Still in Nashville, having good conversations and enjoying time with family.

I mentioned yesterday that Clark's aunt and uncle were part of a church plant that launched about seven years ago. Their church is called Midtown Fellowship and it's in the heart of Nashville. You can check out their website at www.midtownfellowship.org, especially take a look at their church planting vision page. They are an urban plant, which differs from Ashley Ridge, but I love that they planted with a vision to be a multi-site church. I'm especially impressed by how they've thought through the differing identities of a multi-site set-up while maintaining a unified vision. They remind me of Community Christian Church in Chicago.

People often ask why we need to plant churches when there are so many dying churches already in existence. The simple answer is forget the dying churches, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people in all of our communities across the United States that do not know Jesus Christ and do not have a church home. We ought to be continually creating new communities that are going out into the world to invite people into a life-saving, life-giving relationship with Jesus. The church has no business retreating at any point in time no matter what is going on (i.e. denominational confusion, bad economies, you name it). The Church of Jesus Christ will go on and we must go forward in faith doing all we can to bring glory to God.

So, as we gear up to plant Ashley Ridge, I hope we have a mentality that says Ashley Ridge will be a church that not only thrives and grows as Ashley Ridge, but also goes out and plants new communities of faith all over the greater Charleston area and beyond. Greater things...