If you haven't already heard, Bri and I are leaving Tennessee and moving to Northern Idaho/Western Washington on the 24th of August. We're moving to work with Real Life Ministries on the Palouse. Quite simply, we want to learn how to plant new churches from those who are the most effective at helping people find their way back to God. RLM on the Palouse has offered to train me in a one-year leadership residency. This preparation is only the beginning to what Bri and I hope to be a lifetime of service to planting new churches in a culture that is increasingly post-Christian.
I believe a healthy relationship with God is nurtured and grown within the community that is the church. A wise man named Kierkegaard once said, "If God is our father, then the church is our mother." The church is the place where individual Christians learn, grow and reconnect to the One who brings life. I also believe it is the place where we truly start to reconnect with others in ways that lead to higher levels of love, faith, peace, joy, forgiveness, and selflessness.
We strive to learn how to plant new churches because we believe God is the only one who can change the human heart, and God is the only one who can make someone who feels dead come back to life. We believe that planting churches is the best way to reconnect people back to God through the saving Grace of Jesus Christ. We ask for your partnership over the next year, through your prayers, encouragement and constant communication. I will be blogging throughout the year to keep you posted on what is happening and what I am learning. Also, we are raising 100% of my salary for the year and we are currently only 40% of the way to our goal of meeting our financial needs. I will be working full-time with RLM and it is unlikely that I will have time to work on the side to supplement our income. Please contact me if you are able to help financially at derekrmurphy@gmail.com, and please do keep in touch regardless.
Love, Derek and Bri
I believe a healthy relationship with God is nurtured and grown within the community that is the church. A wise man named Kierkegaard once said, "If God is our father, then the church is our mother." The church is the place where individual Christians learn, grow and reconnect to the One who brings life. I also believe it is the place where we truly start to reconnect with others in ways that lead to higher levels of love, faith, peace, joy, forgiveness, and selflessness.
We strive to learn how to plant new churches because we believe God is the only one who can change the human heart, and God is the only one who can make someone who feels dead come back to life. We believe that planting churches is the best way to reconnect people back to God through the saving Grace of Jesus Christ. We ask for your partnership over the next year, through your prayers, encouragement and constant communication. I will be blogging throughout the year to keep you posted on what is happening and what I am learning. Also, we are raising 100% of my salary for the year and we are currently only 40% of the way to our goal of meeting our financial needs. I will be working full-time with RLM and it is unlikely that I will have time to work on the side to supplement our income. Please contact me if you are able to help financially at derekrmurphy@gmail.com, and please do keep in touch regardless.
Love, Derek and Bri