Though it is only February, it has already been a year of ups and downs but God is on the move and some big things are on the horizon. We are so glad to be able to share what God has been doing in our family and at Faith Fellowship.

It has been an eventful January and February. With all the snow and poor weather conditions it has been hard to gain and keep solid momentum with the church ministries. We have also had several individuals that have had major medical issues and concerns over the past two months. However, despite all of Satan’s attempts to thwart God mission, the mission is still being accomplished in remarkable ways. First, our community groups have quickly multiplied on their own this year. We have students and community members requesting to start more small groups and increase time in fellowship, prayer and bible study. We are seeing a great hunger and seeing God fill people with Himself and His son. Second, with all the poor weather we still are having new people, both community and college students, join us each week for worship. Third, God has been doing a great work in the individual lives of people within the congregation. Several people have begun to step up to serve as leaders as well as become more passionate about evangelism and discipleship. Fourth, the university continues to open doors for us to have a greater impact on campus. They greatly value what we are doing and desire for us to continue. The university will be making me the official protestant campus pastor over the next couple weeks.

Prayer Requests
With the attacks of the enemy we do ask that you pray for the leadership of the church. Some of the leaders and volunteers have had some health problems over the past two month that have hindered involvement and impact through Faith Fellowship. We also ask that you pray for good favor with the campus as we make the transition for me to become the school’s protestant chaplain. We believe this will have a major impact on the faculty, administration and student body. We also ask that you pray for the church as we will possibility of having summer missionary and an intern. We are thinking through various outlets of a possible second future church plant and also how to have greater impact in the Hartford area. Finally, please continue to pray for both the harvest and for laborers. Pray that God will continue to help us reach the campus and community with the gospel and that God will raise up local and foreign workers for kingdom work in Hartford.

Thank you again for all your prayers and support! Because of your investments lives are being transformed by the Gospel and the kingdom is growing. If there are any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me however you would like. My information is below and I would love to chat with you. God Bless and I look forward to hearing from you!

In Christ,
Pastor Logan Loveday
ministerloveday@yahoo.com
http://ministerloveday.wix.com/loganloveday
43 Wethersfield Ave, Floor 2
Hartford, CT 06114

In my role as a church planting missionary, I encourage existing churches to sponsor new churches in nearby communities. The goal is to produce healthy communities of faith in areas underserved by vibrant churches. For this to work out well there must be a meaningful relationship between the sponsoring church and the daughter church. A great way to view this relationship is to use the analogy of parents raising children. Parents provide for and protect their young while teaching them to make good choices and develop into responsible adults. There are always some disagreements along the way, perhaps even strong ones, but when done correctly, it is a beautiful experience for all involved. The same is true in regards to relationships existing churches and daughter churches.

One of the most essential keys to healthy relationships between sponsor churches and their missions is good communication. The pastors of the two groups should meet often for prayer, encouragement, and planning. In many cases this will be weekly, or bi-weekly, especially at first. As time passes, it might shift to monthly, but rarely will a great relationship be maintained with less than that. Though it is possible to do this via phone or Skype when schedules get busy, face to face meetings are always preferred.

In addition to good communication between the leaders, the rest of the congregation must understanding the vision and purpose of the new congregation. This can be done in a variety of ways but often includes the pastor of the new church making presentations to the existing church about the plans, timetables and focus of the new work. It may also include the mission pastor preaching several times in the mother church before starting services in the new church. The goal is for the existing church to be fully committed to the new work.

There are times when the new church will share a facility with an existing church. This is particularly likely when there is a language or cultural group in the same town as the sponsoring church, but for which the sponsoring church is not equipped to reach. For example, if the existing church is Spanish speaking but is concerned about the lack of churches that offer services in Creole, they may start a Haitian congregation and allow it to use their building so that two completely different congregations are utilizing the same facility. When a building is shared, communication becomes even more important. Scheduling of rooms, sharing of the cost of utilities, sharing of volunteers for cleaning the building or having workdays to maintain the building all require good communication between the two congregations. Each group will have to accept some level of inconvenience in order for the other group to be effective, but good communication will allow both bodies to accomplish their mission.

Even when a building is not shared, there will almost certainly be some sharing of finances. Often the sponsoring church provides a significant portion of the new church’s income, especially in the first few months. They may even handle the money, keep the books and sign the checks, all depending on the situation and what kind of leaders God brings to the new church. Good communication is needed to work out the logistics of this, but it can be an amazing picture of the body of Christ when diverse people pool their resources for kingdom expansion.

Many church planters say that the most important part of their relationship with their sponsoring church is the friendships forged between the leaders and the members of each congregation. Those friendships often endure long after the new church has become self-sustaining and the formal sponsorship has ended.

Sponsoring a new church is a lot work, but many pastors can attest that it is also a faith growing and vision stretching time in the life of the sponsoring church. If you are interested in sponsoring a church in Connecticut, contact us using the contact form.

If your church is not able to sponsor a new church on your own, you can still be involved in church planting by becoming a partner church with someone else’s church plant. Many sponsoring churches are not able to handle everything for their daughter church. That creates room for other churches to help in smaller, but significant ways. As churches work together, new communities of faith are planted and lost people come to faith in Christ. It sounds very much like the New Testament!

As God continues to guide our church into the new and coming year, it seems that he is giving us abundant opportunities to deepen our faith together. Through some very challenging lessons that we’ve gone through on Sunday nights and in Community Group, we can sense God calling us to follow him at any cost. Praise God that he’s giving us these opportunities! May we continue to make good on them. As we enter the month of February, there will continue to be very special opportunities for spiritual growth. Here’s a sampling of what we have to look forward to:

• Our current Sunday teaching series, Core Principles of Life with Christ, has taken us through some great core teachings on what it looks like to be a disciple of Jesus. We’ll wrap up this series next Sunday, February 8, by looking at our final core principle and talking about how it applies to our lives and our church. Our discussion will take us through one of Jesus’ most famous lessons and right to the heart of the gospel. Join us for this important evening – 6 pm at the Augusta Curtis Cultural Center. (If you’d like to go back and listen to previous messages in this series, all of them are now posted online! Check out our podcast page at meridenchurch.podbean.com, or see our Facebook page – “Meriden Community Church” – or website – meridenchurch.org – for the links.)
• This Thursday, February 5, at 6 pm, our Community Group discipleship study will be picking back up. We’ll meet at McDonald’s on South Broad Street in Meriden to discuss Jesus’ teaching on loving our enemies (for those reading along, ch. 7 in The Good and Beautiful Life). This promises to be a very challenging and rich discussion – another opportunity to really grow in our faith! We invite you to come along and be a part of the discussion, even if you’ve never attended Community Group before or haven’t been reading along in the book. If you do plan on coming, here’s your challenge for this week: spend a little time each day praying for God to bless an enemy, competitor, rival, or someone you just don’t like very much! We’ll talk about our experience with this on Thursday. Going forward, Community Group will focus on this discipleship study on the first and third Thursdays of the month, have a “mission conversation” meeting on the second Thursday, and celebrate with a community dinner (potluck style) on the fourth Thursday of the month. Get involved in Community Group! Contact us for more info.
• The Christian season of Lent begins on Wednesday, February 18. Though we will not have a special service on Ash Wednesday, we will be talking about Lent and allowing it to guide our reflections on Sunday evenings for worship, beginning on Sunday, February 22. Whether you’re familiar with Lent traditions or new to it all, this will be a very significant time for our church as we turn our focus to celebrating Christ and his death and resurrection. Join us for this sacred journey.

Prayer Points

• For God to work in our hearts through the truth of his word, as we’ve been reflecting on core principles of discipleship and the challenging teachings of Jesus.
• For our new church Leadership Team, meeting for the first time this week. Pray for these leaders to see God’s vision for our church and carry out his will with wisdom.
• For our sponsor church, Friendship Baptist in Litchfield, as they look to call a new senior pastor next month.
• For those still struggling with illness and chronic health problems.
• For safety and warm shelter for everyone in our community during this harsh winter weather.

May God bless us with his wisdom, grace, and guidance as we grow with him!

Grace and Peace

Casey and Sarah Bushman, church planters

2014 was a banner year for church planting in Connecticut. By God’s grace 7 new churches were planted this year. We hope to see four more planted during 2015.