Encouraged in Philadelphia
For the last year I have traveled to Philadelphia 4 time, to participate in a gathering called Church Planter Community. I have never been able to participate with a group of Christians in a way that encourages and excites me more than these meetings.
The vision of the Church Planter Community is:
to saturate Metro Philadelphia, South Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania with gospel centered churches so that many people come to Christ and together our
communities are transformed.
Out of all the meetings I have attended last weeks was one of the most encouraging. It is such a gift for me to see a small part of what God is capable of doing through guys who are willing to give all they have for the kingdom of God. There were people from dozens of ethnic backgrounds all coming together to learn from each other, how they could love and seek redemption in the communities in which they live. It is so encouraging and exciting to see what Christ is doing in the Philadelphia area, my deepest desire is that I will be able to participate in similar ministry here in Pittsburgh.
To give you a better understanding of the experience let me run you last Wednesday:
I woke up at 4:45, and flew from Pittsburgh at 6:30am and arrived in Philadelphia at 7:40am. After I arrived, I was picked up by Dave Baggett, who is one of a dozen men helping to plant churches in the Philadelphia area. Dave moved from Virginia, with his wife and three kids to live in East Delaware County, just outside of Philadelphia proper. At the CPC, Steve Huber, one of the pastors at Liberti Church spoke on how his church has been seeking to love and care for people in and around the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, for the last six years. Some of the stories that he shared really got me excited about how loving and serving people can take so many different shapes. After Steve’s talk I was greeted by several other pastors and church planters. Young and old alike I was welcome by each member with the same excitement and enthusiasm. We reconvened to listen to and pray for different people who were church planting. After that, I got to participate in a round table discussion where the topics ranged from nightclubs for second generation Russian immigrants, to interacting with young professionals, to caring for soccer moms and track dads, while their kids were at practice.
My time in Philadelphia ended with a trip back to the airport, via the Regional Rail line, and by 4:40 I was back in Pittsburgh. 4:40-am to 4:40pm, twelve hours and a dozen wonderful interactions with people that understand what matters in life.