hasnʼt. But as the Gatherings take much of the budget, and since having facilities make it easier to keep the responsibility of discipleship away from someoneʼs personal life, I find myself in the position of being the reminder of our structure and focus.

3. Encouragement: Did I mention this stuff is hard? Weʼre so excited to baptize. Weʼve seen folks come to faith. But this is still very much putting the normative approach to church (somewhere I go rather than a movement to which Iʼm integral) to test. A cheerleader every now and again is a good thing.

item 1

radiate 2012

personal prayer items

Item 2: Two items to ask me about:

1. Ask me about Radiate Stockholm or Sagacities.2. Ask me about any of the folks whoʼve been saved through Radiate - Iʼd love to be able to share their story with you.

Item 3: Two items I want you to know:1. That we are denting lostness.2. That we are planning to add another Gathering space in the West End once we hit the 75 regular attender mark in our Midlo space.

Item 4: For the names of our core families, please see the “target” page with names. Those in the middle have been commissioned into the core. Those in the next ring are in the process of fulfilling our requirements for being in the Core. We commission 2x/year.

Leadership names and positionsDerek Webster: pastorMike Conner: elderChris Parks: deaconBrittany Conner: head of communicationsEric Haney: Intl. church plantingJon Crawford: filmMelissa Webster: environment

item 2-4

radiate 2012

state of the church address

Realistic AssessmentIt is amazing to think we began with two families in a living room. We are only 20 months old, and have sent two families to Stockholm, grown multiple Lifegroups, have a Gatherings facility, recorded a worship album, produced original artwork and are looking out toward intl. church planting trips/multiple Gatherings.

My vision was a church where each member has the Great Commission lifestyle and the fruit of the Spirit in attribute. Our model is the church Thessalonians - a community known for their faith, love and hope. Our target is people who arenʼt interested in Christianity - our friends and community. We also wanted to develop a place where people could explore, discover and develop their unique gifts.

This meant developing a new ethos and approach from the start.

The good news is that our core ethos is in place, though I think I underestimated the allure of what is known versus what is unknown. Weʼve got great people who are genuinely interested in others. In terms of creativity, we have our own artists, worship music (our own worship album of original music is selling well on iTunes) and many in our Core have mentored others. Weʼve seen salvations occur and people weʼve been praying for have gotten involved.

What to do in the Next Year/Changes to OccurWe hold a January meeting to discuss the state of our church and course adjustments. My elder is responsible for being our voice of conscious as it relates to our core values - Love Goes, Lean Forward, Live Expansively. His role is to make sure our values are driving our actions in real time (ie. not in theory or in theology alone). My deacon is responsible for moving us into new conversations and contexts. His role is to help us speak to early adopters (our target mentality) and to put us in conversations as a community that we need to be in for this specific moment in time. My role is to steer the ship toward the vision.

So far, weʼve done a great job doing that. Example: This year (March) our elder (Mike) pointed out that in our Lifegroups we should plan on going where others are, rather than having them come to us all the time (values: Love Goes, Lean Forward). So he and his wife set up a MeetUp page for foodies. At their first meeting they were breaking bread with 16 people - all except he, his wife, me and my wife, were unsaved. They continue to meet regularly, and are making friends. In the context of that, they are witnessing and inviting to one of our Radiate outlets: Gatherings, Events or Lifegroups.item 5

radiate 2012

state of the church address

After our January meeting, we immediately implemented some changes. One significant change was for me to pursue broadening our teaching team. The timing was natural - before this, folks needed to come into the core and have time to mentor others. But once that was in motion, we have some naturally good communicators and leaders that needed some Sundays to speak. This also increased the creativity and freshness of the series.

We couldnʼt anticipate in that meeting that we would be moving into a new facility. But just a few short weeks later - in the middle of our series on Uprising - God called us to have courage and step forward in faith.

Within 6 weeks we had an amazing deal on a lease and were moving into a building for our Gatherings space.

Another change was that more of our Core needed opportunities to mentor. So I began being the “middle man” for introducing mentors with potential “mentees”. Our Core started mentoring others.

Iʼve loved the development of our artistic community.

We still have a ways to go:Weʼre working out how to best leverage our Gatherings. Weʼre tweaking our Lifegroups - re-evaluating the place of our four “Wʼs”. Our leadership is slated to make our trip to Stockholm for encouraging our families there and for planning on planting a church there.

We are also still small. Outreach is relational - and therefore limited. We have a ways to go before even our Core has confidence on the mentoring piece to initiate contact/possibility of mentoring others. But our progress in 2012 has been consistent. In 2012, it was pretty up and down. We saw a salvation, built up families, commissioned them...then had to send out a couple. We loved being able to celebrate the sending, but itʼs hard when youʼre small and starting up to see great people you love leave you in proximity. Thankfully, we are still very much connected through technology. So 2011 was really about creating the rest of our structure. 2012 has been about consistency and refinement. Weʼve seen others come to faith or move closer to the kingdom throughout.

item 5

radiate 2012

state of the church address

My biggest concern (and this relates to prayer concerns) is that folks get discouraged. Itʼs easy to forget that we started from ground zero with two families, a living room, zero funds, and a desire not to do things conventionally. We have no full-time staff. We didnʼt begin with any sponsors. We really wanted to reach out to friends and neighbors. We didnʼt want to let ourselves off-the-hook with personal, relational witness.

This is hard. Our model isnʼt for everyone. In fact, I wouldnʼt recommend this model for most churches - itʼs slow and very focused.

But in the long view, I think this will transform Richmond and beyond.

For more on this, Iʼve put up a blog post to further explain: http://radiate.posterous.com/the-hardest-part

item 5

radiate 2012

leadership team assessment

Mike Conner (elder):

3 Core Strengths of Radiate1. Discipleship of new members and new believers.2. Vision of the church not being a location but instead multiple sites and cultures (Radiate Sweden)3. The strength of the 3 elements (life groups, events & gatherings) so that the church is made up of all 3 and not just 14. Opportunities for members in core to use their gifts5. Good mix of seeker friendly but not too seeker friendly that followers can still grow.

3 for Improvement1. Having just gotten a space to rent, we haven't made plans to help meet needs within community (what are we doing to partner with city)2. To have the vision of multiple sites, we need to do a better job of reproducing leaders.3. Increased emphasis on Evangelism (for future growth)

Chris Parks (deacon):

I agree with Mike’s core strengths, I don't see eye to eye on his {Mike’s assessment} weaknesses. Here’s what I see:

Weaknesses: 1. Time: working with the lost takes enormous amounts of time. All of us work and do the best we can inside our circle of influence.2. Execution Goals: our goals are resonating, but not yet with the lost -- especially if they don't know they are lost. It's hard to make Jesus a priority to those who have completely rejected him.3. Lifegroups: I love the concept of the 4w-s, I haven't seen it work yet.

Prayer: we need fasting and prayer, not to change us, but to draw people to us. The way we are going is a slow burn.

item 6