You planted a what???!?!?!

(this blog was originally published on Amy's blog, but we thought we would share it here too)


I was emailing with a dear friend of mine, and realized she has no idea about something that has been going on in my life that is, in a nutshell, really big.

A big nutshell.

That's when I realized I haven't posted anything about it here.  Why?  I don't know.  It was so all-encompasing, and it still is.  But sometimes in the craziness of something, you just don't sit down and write about it.

I had a baby.

No, not really.  That made you sit up though, didn't it?

Chris and I have become church planters.  To people who don't attend church, this is a weird and confusing term.  What is that?  Basically, we, along with another couple, have spearheaded a new church here in town.

They have to start somehow, right?  And that term is actually called "church planting".

Why?  Because we felt the call on our hearts.  That simple.

We actually had more opportunities to move and pastor other churches.  There was a church in Lethbridge that Chris was in contact with, and another church in Canmore that called Chris.  But Cochrane is home.  We had support here from our old church, and I have family here.

Cochrane has many churches.  The call on our hearts was a reformed church, and a family integrated church.  What does that mean?  If you feel like reading up on it, Chris made a great post explaining reformed so much better than I can on his Sola Ministries blog.  Family integrated means basically that the family stays together.  We don't have the kids pulled out during service.  They stay, learn, and worship as a family.  We have small discussion times where families can talk about what the service was about.  We encourage families to learn together, at church and all week long.  We want parents involved with their kids, rather than pulled apart.  Really, it's different.

We've learned that many people don't like different.

Are we better than anyone else?  Do we think highly of ourselves?  Are we the only ones who know the one right way to set up a church?

No.  We are different.  That's all.  We are an option for families looking for this kind of church.

We are doing what we can to follow where God leads us.

We work so hard at this.  We put in sweat and more than a few tears.  We've learned how many people don't like things that are "different".  We've learned many lessons so far, many of which I wish I had never had to learn, and I'm sure the road ahead has just as many.

It's hard.  How do you blog about something that you know in your heart is what God wants you to do, but people around you are cutting you down for?

I guess you just sit down and write...

So now it's officially on the blog.  You are all in my loop.

Hill Country Church meets at Spray Lakes Rec Center.  We have Guy's bring up coffee at 10, and we start service at 10:30.  http://hillcountrychurch.ca/Hill_Country_Church/Home.html