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Matt Rose

February Update

JOPLIN INTEREST SOCIAL

We had an interest social this month for those who live in the Joplin area. The goal was, more than anything, to get in front of more people. It's really easy to get caught up in the BTS work of starting a new church, but God has called us to reach people. More than that, we wanted to give an adequate update of where we are as a church and how to partner with Orbit Church.


We were really encouraged by the turnout and…let’s just say…it looks like our pre-launch team is increasing to 14 adults 🤯🤯! We will introduce the team as they make their move to the Phoenix area, but for now everyone knows about my family of 4, Pat Rose (my mom) and Jake + Anna Allison. 7 people is not a bad start!

 

SECOND MOVER!!


Kayleigh Sewell came to Forest Park Church on July 5, 2020. That was the first worship service the North Campus had post-COVID. I remember because there weren't very many young people at the campus when I got there. We baptized her in August and she started attending a young adults small group I was leading. She was consistent and eventually started serving with youth and children. She still does.

Once she graduated college she began as a marketing staff at Freeman Health System. When we let her know we were going to start Orbit Church, she began making plans to join us. But the Lord had other plans. God wanted her to continue to serve here in Joplin for a time while she searched for a job in Phoenix. Often the Lord will give you a calling, affirm it and then give you a minute to diligently pursue it prior to opening doors. That's how it happened for Kayleigh. While she knew she was called to this, she stayed consistent during the waiting period. She has proven herself committed to the Lord and capable of doing much more than I would've imagined. She put together this website, did nearly all of our graphics and even helped us garner support from others over the past few months.


At the beginning of the February she landed a job in marketing at Dignity Health in Phoenix. Amen! She will move with us on 2/26 and find an apartment! Won’t HE do it?!

 

NEW PARTNER

The Association of Related Churches (ARC) is a church planting network that has been around since the early 2000s. Since the early 2000s, the Association of Related Churches (ARC) has helped launch over 1000 churches. They are launch professionals. Hanna and Matt have several mentors at ARC churches and knew early on that they wanted to spend time learning from them.


Last week they traveled to the ARC headquarters in Birmingham for an assessment. We are excited to be able to say that ARC gave Orbit Church a green light to stay connected as we move toward launch. They have also committed to match the first $100,000 donated toward Orbit Church’s public launch!!


I know what some of you may be wondering...so many partners! We believe that God has called us to work together with others in order to orbit Phoenix with the Gospel. We believe we have hit our sweet spot with partners because each partner we have will be helpful in different ways. ARC specifically launches churches extremely well! We are excited to learn from their training resources, connect with resource partners and spend time with a tribe of people who runs really hard after God and hustles to make sure the Gospel gets out there.

 

ANSWERED PRAYERS


1. Y'all have been praying for staff. Well, let me give you a little bit of an update. A worship leader reached out to us about a month ago on facebook. We didn't know him, but he was very tactful in his reply to us 😂😂. He and I have had several conversations since he reached out and we are in the final steps of approving him as our first hire. Yay!! What does that mean? It means he will then begin the process of raising 3 years' salary. It's amazing to have a family bought into the vision enough to do that. Thanks for your prayers.


2. Thanks for your prayers for financial provision! God has given me a lot of peace about this portion of the task. While we still have a long way to go (around 500k cash and 270k after pledges), we are in the place where God has supernaturally supplied us. Let me give you an example: I made a goal in November of last year to have 3 months' salary in the bank by the time we moved. As of right now, we have more than 8 months' salary in the bank that we don't have to touch because our monthly cash flow is positive 🙌🙌!


3. Like I mentioned above, our pre-launch team (people willing to move) is increasing steadily. We have 14 adults planning to be in the Phoenix area this year. If you add kids, that's a total of 22 people trying to get out there 🤯🤯. Great start! [Just like with money, I only count actual haha...so right now its 8 total if you count my kiddos].

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