Dang, many of you have been asking about the latest gossip. Well here it is:

1. I am preaching at K2 this weekend. Way excited about our partnership that is emerging.

2. Working on developing our launch team here in the SW valley. PRAY FOR US!!! Prayer is the weapon that will unleash the most chaos on this land.

3. Praying for our launch team in Ohio and other partners who are moving here and joining us to plant churches in the 22+ cities without 1 church in them. The other cities are way behind too. [and that's just the tip of the iceberg].

4. Working through new thoughts and models of ministry after viewing first hand a post-christian UK and where America is headed. Thanks to this amazing man of God for being our host. He is BRILLIANT, and made us official EVERTON football fans. That trip messed me up. Looking forward to blogging about it when I can wrap my mind around all of it.

5. We are developing sites to hold Alpha Type groups to reach out and dialogue with those who are unsure of their faith if they have a faith walk at all. Thanks Mikey for your work on this. And no, we won’t be in churches. Think: bars, pubs, cafe’s and community centers. We pray that this is the basis for our launch team, not just Christians who leave our mother church to help plant. [nothing against Christians of course:]

6. Still working on that name for our local church tribe name. Probably freaking Patrick out since he has to figure it all out once it gets a name from above. I think God is speaking. I like the following names…

7. Working on raising funds beginning big time this month. It’s time. If you know me, you will probably get an ask, so just pray now, and give something. Anything. Every bit counts. They aren’t planting churches for free any more for some reason Thanks to Patrick and Kym for all of their work on this.

8. THE STICKS is heading to ChurchPlanters.com VELOCITY CONFERENCE in February. Let’s meet up at the pre-conference that we are doing. We are also totally re-doing the website and blog to make it a place for INSPIRATION, ENCOURAGEMENT, EQUIPPING and NETWORKING. Look for the start of this in late February. Again, thanks to Patrick [and his amazing wife Leah for letting him] for the lead work on the re-design and our Sticks team for the content. Patience please.

Lastly, gatherings are planned for November 9-10, 2010 [Southeast--HERE, and yes Perry Noble is confirmed to be there along with our STICKS TEAM], Winter, 2011 [Midwest] and Spring, 2011 [West--HERE]. Want to host a STICKS CONFERENCE? Hit me. Yep…it’s on. And yes, we still have some spots left in our coaching network…shot me an e-mail me if you want a spot.

9. THE STICKS board [dang, we are getting organized] is meeting in a secret location for top secret meetings on top secret things. Well, not really, but we do hope to see the sun where we meet up for the first time face to face instead of all the phone meetings. Great group of leaders who care about small towns and hard to reach places and doing big things with little resources, leadership, vision, etc. Thanks to THIS GROUP for the grant that they gave to THE STICKS. We couldn’t do it without you.

10. Hanging with my family is still my top priority and passion. I have learned to fall in love more with them than my mistress, the church over the past 3-4 years. It’s a freeing feeling. Sitting right now in a coffee shop with my bride while she is looking at the latest fashions in a mag, I am typing this out as we get some QT together. I pray I never go back by God’s grace. I really love them more than ministry. And my marriage is stronger right now than at any other time in our life. It really is. How ’bout it?

11. And yep…we deeply miss all of our friends and family at New Hope…don’t think there hasn’t been the frequent thought of: Let’s just go back and end this struggle we face here. But while some of you might be happy [us included] our boss might not. Don’t give up on your calling friends.

12. Yes, that boss is God. Who were you thinking?

13. While we have that ever tangled web of partners that is hard to keep straight, even for us, we welcome our latest partner that will be our lead supporter as an organization. Dr. Stephen Gray is a man after my own heart, or is it the other way around? Either way, I am beyond excited to be partnering with them to plant churches here in Utah and around the world. You can check them out HERE. They will also be handling our central funding as we kick off our fund raising surge this month, so if you were sending funds or want to send us some jack, start sending it here as of this week:

National Missions   c/o: Mission West Church Planting    100 Stinson, Dr.    Poplar Bluff, MO   63901

14. And yes, with fund-raising trips, speaking events, learning events, life has been crazy. I am blessed that I get to travel all over and learn, serve and grow and almost every time others get to pay for it. Free travel, learning and networking…not a bad gig most of the time, considering the economics of a church planter!!!! God is blessing as I am learning, serving, growing and hopefully giving back at the same time.

14-1/2: I have something SO BIG to announce that if God is not in it, we are destined to fail, but since we are still working through it, I figured I would just whet your appetite. It’s not from us, it’s not our plans, we aren’t this dumb and crazy. We’ll see if it come to fruition…standby.

15. Ending here since my wife just looked at her watch and gave me the eye…we are loving building relationships here and just getting to know our new community. That is our main job, to learn this community as we seek to bring the glory of God and His salvation to a desperate place. To love this community. To serve this community. To do life in this community. It’s not about just “planting a church” This is what it’s all about:

The Barista who works here at this coffee shop is coming to church for the first time this weekend. That’s all the gossip that you need. It’s on…