Surveying & Meeting Location

God has really opened some doors for some new things for our church plant. Andrew and I spent Thursday checking out a possible new location and surveying people about our new name. The new location has four major advantages over our old location. The new one will seat more people, is handicap/easier to access, lighting is not an issue & gives us more ideal space for children's area. Please pray with us as we make a decision. We are totally stoked about the possibilities. We have also surveyed more people with our new name. We actually went back to my old neighborhood. I met some new people as well as talked to some of our old neighbors. I love the opportunities God has given us through this survey to share our vision about our new church. I have had only one person completely reject the survey. Sweet stuff. (I think more than anything, people just want to give their opinion.) Please pray with us that we would make wise decisions about both of these issues.

Day of Encouragement

I left this morning at 7 a.m. on a trip to Inwood, WV to hang out with Pastor Devin, the pastor of my sending church. On the way I stopped in at Panera in Morgantown for a couple of hours and hung out with Russell. He is a great friend and a huge encouragement to me. He always has a way of making the negative a positive. He really encouraged me today. While I was driving I also talked to Joseph Witcher from Alabama as well as Ross McBroome and Brandon Thomas from Arkansas. It was just great to talk to all of them. God used each of them to encourage me to keep doing my thang in Washington. I then spent a few hours with Pastor Devin and Pastor Jim. I am thankful that I made the trip to Inwood. God knew I needed some encouragement.

Great Day

Yesterday I took the entire day off. I promised my wife that I would do absolutely nothing related to church planting. It was actually nice. I had no agenda, meetings, books to read or phone calls to make. I just spent time with my wife and son Micah (Jeremiah was attending a VBS). We went shopping and then ate a wonderful lunch at Olive Garden. I am so thankful for my wife. She is about to have our third child Lily in three weeks. She does so much for me and my sons. I couldn't be the man I am today without the help of my great wife.

~I love you baby~

Captivated Audience

Yesterday began as a regular day - gym 6 a.m. - 7:30 breakfast with the fam - admin stuff pre 10:30 -preach at the Outreach at 10:45. As I began to prepare my sermon, I felt lead by God to preach my father's day sermon. As I stood up to preach, I surveyed the crowd and it was mostly women. I thought to my self "God, do your thing." There was one man in the crowd who with each minute that I preached, God was working him over. At the end I had the privilege to pray with one gentleman and then I surveyed a few people about our new church name. As I was about to walk outside, I noticed the rain coming down like crazy. I looked over and saw the same man from the service and he asked if I would give him a ride. I said sure. Now he knew he was getting in a jeep with a man who had just preached. We began to talk and he began to tell me about all the mistakes he had made his life. I knew the only cure was Jesus. I shared some scripture with him and he said, "let's pray. I want Jesus to become my Savior." We pulled over in the Dollar General parking lot and he cried out to God to save him. He begged God to remove the sin in his life and save his soul. He begged God to help him to become a better dad. He prayed that God would help him love his wife more and help him overcome his drinking problem. God saved his soul! We are going to get together Thursday and began reading and studying God's Word every week. I hope to show him through scriptures how God can now lead his life. He can now follow God . Thanks God for leading me to preach to Fathers at the outreach and working your divine plan to give me a captivated audience in my Jeep.

Survey Says

Since September 9 is our official launch day, we are in the process of picking a name for our church. We have 5 names our creative team picked out. We hope to survey 250-350 people (love to survey 500), preferably unchurched, to see what they think. I am excited to see what people think. We want to listen to the culture of this area. Our team has done a really cool job in narrowing down the field. We are really going to role with the fact that Washington is positioned where I-79 & I-70 meet. Here are a few things we considered when choosing our name:

-Positions us in the community or among the people to whom we want to minister.
-Is memorable.
-Is easy to pronounce.
-Has positive associations.
-Can be easily shortened to one or two words.
-Doesn't confuse us with other churches.

I am also really stoked about getting our new logo, business cards, brochures & signage. We are also working with portable church. We want to vamp up our children's area. Out of any church in Washington, I want our church to have the premier children's area. We are also going to drop some serious change on signage. I want to have a sign on every major corner and intersection in Washington. I want people to know who we are and what we are going to do. Totally stoked about what God is going to do as we seek to turn this city up side down for Jesus.

Great Father's Day

I had a great Father's Day yesterday. I think Dad's Day may be one of my most favorite days of the year. There is nothing better than getting gifts-regardless of size from your kids. Yesterday morning we headed north to Mercer, PA to fill in for Scott Bates. Scott and his family are headed to Oklahoma for our national meeting. They are taking a much deserved vacation. We had a great day with the people from Mercer. I preached from Joshua. It was a very convicting message as we discussed being fathers who lead as Joshua did. It was very exciting to see so many new faces. Scott is do a phenomenal job leading his new church. After services, we went to eat at someones home and had an absolutely great time. They had new baby chicks and Jeremiah and Micah loved it. Thanks to Mercer BC for their continued support of our ministry in Washington. Overall Father's Day ROCKED!

I-79 Corridor

Major props to Andrew for his design for our 1-79 Corridor board. There are three church planters/churches currently included in this vision. Scott Bates in Mercer, PA, ourselves and Jason & Russell from Morgantown, WV. Andrew & Scott will be manning our booth at our ABA National Meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma next week. Wish I could go, but my wife it too close to delivering Lily.

Must Read

Church planter Tally Wilgis states on his recent blog post what a lot of church planters, including myself, may have felt or are feeling. If you have ever planted a church, you have to read this. Check it out here.

What Was I Thinking?

Tiger and Phil are in Pittsburgh for the US Open this week and I can't believe I didn't attempt to get tickets to even the practice rounds. This is the second time I failed to a big name tourney when it was close by. Last year, the 84 Lumber classic was close and I had free tickets and didn't go. It is my dream to one day go to a championship golf tournament. Oakmont has a section of bunkers referred to as Church Pews. Hopefully Tiger will not get Caught in the Church Pews, although it would be cool to see him get out. Check out this sweet article from ESPN on the return of US Open to STEEL COUNTRY.

Leaky Drain & False Labor

Received a call today at 2:00 p.m. The conversation went like this: "Aaron, pause-sigh, the bath tub is leaking again and there is a ton of water in the down stairs bathroom. Come home-NOW!" I rushed home from Panera with a ton of this left to do on my TO DO LIST. But for now, that had to wait. I got home to see the leak with my own eyes. After a phone call to Liberty Mutual, HSA and my father, Renee screamed-come here please. She was having contractions every five minutes and this had been going on for the last 45 minutes. Oh boy, we thought Lily was coming early. We called Renee's DR. and she said to go to the hospital. By the time we got the boys in the T-Blazer and dropped off at Andrew's house, the contractions were becoming easier. We sat in the waiting room for about 15 minutes and the contractions were weakening and getting farther apart. I said let's just go and talk to the nurses and make sure everything is all right. After and hour in the Labor and Delivery room and listening to Lily's heart beat, everything turned out O.K. My theory: BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY! Please lift Renee and Lily up. Renee got thrown into some panic because of the leak and it began false labor. Prayer for no more major catastrophes to occur and pray that Lily waits to come into this world until July 13. I did fix the leak after talking to my dad a couple of times. He truly is the guru when it comes to repairing pretty much anything. THANKS DAD! Please Lord, no more leaky drains or false labor

Just Like One of Us

It is funny to watch how both Jeremiah & Micah each act just like Renee or I.

Like me, Micah:

loves to talk to strangers

loves people

loud

morning person

out spoken

fire ball

Like Renee, Jeremiah:

stand offish

not aggresive (specificly soccer)

quiet

reserved

tender hearted

I love how God creates and designs children to look and act like their parents. May we as God's children strive to look like our Father!

Final Day

Today we capped our camp off with a corporate service at Wash Arts. God really blessed throughout the entire service. We had two families visit from the sports camp, which was really awesome. Andrew did a great job on worship toady. I really truly worshipped today like I haven't in a long time. I interviewed Ross, asking him a few questions about the mission trip. I began a new series today we are calling Mission Possible-Expect the Impossible.My text came from 1 Samuel 17. I looked at the famous story of David and Goliath. We had a total of 44 people, 24 being from Arkansas. Throw up some serious prayers for the group from First Landmark. They are traveling home today and tomorrow. Also pray as we plan our next two preview services scheduled for July & August and launch on September 9. We have a few families checking us out. We hope to connect with all of them. God has given us a great week and I give Him all the praise for every soul which was saved and life that was impacted. As a result of the camp, I have made a ton of new contacts/friends from Washington. Major props agian to Ross and the students and leaders from Arkansas. We love you guys. Micah and Jeremiah are going to be ready to see you guys in August when we come to visit. PEACE & GO SLAY SOME GIANTS!

4th Day

Today was the last day of our camp. Today we had a free carnival for all the kids who participated in our camp. We had a total of two games which included two huge water slides, face painting and snow cones. This event probably took more time than any of the other three games. Ross once again kicked it out with his organization. The students stayed up until 2 a.m. making posters for all the games. We had 40 kids come through the game and once again they heard the gospel. Major props to everyone involved. Afterwards, Cody & Shane came over and mowed my lawn. Thanks guys! At 5:00, the all the ladies and girls from First Landmark threw Renee and surprise shower for baby Lily. She loved it! Thanks ladies for all the gifts. She probably got 30 gifts. You guys rock. We finished off the night with THANK YOUS. Of course I cried like a baby. These guys have truly touched mine and my families lives. They have truly taken on the role of Christ and served us. We love you guys. The work they have done is going to be some huge momentum for our new church plant. One of the things I have loved seeing is the maturity of the bunch. Even though they may be young in age, they are mature in Christ. Thanks guys for coming to Washington PA. Hope to see you soon. We are going to finish off this weekend with a service at Wash Arts tomorrow. We are praying for 50. Pictures to come!

3rd Day

Kicked off today with a little round ball. Great day. As we were registering, one of the moms was dropping her daughter off and said that her daughter had taken a salvation track home and they went over it. After a short time, the daughter accepted Christ. Great stuff! At the very end of the day, a young girl professed Christ. That brings the total to six for the week. We took the afternoon off and went to the mall in Pittsburgh. We then drove into downtown and saw Heinz Field and rode the incline and saw all of downtown from high up. Over all great day. Tomorrow we will end our camp with a mini carnival and water slides. Please pray as we break every hour and half to share the gospel with the parents and kids. God truly showed up today in an awesome way. One more soul added to His KINGDOM!

2nd Day

WOW! I woke up this morning at 4 a.m. and began begging God to save some kids today and He answered my prayer. Four kids accepted Christ as Savior today at our Soccer Camp. I am very proud of the students from Arkansas. They led all the students to Christ. We had 31 turn out today. God has been good to us! This afternoon, we went to the Christian Outreach to assist with sorting clothes and doing some construction. We have an awesome group and they worked hard today. I expect even greater things from God tomorrow as we hit the gym and play a little round ball and talk about Christ being THE WAY! Thanks again for all your prayers. [May I brag a little. My son Jeremiah had his first soccer game tonight and he scored a goal. Jeremiah rocked it out. I was so proud of him!]

1st Day

Just wanted to give a quick update before I hit the hay. (i finally have dsl at the crib) We kicked our Sports Camp of this morning and our first day rocked. (if you don't know by now, i love the word rocked). Ross and the students from Arkansas literally rocked it out! The set up ran smooth! Ross is the planning guru. He had everything from pom poms to snow cones. I had the privilege of talking to a ton of moms as they dropped their kids off. We met some great families and hope some of them will visit our church. We are also still praying that some kids accept Christ this week. We played a little football/cheer leading. It was awesome to see the students coaching the children both physically (pig skin/pom poms) and spiritually (word of God). The coaches really connected with the students and have begun to build some solid relationships which will only grow over the next few days. Please continue to throw up prayers for some of the children to discover their need for Christ.

[After the camp, we took a few hours off and hung out with Jason & Russ. They came up from MO-TOWN. I love those guys. Thanks for your support.]

At 3 p.m., 25 adults and students invaded our home. They moved our remaining furniture upstairs (carpet came on Monday) and finished assembling each room. They truly kicked it out. I LOVE THOSE GUYS. They did in three hours what would have taken me months. We then had some great southern food. Ms. Lisa, AKA the cook, fixed BOSTON BUTT (basically pulled pork). It was DE-licious. We have had a great day. One of the highlights was seeing the student interact with Jeremiah and Micah, my little social butterflies. I think they are just as excited about having everyone from Arkansas here as I am. Thanks Ross and company you truly showed the love of Christ by serving the kids and my family! Tomorrow, God is going to do some unbelievable things as we learn about soccer and sin!

Hectic Day

It's been a whirlwind of a day with meetings. I met with Andrew this morning to plan out our service for Sunday. I then went to the Christian Outreach and preached and planned for our students to work there on Thursday afternoon. I then met with the representative from W & J and we did a walk through of the dorms and gym for the camp. I then met with some students from Trinity who are going to assist us with our Soccer Camp. I love meeting new people from this city. I also met a young pastor from here in Washington who is currently leading two churches. He asked that I pray that God would move in his churches. As my phone continues to ring, more mom's are calling and pre-registering their kids for the camp. At this point we have 35 pre-registered. I pray that many of them will come to know Christ! Ross and the group from Arkansas are nearing Cincinnati and will arrive later tonight. Crazy yet fun day.

Unorthodox

Yesterday, our core group spent the morning prayer walking the three sights where our sports camp will be held. It was an incredible time. We had an awesome time praying. It is a little unusual for a Sunday morning event, but that's how we role. I started out with a passage of scripture from Matthew: Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened." We are pumped about what God is going to do. We are expecting God to do more than we can even fathom. Major props to my team and their concerns and prayers for this camp.

On Mission

I just want to throw out some serious props to Ross Mcbroome and the students from First Landmark in Sheridan, Arkansas. They have already blessed our new church and they will not arrive until next week. They raised a ton of money for this mission trip and have already pumped a large portion of it into our new church plant. A brand new HP printer arrived on my doorstep yesterday. It is an awesome piece of hardware. They are also planning on putting up a privacy fence for us at our new home. Ross has planned everything for the sports camp down to the names tags and devotionals for the kids. I haven't had to do much planning on that end because he has done it all. May God bless them and their dedication to our church plant. I love you guys and thank you for your generous gifts! I can't wait for them to get here next week. I want to tell them in person how greatful I am.

Getting The Word Out

Our core group blitzed two neighborhoods last night and hit 400 homes with information about our sports camp. It was awesome to see how friendly and welcoming most people were. I did have an opportunity to share Christ with one guy. He didn't accept Christ, but he did say this was something he had been thinking about. We hope to see them at our monthly service on June 10. Our team really kicked it out! Jeremiah, my four year old son said it best, "Dad this is team work." You're right J! I love working together spreading the word. Please join us in praying that we will have at least 50 kids next week at our camp.

One Year To The Day

Today marks the one year mark for us living in Washington. It has flown by. We have met a ton of people and have seen lives changed. My family has began to settle in and call Wash. their home. I am glad God has brought us to this city. I think the second year is going to be more of a crazy ride than the previous.This year I pray that we see more people saved and lives change, more small groups started and our church officially launch. May God receive glory from our church plant!