Renovites

October 5th is the launch date for Renovo, a church plant in Puyallup. Travis and I are on the launch team and are excited, nervous, and in awe of what God will do through Renovo. It started for us last winter. Travis had heard about Scottie Christensen's vision to plant a church in Puyallup and was very interested. For some reason he was excited about it and started praying about it immediately. He met Scottie for lunch and got even more excited and couldn't wait to share the ideas with me. I on the other hand was very skeptical for very many reasons. The main one being that we were attending Rainierview Christian Church and we were happy there. We were finally feeling connected with the friends we had made there and were really growing spiritually. Travis agreed, but asked me to pray about Renovo and if we had a place there. The idea continued to settle with Travis as he spent more time praying about it. I was starting to get very nervous. I didn't want to leave my comfort zone, but I prayed. He promised me that the only way he would help with Renovo is if I was on board with him and we both felt God calling us there. As time went on and we did more research about it, God made it very obvious that this is where He wants us right now. So, here we are helping and being stretched in ways we didn't know were possible. When we agreed to help, I said to Travis, "I'll help as long as I don't have to do anything with the children's ministry" (it's not that I don't like kids, but it's just not my favorite ministry to help out with). Guess what I'm doing... I'm in charge of the infant/toddler class and even wrote the curriculum for it:) God has a sense of humor. One of the goals of Renovo is to bring a church that is a mix of Church of Christ and the Christian Church together in one hopefully leaving the legalism out of it. There is nothing like that in Puyallup. Another goal is to do a lot of outreach and share Jesus that way to the community. There are already a few non-Christians coming to Renovo because of the outreach projects that have happened. God is ultimately in charge of Renovo because we have given it over to Him. He can and will do amazing things in Puyallup, hopefully some of them through us as a church.
This is bitter-sweet for us because we are sad to leave Rainierview. Travis pointed out that we don't know how long we are called to hep with Renovo. It could be one year or just a few months. We may be back at Rainierview or may not. We do know that we cherish the friends we have made there and plan to keep in touch. I have heard a few negative comments from people who are very skeptical about Renovo. People are always skeptical when they hear about a church plant, and maybe rightly so. I can say that Travis and I have dug deep and asked hundreds of questions. We've talked to the church plant organization who we are working with, we've even visited our sponsoring church. God is moving in ways that we don't understand, but we want to get on board!
So, if you pray, please pray for Renovo and the launch team this Sunday. Pray that God will be exalted and that our hearts will be prepared to do His work. And to all my Rainierview buddies, I love you guys and thanks for your support! To Tiffany and Jeremy, we are so excited to be doing this with you guys. It makes it that much more exciting!
www.RenovoPuyallup.com