Questions Answered Part 5

Today I’m wrapping up the most common questions I’ve been getting since announcing that I’ll be leaving United to start a church in Harrisburg.

11.  What’s the name of your new church? ExponentialChurch.tv

12.  Why the .tv on the end? The domain name was already taken for things like .com, .org, .net, etc.  Since .tv is not as common we just tacked it onto the name.  This is actually pretty common.  In fact did you know that Life Church  which has been the organizer of the One Prayer series we’ve done the last two years is actually named LifeChurch.tv?

13.  What’s your vision for the new church? I won’t go into a lot of detail here because I’ll be doing that in the future.  If you’re really interested ask me and I’ll give you a full 20 page document until I post more here.   For now though let me share the following 4-prong aspect to the vision:

• Weekend Experiences: Pretty much what we’re doing  in United now.  There are over 425,000 people in the Harrisburg area that don’t yet have a relationship with Christ.  So in the same way we’re currently doing church for those that don’t like church, we’ll do it up there but in a much bigger way.
• Community Outreach: This will in some ways be similar to our current You Matter Ministry.  Monday-Saturday opportunities will be given to go out into the community serving the needs of the people in practical way.
• Life Skills Center: People will be able to come to the church to get trained in various skills that can then be translated into jobs in the community or service to organizations.  One of those organizations will be ExponentialChurch.tv.  Essentially what we’ll be doing is offering our building to various people in the community who want to teach skills such as voice, instruments, video editing, computer programming, database, carpentry, sewing, etc.  The people they give lessons to will then be offered an opportunity to hone those skills as a volunteer at Exponential.
• Church Multiplication Center: One of the aspects I miss about working for Purpose Driven is that I got to help tens of thousands of churches all across North America in being more effective in reaching their local communities.  The final phase of Exponential will be in helping churches and new churches to get started.  We will do this by offering 1 year residency programs where potential church planters can come in to get trained in how to not only start a church, but grow a thriving church that is making a huge impact in whatever community they happen to be a part of.  Also, our goal is to plant other churches around the Harrisburg area to make sure that all 425,000 people without Christ get to hear the good news of what Jesus has done for all of us.

That’s a very brief glimpse of what we’ll be doing.  What has been amazing is watching God open door after door confirming this was what He wants us to do.  There is still a lot of work that needs to be done yet, but God has been faithful and I know will provide all the resources and strength that we need.

14.  Couldn’t you have stayed in Chambersburg and done this same thing? Trust me…Earl and I talked about if it were possible.  However, we both quickly realized that a vision like this will require a much larger city than Chambersburg to pull off.  And besides, God made it clear that we were to go to Harrisburg.  So if someone else wants to try this in Chambersburg they can, but as for us, we are called to leave.  As I’ve said all week long…not because we necessarily want to, but because we know that being faithful to God’s voice and His direction often requires discomfort and sacrifice.

That’s it for now, please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any more questions.