Update to Sponsors

Sherwood Update
Interview Style
September 17, 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Below is an update of our lives as Church Planters thus far in 2008. I thought you might enjoy reading it “interview style,” where you are asking the questions. At the end of the e-mail, you will find all our contact information, in case I missed a question, and you would appreciate further information.

Enjoy!


What are you learning about Sherwood?

Quite a bit! Just a few highlights of our efforts:

Made an official “Citizen’s Comment” before the City Council to introduce myself and my family in July, then sent follow-up notes to all city officials present that evening (25 in all).

As a result, our efforts are known to the City government, and I was the “local minister” interviewed for a documentary film being produced about Sherwood for the Public Access Channel.

Joined the Chamber of Commerce; am trying to attend every breakfast, morning mixer, and ribbon cutting.

A group of six of us volunteered at one Chamber event in June, the annual “Cruisin’ Sherwood” classic car show.

Another six-or-so of us will be volunteering again on October 11 at the 22nd Annual Sherwood Great Onion Festival. And this time we get to wear our church-logo t-shirts while we volunteer!

Treated the Police Chief, Jeff Groth, to lunch. Thought I should thank him for the kindnesses the city has extended.

Have stopped in to visit with the local Fire Department Captain a few times. His name is Dan Atkisson. A friendship is developing. Dan is very supportive of what we are doing.

After a few weeks at the Rebekah Lodge, we finally secured our permanent location! We will be meeting at Middleton Elementary School here in Sherwood (Let me know if you would like details on why this took so long, and how, in the end, the timing was perfect).

The Superintendant of Sherwood Schools, Dan Jamison is so excited to have another group utilizing the local schools that he gave us our first month’s rent free at Middleton Elementary (feel free to ask for details).

My Church Planting Coach (Stan Granberg) has been after me to create a “spiritual map” of the city of Sherwood. This map would have the major landmarks, but then would also have:

Places of greatest opportunity
Places in Sherwood where the light of Christ is shining
Places in Sherwood where the darkness seems more prevalent.

I obtained a 3’ X 2’ map of the city from Tom Nelson, a member of our Launch Team who is also our contact at City Hall. Then I went on the prowl for some butcher paper, so I could use the official map to trace my own. Lesson Learned: Butcher Paper is scarce in these parts. It took some doing, but I finally located some. I will be tracing the Sherwood map soon and commencing the “spiritual Mapping” process.

Are you staying organized, and staying on top of what is coming up in the next few months?

Finally found a PDA which will sync with my Outlook Calendar; so I am now electronically carrying around the same schedule as I have on Microsoft Outlook at home. This is helping me be more mobile--big time.

At the same time, I finally completed the “Parrish Family Calendar,” an important first stage of the process of re-setting the church calendar for a January 25, 2009 launch.

Why did you re-schedule the Launch Date from October to January?

We set our Projected Launch Date (for fall 2008) back in fall 2007, before we were even fully funded. It was our best guess, based upon our hope that:

We would be funded by the end of November, 2007
Our house in the Corvallis area would go on market in December
We would spend our “missionary month” with our primary supporting congregation (you) circa February 2008
We would be “boots on the ground” in Sherwood no later than mid-March, 2008
This would get our children in the local schools (along with my wife as a substitute teacher and volunteer) well before the end of the school year.
Our Team would be ready when we arrived.

Reality was more like:
While Davis Park committed early, another key early funding source fell through. Full funding was all-but-guaranteed by February 1st 2008, but not fully secured until mid-March 2008
Our house went up for sale in February, sold in April
Our “missionary month” with Cordova (including two meetings with ministers and an elder in Modesto) was April
Wilson was finally moved to Sherwood May 6th
Kristen and the kids completed the school year in the Corvallis area and did not arrive until mid-June.
Our team was moving—from all over Oregon. One couple just arrived about a month ago as of this writing; another family will re-locate in early October to be closer to Sherwood. The obvious good news here is, seven households have been so committed to being a part of this team, that they either have re-located or will soon re-locate to further this mission!

Bottom line is, sometimes we ministers are slow to learn. I was still convinced we could make a Fall Launch. Trouble was, I was still thinking like a Campus Minister. In Campus Ministry, few of your leaders have small children, and all of your leaders have flexible schedules. (You want to talk with your key leaders? Just yell real loud.) Wilson needed to adjust his thinking to counting time in weeks instead of days.

So it was that in mid-July Wilson finally came around (much to the relief of our team) to God’s time-table for this church. Kristen and I broke away for one night to a Bed & Breakfast for our Anniversary. We took out laptops. After a lovely dinner and a romantic sunset, we spent some of the evening in prayer and planning. What resulted from this time away was a sharpening of the mission and vision for Sherwood (I look forward to making more detail available to you).

As if to prove the point (about busy schedules), it took four meetings over a ten-day period to communicate this renewed and more focused vision to a team of fifteen adults.

How is your team doing now?

Sold out, committed, wonderful! Also, further beyond their spiritual “comfort zones” than ever they have been before. The change in Launch Schedule also gives them crucial time to get used to this spiritual “altitude” before we climb even higher.

In the meantime, we have discovered something wonderful about our little group: We are excellent singers and we have a great Worship Ministry! Our Worship Leader, Chris Flores, is passionate about the collection of a cappella music coming out of Nashville from the Zoe Group, and is teaching us a new song every week. For a small start-up, we are richly blessed with great voices!

Where do you and the Team go from here?

This past Sunday, we entered a “Transition Cycle” designed to re-orient us from that period of adjustment to the Launch Team we need to be to move forward. This Transition Cycle will consist of five steps:

Celebrate the Victories (we have experienced and achieved thus far)
Took place this past Sunday, September 28 in our home
It was very encouraging! We were all encouraged by the progress we have made!!

A Season of Prayer
In the next two weeks, we will host a Prayer Vigil and a neighborhood Prayer Walk
The Team is encouraged to be at both events if at all possible, but to make sure to participate with us in at least one of these times of seeking the Lord

Re-Casting the Vision
Together with the Team, we compose a “We Have A Dream speech” to remind ourselves of that for which we are striving
This will take place the week after our Season of Prayer

Launch Team Commitment Cards
The week following the Vision Re-Casting, “the direction we are going from here” (what it will require of us to launch this church) is communicated clearly by Kristen and I as the lead planter and lead-planter’s wife
The “non-negotiable” commitments for those willing to go with us and follow us as leaders are spelled out clearly, and the Team is called upon to re-commit

Setting the Schedule and moving toward launch, January 25, 2008!!

Any other reasons for re-setting the Launch Schedule?

There are two schools of thought about Launch Schedules. Nelson Searcy (successful church planter in New York City) says, “once you’ve set the date, stick with it.” Stephen Gray (successful church planter in the Midwest) says, “don’t launch until you have essential systems in place.” Searcy has planted one church; Gray has planted several. I subscribe to Gray on this one.

What are those “essential systems?” And how are they coming along?

At least 40 adults on the Launch Team.
We thus far have fifteen (make that sixteen!) adults on the Launch Team, with at least two more seriously considering, and a few more “on the fence.”

Connecting with the community through social and service events, and “point of entry” conversations.
A “Point of Entry” conversation consists of giving people the quick synopsis of who we are (mission) and what we desire to be (vision). These are taking place regularly by members of the Team. As for the Parrishes…
The kids are now enrolled in school!
Kristen is set up to volunteer in each of their classrooms.
Kristen is also making application to substitute in the district.
Wilson goes to eat with the kids every Friday for lunch and is getting to know their peers
Bradley wants to join Cub Scouts; Mary-Adele wants to be a Girl Scout. We want them to for two reasons. They are wholesome activities; they provide us with a many “point of entry” opportunities!

An evangelizing process that is already bearing fruit through conversions
I am looking hard at the ALPHA Course material, which I believe can be adapted for our use. I plan to attend the Alpha Converge Conference in Seattle in early November (another confirmation that a later launch will suit us well).

"Long Cycle” events: Home Communities (at least three), a repeatable, sustainable discipleship process.
Two Home Communities are underway and lots of inviting is happening. These finally got underway in the last six weeks. We rejoice that we have come this far! In addition to evening Home Communities, there are now several other opportunities for people to learn to follow Christ more devotedly in the form of morning breakfast (men’s) discipleship studies, and a weekly women’s study taught by Kristen.

What Personal Goals are you working toward?

Wilson’s personal goals:
Extend 25 invitations every week either to a Home Community/Discipleship Study, or to our Sunday afternoon Launch Gatherings at Middleton Elementary School.
Start at least six personal Bible studies with un-churched persons within the next two months.
Continue to pray daily for this ministry.


How are you and your family?

When you move kids from a cul-de-sac and their own swing set in their own backyard to spend a summer in an apartment, it’s pretty tough on them, and even tougher on mom. But we counted our blessings and made it work (and also used it as an opportunity to invite a lot of our fellow apartment dwellers to join our new church!)

Now that we are settled in on SW William Avenue (and the swing set is reassembled…and school has started) the mood is much, much brighter.


Every church planting family we are aware of is faced with attack from the enemy. We are no exception. Among the many things that have happened in our extended family (and the inexplicable-but-consistent delays to our schedule!), there is one about which you are already aware, and have been gracious to pray about and ask after.

In late June, after a bout of vertigo, I was diagnosed with an incurable, non-fatal condition in my right inner ear called Ménière's disease

It is not fatal, but when an episode hits I am temporarily “out of the game” for about a 24-hour period. Each episode incrementally-but-permanently diminishes my hearing in that ear.

The treatment goal is to (A) minimize the number of episodes/year through medication (diuretics) and a low-sodium diet, and (B) manage the episodes so they are not as debilitating.

After the initial diagnosis from an ENT, God has sent me to an excellent family practitioner who herself faces this challenge, and is well-versed at helping me manage it.
I covet your prayers, joined with mine, for complete healing from the Lord.
By His Grace, thus far, my treatment has stabilized me. I just completed my fifth week without an episode! That is a new record since the disease manifested itself in late June.


Other than that, we are doing very well, and are enjoying the community connections God is placing in our way. It seems we never leave our dwelling without God orchestrating a “coincidental” meeting, and/or creating an opportunity for us to share our story and invite someone to join us!

Mary-Adele has started the 4th grade and is off to a great start. (Ending her third grade year with the distinction of being in the top 3% of 3rd grade readers in the state of Oregon doesn’t hurt.) We look forward to seeing how Adele’s tender heart impacts her friends for Christ.

Bradley entered 1st grade and is making his mark. Like his sister, he entered 1st grade already an enthusiastic reader. You would no doubt enjoy witnessing how comfortably he has taken to this schedule and to increased interaction with his peers. We have already met the divorced father of one of his classmates, and hope to make further connection with him soon.

I hope this has been helpful in bringing you up to speed. Please keep in touch! Here is our up-to-date contact information:

The Parrishes
Sherwood Community Church of Christ
PO Box 676
Sherwood, OR 97140