church planting update, no.8

questioning christianity, being a "missionary church," and prayer

Hi all,

I’m just going to jump right into the three themes for this newsletter update!

What sort of gospel work is happening + upcoming at Immanuel Clarkston, you ask?

1. Questioning Christianity

“Does Christianity make sense emotionally, culturally, and intellectually?”

Questioning Christianity is a monthly conversation for people who are curious and skeptical about the claims of the Christian faith to explore just that! Questions like: How do faith and reason relate? How do we root our identity? How do we find meaning in life, or can we live without meaning?

The idea is simple: Good Food. Good Art. Good Dialogue. And New Friends.

This is part of how Immanuel is approaching being a “missionary church,” and we will be hosting it at The Honeycomb in downtown Clarkston on the 3rd Thursday of the month starting September 19. So be praying for that! More info here.

2. Being a Missionary Church

Speaking of being a missionary church, I shared in our last newsletter about what it means that Immanuel is a “missionary church.” This means having a fresh missionary encounter with our culture. But what does that look like?

Here are two aspects in two (perhaps) unfamiliar words that we will be covering in our upcoming “Intro to Immanuel” membership class:

1. Oikos: “Oikos” is more than the Greek yogurt you have in your fridge. It’s the Greek word for “household,” but in the New Testament, it means far more than the nuclear family. It includes relatives, neighbors, co-workers, friends, and, well, pretty much everyone in your “network.”
   
   Part of that “fresh missionary encounter” is that everyone at Immanuel is learning to be curious about the beliefs of those in their oikos and to be intentional in sharing their faith. We call this Oikos Evanglism.¹
   

2. Parish: “What would it mean to live at the pace of being known by God and others?" Our answer at Immanuel is one word: parish. A parish is a plot of land and a people that belong to that place.² This means we are focused on being hyper-local and intentional to know and sacrificially love our neighbors and oikos.
   
   And the exciting thing is that anyone can get in on it! In many ways, it’s simply asking “Where am I already?” and then connecting gospel witness to it. If you’re part of a local birder group or garden club, guess what? That’s the parish and oikos you’re called by Christ to love and serve with the gospel. Grabbing drinks or dinner with some co-workers? That’s your parish. Inviting neighbors, family, and friends to a party because you got that new Blackstone Grill? That’s your parish. Involved in the local government? Yup, you guessed it: parish.

3. Prayer

Health Update

I’m a few weeks behind in sending this update due to a significant health concern we could use your prayers on. A long story made short is this: Laura woke up on August 1 with a hole in her cornea, and we’ve spent the last several weeks traveling to appointments at UM Kellogg to see her eye specialist. Please pray for the following:

• Pray for an appointment on August 30. It seems a major surgery will be on the horizon. We need wisdom in how to approach that.

• Pray for Laura as she continues to experience serious pain amid the everyday concerns you would expect for a young family like ours (parenting, school, planting a church, etc.).

Fundraising | Phase 2 (Update)

• We are exceedingly grateful to our current partners who have made one-time gifts this summer due to an unexpected shortfall in giving.

  • We’ve made up some good ground, but remain at a shortfall in yearly giving of around $20,000. Our goal is to close this giving gap by November.

  • How you can help:

    • (1) We don’t ask this lightly, but we do need to ask our current partners to prayerfully consider making both one-time gifts and/or increasing their monthly support using our giving page.

    • (2) Do you know a church, organization, or individual who could get excited about partnering with Immanuel Clarkston? Let’s connect, and I can share what partnership would look like in this gospel work!

So long for now!

Again, we remain grateful for your partnership in this gospel work and are excited to see how the Lord directs and provides in the coming days!

And, as always, if you’d like to grab coffee and catch up, let’s do it!

In Christ,

Micah & Laura (+Violet, Henry, and Evangeline too!)

Keep up with all of the Immanuel Happenings via our Link Tree

1. Footnotes for Nerds (like me!):

More on Oikos Evangelism:

1. Oikos evangelism is perhaps the most personally demanding of all methods because it requires that you be a changed person, transformed by the gospel. Your life is the main attractor and evidence for the truth of the faith. In Oikos evangelism, your life is under observation by those who don’t believe. You can’t run and you can’t hide! If your character is flawed (or even unexceptional), you won’t be effective.

2. Oikos evangelism is non-manipulative. The person outside the faith is “in the driver’s seat.” He or she gets to raise questions and determines the speed of the process. There is no canned presentation. Instead what your friend gets is a very good view of how Christianity works in a life.

3. In short, all the advantages of Oikos evangelism are for the person who does not believe, not for the believer. No wonder it is so effective!

2. More on the Parish:

For example, all of Scotland is broken up into parishes. There’s a commitment to the people in that place. Everyone is rooted in both the community and the church. This allows for a greater degree of transparency, accountability, fellowship, and joy. And you actually have to work out your problems with your neighbor instead of running away!