Jesus Missionary Communities gathered yesterday for I believe it was our tenth worship gathering. We feasted on a Thanksgiving meal, and took communion together. We prayed earnestly for each other and those we have been seeking to serve together. We worshiped the Lord with songs that we took turns requesting, and we enjoyed soaking in God’s Word, Psalm 16 & 139, Colossians 1-3… Between my co-pastor Dave and I we challenged the body to consider Jesus all the more attentively and to realize His all-satisfying worth and goodness.

We also sought to encounter the Holy Spirit’s power as we meditated in prayer upon these passages especially:

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

– Colossians 1:24-29

It is all too easy to just pass over these Scriptures, yet they hold the truths about our very LIFE TOGETHER IN CHRIST!

It was so refreshing to see several in our body beginning to share from their devotional life in God’s Word as well, practicing the sharing of our mutual faith in Jesus. I am seeking to make less of a focus on an ideal meeting and more of a focus on our perfect Redeemer. We also in this way can more clearly envision together the multiplication of this gathering as we continue to grow spiritually and numerically. Depending on the week when counting children we are definitely brimming over as far as size for one gathering. We would do fine to multiply sooner than March numerically, but I’d like to see us continue to develop a core health and culture together before we multiply. Our two co-pastors at this point will likely be the leaders for our launch team for a second house church along with their families and another couple of our church family members in March. The prayerful hope Lord-willing is to have one more co-pastor by then as a co-pastor for the second church plant I’d lead this time around. Lord-wiling we will see the Lord continuing to multiply church families and leaders as we see Him adding to our number day-by-day.

It’s an adventure for sure but definitely a God-driven movement as we seek to keep our heads down and hearts lifted up to the Lord together.

In His joy,

– Torrey