A Pastoral Word | February

by Jeremy King

February 1, 2024

As we enter 2024 we intend to begin sending monthly updates from our pastoral team. We are grateful for our staff that faithfully sends out “The Way Weekly” and for the intentionality that goes into updating our social media channels, but we have felt the desire to communicate some more personal reflections, stories, and updates with you each month. 

We sense that we have entered a new stage as a church. Over the first few years, we have often used the language of church planting, but by the grace of God, we feel like the church plant is now planted! Back in 2019, we started the church planting journey by hosting prayer gatherings in the city. Then we continued our journey, planting the church during the pandemic in 2020, and then over the last couple of years, navigated moving online gatherings to in-person. Presently, as we are approaching four years since first gathering with our launch team, we feel more settled and it feels appropriate to say that the initial church planting phase is over. 

We’re No Longer a Church Plant 

As pastors, we are amazed by what God has done. It is beautiful. It is staggering. And to be honest, some days it is all a little overwhelming. What we’re convinced of is that even though we stepped out to plant a church, the Holy Spirit is ultimately the one who has sovereignly and beautifully planted something new, and in this venture, we have experienced Jesus being faithful to His promise to build His church.

Although we believe there will be future Way Church sites and although we desire to plant other churches one day, we feel an invitation in this season to focus our attention on strengthening the three sites and five congregations that already exist. One thing I’m personally encouraged by is the growing sense of family and Christian community amongst our congregations and we want to put our best energy into seeing these communities deepen in discipleship and connection this coming year. 

21 Days of Prayer Reflections

We’re already a month into 2024! Thank you for praying with us this past month as we have ventured to get things off on the right foot. We want to be a praying church and we want to grow in what it means to be a people of intercession. Doing 21 days of focused prayer as a community this past month was a way of investing in that desire. I was encouraged to hear that the prayer guide served many of you in your personal prayer lives and I loved getting to witness many profound moments of faith as we gathered to pray in groups across different sites. Thanks again for taking part in whatever way you were able to. 

Colossians 4:2 encourages us to be devoted to prayer, being watchful and thankful.  I’m praying that we, as a community, will mature this year in what it means to be devoted to prayer. I love Paul’s exhortation to be watchful and thankful as we pray. I continue to feel this is key. If we pay attention we will see that God does respond to our prayers. Irene, one of our small group pastors, each week leads her and her husband, Al’s, small group taking time to pray for requests the group has. When prayers are answered they take specific note of it and thank God. I’m thankful for their example. 

Our First Annual Community Meeting

As we head into February there is one thing we’d love to especially highlight. On February 28th we are hosting our first ever community-wide church meeting called the Annual Community Meeting. We look forward to answering some specific questions about the leadership, budget, and ministry priorities of The Way at this gathering and we want to take time to respond to questions you might have about the church. Through the registration process, you will have an opportunity to submit a question you might have. Our desire is transparency and a growing sense of family as The Way Church. 

Thank you for your prayers, support, and commitment to Jesus and His gospel. Know that you can reach out to any of our pastoral team anytime. 

Peace to you and hope to see you at the community meeting this month!

Jeremy

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