THE WELL MONTHLY
October 2008
Mission: Serve our community with the authentic love of Christ one person at a time
STORY OF THE MONTH
Last Saturday our underground church gave ourselves away and couldn’t have possibly fulfilled our mission any better! I truly believe that this expression of complete unselfishness by our team planted seeds in more lives than we’ll ever know. My favorite question all morning was, ”How much is this? Free? Why? You can read more about it by clicking here.
WELL UPDATED – SERVING
Parade Cleaning Crew
This past month our team followed up two different parades in our community. We decided that we could better serve, not by a float or passing out candy, but to clean up after everyone. It was an honor for us to help out our city. We also handed out over 100 water bottles with survey cards. You read about it here or here.
Citizen’s Academy
One of the highlights of mine over the past six weeks has been to be apart of the first ever Claremore Citizen’s Academy. More than anything it has given me a huge inside view of how our city’s run and has given me a gigantic appreciation for our city worker’s! I’m more than pumped after taking a tour of our county prison to hear bout an opportunity for The Well to partner with them to feed inmates during lunch on Christmas day! Here is a few other things that the academy has given me a chance to do representing The Well:
- visited our electric company and change a 30,000 watt electrical cord
- got to fulfill a boyhood dream of operating a back hoe
- visited the water treatment plant & got to engulf the stench of our sewer plant
- got an overview of city planning & budgeting
- heard all about our parks and recreation
WELL UPDATED – GATHERINGS
This past month we decided to meet on Sunday nights at 6pm. Every week it seems as though we add one more to the team. We’ve now got around 15 players that are committed to the vision of The Well. You can read about a recent gathering here and read past recaps here. We also implemented groups at 5pm. We are striving to create a band of brothers and sisters that will love each other more than we love ourselves. Last week we talked about salvation and this week will be on lordship. Our ultimate goal is that we would help people take steps from drinking from the fountain (gatherings), drink from a faucet (groups), and then help them find the cup (personal prayer, worship, and bible) where true relationship with Christ occurs.
WELL UPDATED – RELATIONSHIPS
Almost 350 names are listed on “The Wall” in our garage. We are challenging each other to invest, invest, invest, and invest in one person at a time through serving them, loving them, and encouraging them. We pray that one day an invite to a gathering could change their perception of church and cause transformation in their lives.
WELL UPDATED – FINANCES
- After months of moving through a process within our district and denomination I’ve been informed recently that our MX9 grant should be on its way within the next few weeks. This couldn’t come at a better time as we will be headed down to Texas sometime in the next week to fork over the majority of our budget for two trailers and sound equipment.
- We also received our tax exempt status which should have taken 3 months!!
- We’ve also set up online giving on our website for anyone wanting to give toward our start up costs.
- We’ve currently raised over $25,000 and with the grant will be at 55,000. We still lack $20,000 that we need to raise over the next four months. Anyone wanting to help can give online or send a check to: The Well / P.O. Box 266 / Claremore, OK 74018
- Thank you to Claremore A/G for taking a special offering for us on October 12. We also can’t thank all of you that are giving and have pledged monthly. There’s no way we could be doing all of what we are doing right now without your support!
- We also received a $1000 copy machine donated to us by a local business!
WELL UPDATED – TEAM WELL
The ball is truly moving and momentum is building as we’ve doubled in the amount of players on the team. We’ve added a communications/graphic designer, as well as looking at a potential Children’s Pastor. This group of authentic Christ followers is blowing me away with their passion and servant hearts. Last week we read in Exodus 18 about Moses being confronted by his FNL. We also hit on a book called, “Me to We”. I recognized that I was doing way too much and was choking my team from truly having ownership. Since that time they have truly grabbed a hold and I couldn’t be prouder. We never want pew sitters but people that will truly BE THE CHUCH! We recently purchased our online database, Community Church Builder, and are looking forward to implementing this.
This coming weekend we are planning our leadership retreat. We will be spending the day on Saturday at the ropes and challenge course at RSU. I’m excited to see how much this brings our team together. I can’t wait to pray, play, and plan together. We will be discussing the following at our retreat:
- Specific roles & job descriptions
- Feb 22 overview & expectations
- Calendar & Event Planning
- Budget & Supply List
WELL UPDATED – CINEMA 8 THEATER
Last night some of our team had a meeting with our location manager. It continued to thank God for the favor we have as we asked questions and looked for an incredible future partnership. Everything is lining up as we are looking to do some major space usage plans and go into detail about how we will work out our portable church.
WELL UPDATED – BUZZ
We are making connections by word of mouth that can’t get us more excited. The garage sale got back to our local paper and they might be writing a story on us. I’m also hearing alot of feedback and we are experiencing many hits on our website. We’ve had quite a few take part in our online survey and we’ve been able to pass out hundreds of Well first touch pieces, and pass out tons of water bottles as well. I hope that our buzz isn’t created by a door hanger or billboard, but more by the serving we do in our community.
WELL UPDATED – PRAYER REQUESTS
- Please pray against all spiritual warfare for our team and pray we would have the strength and endurance to fight through
- Pray that our team would continue to expand and each one would take ownership
- Pray for our upcoming retreat that are team would become a family
- Pray for continued favor for our finances, wisdom in every decision, and passion for the name of Christ and for the names on “The Wall”
UPCOMING EVENTS
November 8-9 Team Well Leadership Retreat
November 15 Spaghetti Dinner for Team Claremore
November 21 Dickens on the Blvd
December 7 Team Well Christmas Party
December 14 The Well Preview #1
December 13 Wood Manor Christmas Caroling
I noticed your team members at the parade picking up trash yesterday and all of a sudden I really “got it”…your concept that is!
Mendy