September 2019 Global Church Multiplication

Converge Pastors Make All The Difference

When it comes to mission partnerships, Converge Pastors can and do make all the difference! Here is a story from Cedar Creek church, where Dan Maxton is the Interim Pastor. Cedar Creek is a church of about 75 members located in Hayfield, Minnesota about one hour south of Minneapolis/St. Paul.

As you read the story and quotes from Dan, look for these themes:

The open door and invitation to present the Converge/TTI partnership.
The opportunity to present to the church leadership directly.
The engagement of the church leadership to develop the plan after the presentation.
The invitation to other pastors to consider a similar process.

Dan Maxton wrote the following to Mark and Michael, pastors of nearby Converge churches…

About six months ago on March 3^rd(2019), Cedar Creek invited Jerry and Deb Schommer to come and tell us about The Timothy Initiative (“TTI”) and how we might help start churches in other parts of the world! They stayed afterwards for a light lunch and a meeting with our church board.
  In the months that followed, our leaders prayed and set a goal to raise $3,400 that could potentially send out and train 10 TTI planters to launch 10 churches in Nepal and India. We invited our Cedar Creek Church family to give over and above their regular offering to TTI during the FIVE Sundays in June.
  We showed FOUR different 3-4 minute video clips talking about TTI and how TTI disciple makers can impact their communities where they live.
We celebrated giving $2,689 resulting in 8 churches that would be launched. Then we learned that Converge had a matching gift donor which bumped our impact to starting 16 new plants in India and Nepal gathering 320 people in house churches, of which 256 would be new believers!
  When we announced this to our church family in July, there was spontaneous applause, joy and laughter as we praised God that He would invite us to help in such a wonderful outreach for Christ!
Mark and Michael, I highly recommend that you introduce The Timothy Initiative on a Sunday morning this fall or early next year!  And then I would also suggest that you have the Schommers meet with your leadership team, and then together decide whether or not God would want you to partner with TTI!
  It was a great experience for us at Cedar Creek and we wish for you and your church family to experience the same joy and excitement that we did!

Thank you, Dan for your leadership! Here is a picture of a TTI church planter graduation in Zanzibar where the religious make-up in the country is 99% Muslim. Cedar Creeks’ gifts help make these kinds of graduations possible, as every graduate has not only completed an 11 book curriculum, about 2,000 pages of content, but also planted a church in order to graduate!

Please take a couple of minutes and watch this video from Eagle Brook Church, a Converge church, which tells the story of how TTI church planters are reaching people for Jesus so effectively. You may use this video in your church if you so desire.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m2fipk4d8eqk6ye/TV_NEPAL_VIMEO_V2.mp4?dl=0

Better together,

Jerry Schommer

Director of Church Planting Partnerships
612-386-9486
converge.org/missionary/jerry-schommer