Unplugged at Fripp

It has been awhile since my last post.  Last week was SLAMMED getting ready for our new Fall Season at Capstone.  And this week we are down at Fripp Island for a little R&R.  So I have been unplugged in some senses.  It has been a “working” vacation since I do have a sermon to give on Sunday.  Next week I plan on going into to details of Adopted Series.  I am for real when I say I have never been more excited about a series or mission in all my days.

Until then I will share our “Capstone Journey” we did a couple weeks ago as we celebrated our one year of started meeting together to dream about a movement of God in Fountain Inn.

Capstone Journey from Capstone on Vimeo.

[]See you next week.

How things have changed

This past week we had our volunteer push at Capstone.  As mentioned in the post below we are gearing up for next mile marker in our race.  When we began this race a year ago there weren’t too many hands to help.  Why?  Well mainly because there weren’t too many people and wasn’t too much to set up.  Pretty much everything fit into the back of my 4 Runner and Chris’ truck.

A year ago our volunteer team was made up of about 7 people to set up for 20 adults who were interested in hearing about this new church in Fountain Inn.  Fast forward a year later (9 months after launch) and we have over 100 adults each week at The Gathering and lots of areas that need volunteers.  That is why we are so pumped to have over 50 people sign up to volunteer in one area or another this fall.  It is so exciting to see the joy and passion in people’s eyes about what is going at Capstone.  Many of these people a year ago had no idea they would be excited about church, let alone volunteer to serve others.  That is a what we call a BIG TIME WIN!

Mile 2: Church Planting Marathon

Sunday at Capstone I mentioned Mile 2 is coming up on us.  During our Plant Team Building Days (Sept 2008 – Jan 2009) I used the illustration of church planting as a marathon not a sprint.  As we shared the vision of our launch on January 11th we knew this would be our first mile. Jan 11th was our first mile marker in the journey.  We are fast approaching our Mile 2 marker.  This an important time for us because we are stepping up in all the areas at Capstone and even creating new ones.  We are taking the things we have learned since Mile 1 and the momentum we are  carring from a great summer into Mile 2.

This Spring I ran a half marathon (not crazy enough to do a full one) in Charoltte. As I trained and ran the race I learned a lot.  The begining of the race was full excitement and rush as I set out to accomplish this goal.  At Mile 1 it was crowded and you saw many faces. Some were going a lot faster, while I passed others.  Pretty much everyone is just jacked up to get this thing started.  Mile 2 though the crowd began to spread out.  I had to realize I couldn’t keep this pace up for another 11 Miles.  People began setting their pace for the long haul and everyone began to get into their groove.  The faces began to get familiar as we ran together.

Church planting is the same way.  Starting up we were all excited about the mission and vision, sharing with anyone who would listen.  Mile 1 (The Launch) we had a LOT of people.   We saw lots of faces, but many came and went.  Whether it was just a curiousity, dislike or different mission not everyone who was at mile 1 is at mile 2.  And that is ok.  it is the nature of running and church planting.

As we get to Mile 2 the faces are familiar who have latched onto the mission and vision of Capstone. Some have been beside us since  the start, while others have recently come up beside us.  We have a solid group we have set the pace with. We are still fresh and engergize with this race set before us.  We realize our make up at Mile 3 might look different as we hit hills and it gets harder.  We know that we have our destination and Christ is with us in our race to reach as many people as possible with the Gospel of Christ.

Luke 19:10 “I came to seek and to save those that are lost.”

Capstone Dunk’d Service

This past Sunday we held our second baptism service (Dunk’d) at Capstone.  We knew that we wanted to do another dunk’d service in the summer after our intentional dunk’d service in February.  The thing is that we didn’t know if we would actually have anyone to baptize.  Sunday we saw 9 of our church family go through the waters of baptism.  It was an amazing blessing to be a part of the memoriable day as we continue to see lives transformed at Capstone.

Chris (Executive Pastor) and I were discussing the vision of Capstone revolved around freedom  to come as you are and diversity in who we reached.  Sunday was a perfect example of that vision.  We had grandparents who came on the invitation of their son.  We had the parents of six children, with their oldest daughter get dunk’d.  We had a rising sixth grader who grasped the sacrifice of Christ.  We had a mom who finally found a relationship after holding onto religion for so long.  We had a young man who in the last six months has seen God move in his life and transform his life in dramatic fashion.  We had a guy who came not knowing he would leave soaking wet after he felt like he needed to show that he was a new creation.

I am praying that we will have another Dunk’d service in the fall.  I really don’t know who else we will be making this outward expression of an inward decision. But I know that God is continuing to move and change lives at Capstone.  I look forward in a few months to listing a whole new group of people who will be following Christ example in baptism.

Capstone is FAMOUS.

Not really! We exist to make Christ FAMOUS- not us! But the Baptist Courier had an article about our PowerPlant Team who came and helped out. There is even a picture of our crew ripping out part of our new office. You can see it all here:

Lack of Post & Tilling Ground

I am sure for the few people who check this blog they be asking why is Walt only blogging like once a month. Is he on some spiritual fast from technology or overseas saving orphans? The answer is no.

I really thought that this month with Capstone being apart of the One Prayer series and not teaching for 3 weeks I would be able to spend some more time getting my ducks in a row. WRONG.

We continue to pour into this plant. We are spending time working and tilling the ground for the fall. I continue to cast the vision that last Jan we spread the seed. At Easter we saw a great harvest. This summer we are preparing the ground for more seed and even a greater harvest.

What does tilling the ground consist of? It means looking at everything we have built in these first six months and making it better. Removing what isn’t working, asking what this ministry needs, and recruiting and training new volunteers. It means building MORE relationships in our community, and penetrating darkness with the gospel of Christ.  It means preparing the local church to live up to its FULLEST potential. If its broken we are fixing it, and if it isn’t broke we are breaking and making it better.

I have heard it said that you can’t create a movement, you can only be ready when it comes. We are strapping on our helmets and pulling up our boot straps for what God is sending our way.

Fountain Inn Community Egg Drop

 One of the things we have been working on at Capstone is the Fountain Inn Community Egg Drop.  If you have been hanging out in “hip church world” then you know that the egg drop is the popular event for many churches to do to get the word out about Easter. We are taking a great idea, and twisting it a bit.

The Fountain inn Community Egg Drop doesn’t bare our name. We aren’t doing this event to get people to come to our Easter Service.  We are putting this together with two purposes on mind.  The first is to bring our community together. One of our missions at Capstone is provide environments of community.  We want to see all the ages, races, neighborhoods, and classes to come together.  What brings people together better than thousands of eggs being dropped from a hot air balloon.

The second purpose is to bring the churches of our community together.  We wanted to create something where the churches worked together with absolute no expectations from those who attend.  We had a great response from other churches in Fountain Inn who have wanted to jump on board.  

We believe that God has something BIG planned for Fountain Inn.  As we begin conversations and to build bridges Capstone prays that our community takes one step closer to better place to live and experience the gospel of Christ with the Fountain Inn Community Egg Drop.

Updated Pages: About and Capstone

For some unknown reason I just spent the last 30 minutes updating the “About” page.  I also created a “Capstone” page for those who are here and wondering what the crap Capstone is.  Check them out if you have 10 mintues to waste. You might learn something – or wish you clicked to another blog 10 minutes ago.

The Best Yet…

  Seven weeks down – 10,540 more to go.  This morning while tearing down and this evening at community groups we heard several people who have been with us from the beginning who said this week was the best Sunday yet.  We are slowly working out kinks and learning how to make every Sunday better.  

This week was the second week of our Crazy Love Series.  Today’s title was “Crazy Short.”  We discussed how short our life is and that we are as James says in chapter 3 “… but a vapor.”  Yet most of us live as though we are invincible.  We challenged everyone that even though our lives are like a blink in the eyes of eternity – we must live a life with purpose and meaning.  

We ended the message by Chris (executive pastor) telling a story about Johnny Burry.  Johnny was a formed student of Chris’ at Trinity who passed away two years ago after battling Leukemia.  Chris put together an amazing video after he pasted away showing his impact on this world and those in his life.  It was a very powerful and meaningful time where we watched a young man who was truely living everyday pointing others to God.  

Today might of been the best yet for Capstone, but not the best of what is yet to come.  God has even better days ahead of us.

Dunk’d Highlight Video

Capstone Dunk’d Highlight Video from Capstone on Vimeo.