A few short days later we were at Red, White and Boom! We got space for a booth and had an amazing display that Lonny Hurly made. While it rained most of the day we were able to pass out over 300 bags of coffee, postcards and even gave an ipod away. We got tons of contacts and are following up with them this week.

This Sunday we have our fourth and final ‘unplugged’ service before we start preview services next month.  We are excited about the growth that is happening and the many talented people that are coming. Just to reiterate we are meeting Sunday nights 5pm at 296 W. 4th Ave. 43201.

And finally this week Joe and Renee Byler join us! Joe is our worship arts guy as well as handeling a lot of our administration stuff. The Bylers are a huge addition to our staff and we can’t wait to see how God uses them with Veritas. Please pray for their move, their housing situation and their sanity in this caotic time.

We hope to see you all at our gathering!

Pastor Nick Nye

1. Do you have a strategy?
Yes! We have taken the time to think through many issues concerning our vision for the church. You can find this document HERE. The document is well over 100 pages and covers issues ranging from a definition of the gospel to demographics to our first year’s budget.

2. How are your finances manage?
Our finances are managed by an accountant with Jersey Baptist Church in Pataskala, Ohio. He is volunteering his time to track giving for tax deductions, manage payroll and keep us accountable.

3. When are you planning to be self-sufficient?
We desire to be self-sufficient as soon as possible, however we believe that we can be completely self-sufficient in five years. Every year for five years we will decrease our outside support as our inside giving grows.

4. What is your demographic?
Urban Columbus. This means the surrounding neighborhoods of downtown Columbus. Some major neighborhoods include the Short North, German Village, Old Towne East, Franklinton, OSU Campus and Grandview. People come from all walks of life but many are young urban professionals who carry a great deal of influence in the arts and marketplace.

5. Do you have other partnerships?
Yes! We have gone through rigorous church planting assessments through the North American Missions Board and Acts 29 Church Planting Network and have been approved with flying colors. Besides those networks we are partnered with large churches and small churches as well as many individuals. Despite these valuable partnerships we need many more to finance this calling. (See above chart)

6. Will I be updated regularly?
Yes! You will receive a monthly email and a bi-monthly newsletter from Nick and Brittany Nye. We also are available to come speak at your church or meet with you individually for updates and encouragement.

Envy & Lust

It isn’t hard to see these sins in every city. All I have to do is look in the mirror on any given day I can see all seven in my own heart. Forbes’ article may not be saying anything we don’t already know but it is helpful to be reminded of our need for gospel transformation in our cities.

Yesterday I met with a man that quickly became a local hero to me. His heart is to see the city transformed by Jesus not only in word but in deed. He has bought a house in a developing city neighborhood (Old Towne East) and connected with others around him to see the city made better.

The city is a sinful place yet its sins are not without redemption. Jesus was born and grew up in the sticks but spent his ministry in the city. Our family loves the city. The city has so much to offer and though its sins are being talked about by a non-sin-believing company Jesus can transform it.

Calming Qualms About New Expressions of the Church

by Brittany Nye

After living in Columbus, Ohio for about three months and serving alongside my husband, the pastor of a church plant, I’ve noticed a general uneasiness among both Christians and non-Christians about being part of a church plant. Below are some qualms we’ve heard about church plants.

• “I’m never going to be part of a church plant! The minute you walk in the door they want you to be in charge of five different ministries and guilt you into helping with everything.”
• “I’m not willing to be part of the church plant at the smaller, core group stage. But when you guys get things up and running, I’ll consider it.”
• “I’m much more comfortable being a part of an established church. They already have ministries in place to meet my needs.”
• “Resources should go to start churches in other countries, because there are already too many here.”

One day my husband and I were talking about these qualms and concluded that church plants get a bad rap from the general public. After being part of an “older” (7-year-old) church plant for almost 4 years and ministering with many pastors who understood the need for church planting, we did not really anticipate these attitudes. On a personal level, the above remarks are frustrating since we ourselves are starting a church, but beyond that, the Lord has historically and is currently using church plants in mighty ways to spread the truth of His Gospel. Therefore, the misunderstanding of what church plants are and why they exist cripples the spread of the Gospel. The funny thing about uneasiness about church plants is that every church that ever existed was planted, and required committed people to help it flourish for the Gospel.

In a recent sermon (11/11/07), John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis made eight observations about church planting, and they have been summarized here: LINK

1. There are 195,000,000 non-churched people in America, making America one of the top four unchurched nations in the world.
2. In spite of the rise of megachurches, no county in America that we know of has a greater church population than it did 10 years ago.
3. During the last 10 years, combined communicant church membership of all Protestant denominations declined by 9.5% while the national population increased during the same time by 11.4%.
4. Each year 3500-4000 churches close their doors forever, while only as many as 1500 new churches are planted.
5. There are now nearly 60% fewer churches per 10,000 persons in American than there were in 1920. (1920 - 27 churches for every 10K Americans, 1950 - 17 churches for every 10K Americans, 1996 - 11 churches for every 10K Americans).
6. Today, of approximately 350,000 churches in America, four out of five are either plateaued or declining.
7. One American denomination recently found that 80% of its new converts came in churches that were less than two years old.
8. “The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches.” - Peter Wagner

Tim Keller gives three excuses that he hears as well, LINK

• ‘We already have plenty of churches that have lots and lots of room for all the new people who have come to the area. Let’s get them filled before we go off building any new ones.”
• ‘Every church in this community used to be more full than it is now. The church going public is a ’shrinking pie’. A new church here will just take people from churches already hurting and weaken everyone.’
• ‘Help the churches that are struggling first. A new church doesn’t help the ones we have that are just keeping their nose above water. We need better churches, not more churches.’

I also want to spend a minute (if you’ve read this far) to encourage those sitting on the fence, maybe with one leg in “maybe I should be a part of a church plant” and the other leg in “I’m very comfortable at my church” to consider your gifting and resources. Some are not called to plant a church themselves but can equip others with resources.
Also, you may say “I’m too old or too busy,” and let me add as a young person that we need older folks to commit to reaching the community. Not all church plants are looking to find people to run ten ministries each. Many are trying to avoid burning out those attending the church and are sensitive to the amount of time each person can commit to. In addition, being part of a church plant doesn’t necessarily take more time than it does to be part of an established church. Church plants are blessed to have people that are on board with their vision and consistently to come to at least their large group gatherings.

I’ll leave you with a final thought by Tim Keller,

“New church planting is the only way that we can be sure we are going to increase the number of believers in a city and one of the best ways to renew the whole Body of Christ. The evidence for this statement is strong–Biblically, sociologically, and historically. In the end, a lack of kingdom-mindedness may simply blind us to all this evidence. We must beware of that.”

Besides being the Heart of if All Ohio has some awesome things to do, see, and love. One of those things is the Gallery Hop in the Short North (our neighborhood).

Please read THIS ARTICLE and be convinced that Ohio is the place to be!

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Mayor Michael Coleman has one piece of advice for presidential candidates: Campaign as if you’re running for mayor of Columbus. If you can win Columbus, you can win America.

The buildings of downtown Columbus sit along the Scioto River.

By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY

Columbus is America. It’s urban. It’s suburban. Farmland is just a freeway exit away. It has poor inner-city neighborhoods and exclusive suburbs.

It’s a state capital and has the sophistication that a big state university brings. Yet it hasn’t lost its Midwestern simplicity. Columbus is the home base of Wendy’s International, Red Roof Inns and Limited Brands — leaders in mass consumption and symbols of middle America. And Columbus is experiencing all the demographic trends that have swept the nation in the 1990s: population growth, sprawl, aging, an influx of immigrants and downtown revitalization.

Marketers have realized Columbus’ “everyman” qualities for some time. The city is a favorite testing ground for products from cars to potato chips. “It’s representative of the rest of the nation when it comes to consumer interests, voting interests,” Coleman says.

The changes in the 1990s have been as dramatic in Columbus, the USA’s 15th-largest city, as in the rest of the nation. The city’s aggressive annexation continued. Columbus grew from 191 square miles in 1990 to 225 square miles today. Population increased from 633,000 in 1990 to more than 720,000 today.

Affluent new communities were built: Easton and New Albany to the east. Town centers, homes, condos and offices sprouted on farmland. Easton’s creator is Les Wexner, founder of The Limited apparel chain and one of Columbus’ most famous and wealthiest residents. Limited executives live in expensive homes in New Albany.

Some neighborhoods have been transformed by immigrants. Northland, once a mostly white and black working-class neighborhood, now is multiethnic. It’s home to many of the 30,000 Somali refugees in Columbus, one of the largest concentrations in the USA. They’re helping revive an area that became depressed after the Northland Mall, once one of the region’s most successful, closed. The land has been purchased and will be redeveloped into a retail, residential, office and recreational complex.

Curtis McGuire, a black entrepreneur, has lived in Northland since 1986. He has witnessed the changes. Elderly neighbors died, and young people moved in. His freight management company, Redleg’s, is based in a building that now has a health center for Somali refugees. He has had to reach out to the Hispanic and Somali communities to recruit workers.

“We are a city of new immigrants,” says Coleman, who just cut the ribbon for a Somali-owned mall. “That’s a good thing.”

The Hispanic population more than doubled in the 1990s to about 18,000. Most of these immigrants from Mexico live on the west side of the city. Businesses are responding to this ethnic wave. Nationwide Insurance opened offices to cater to recent immigrants.

The city has weathered the recession better than most because of its diversified economy. It has always been less reliant on heavy industry than other Midwestern cities. Poverty declined in the 1990s. The number of people living in high-poverty neighborhoods dropped 55% to 48,020 in the 1990s, according to recent studies by the Brookings Institution.

Downtown is showing more activity than it has in decades. A hockey arena was built for the National Hockey League’s Blue Jackets. A $28.5 million soccer stadium 4 miles away opened in 1999 for the Columbus Crew, a Major League Soccer team.

More people are living downtown in hip neighborhoods such as Short North and the brewery district. Kroger just announced it will open a supermarket downtown. The city is two years into a 10-year plan to add 10,000 housing units downtown. A retail center straddling Interstate 670 is under construction. A floodwall has finally gone up to contain 7 miles of the Scioto River. “We can continue to grow,” City Council President Matt Habash says. “We are not locked in in any way.”