December and January Progess

After months of Laura and I remodeling the upstairs apartment, I can almost see a light at the end of the tunnel. The place is not perfect; in fact, there is still much to be done, but I think we have achieved our personal goal of making it a comfortable place to live. We have been doing the hard work of moving, shopping, fixing, painting, and installation, and we have all the houses' systems (electricity, water, heating, etc.) up and running. It is finally starting to feel like a home. It feels like we are not coming home to a cold, empty, vacant building, but to a home that we can unwind in and refocus our priorities.
The progress we have made with the house is crucial towards the church plant. This is because Laura and I favor the relational approach to evangelism, and now we can confidently invite people over to our home. The idea here is that sharing a meal together with somebody in their home is one of the most intimate relationship exercises people can do together in order to build a strong community.
We have only been focusing on a few rooms in the apartment for now, the downstairs has not been touched. We plan for the completed apartment to provide us with a nice place to start an invite-only house church. A successful house church model should let us grow into the downstairs storefront when we are ready to go public. Plus, as of now the renovation work has primarily been done by Laura and myself, and it has been hard and consuming for the both of us. The renovation of the first floor should be much more smoother and enjoyable with the help of a committed group of people that have grown close to each other through a house church/small group.




So after months of hiding behind paint brushes, screwdrivers, copper pipes, and hammers we can finally start to turn our attention back towards the people aspect of church planting! This goal has been the drive behind our labor all along. Laura and I are are excited at the chance to flex our hospitality muscles, so be on the lookout for an open house in the near future at good ole 148 River Street, Oneonta New York.