Carrie and I want to update you on what God is doing in our lives these days.  WE WILL BE STARTING A NEW CHURCH THAT I WILL BE PASTORING IN THE KNOXVILLE AREA.  We are incredibly excited and confident in His leading in this new endeavor!  Below are a few additional details.  Hopefully, this gives you a glimpse into our vision for the church and also provides answers to some of the questions you may have.  We'd greatly appreciate your prayers and can't wait to share more with everyone in the near future!

WHY

Over the last few years, we have become increasingly attune to God's call for me to pastor.   Per His prompting a few months ago, we recently began exploring the possibility of starting a new church.  As we sought the Lord, He clearly opened doors that we could not dismiss.  We're looking to seize a God-given opportunity, not just try something new.  And we confidently believe we're doing the former!  We love the Church and believe it is the vehicle that God has ordained to spread His love and fame to the ends of the earth.  Jesus Christ is the hope of the world and we can't wait to share that with a community that we love!

WHAT

We're currently working through things like church name, programming specifics, non-profit status, and more.  Thus, a lot is still in process.  However, we already know that we'll focus our efforts towards certain core values.  Just a few of these include:

A commitment to teaching and application of the Bible.
A commitment to prayer and fasting.
A commitment to moving members into ongoing small groups.
A commitment to streamlined, effective programming.
A commitment to vertical, Christ-centered worship.
A commitment to marriages and families.
A commitment to developing leaders in the church and marketplace.
A commitment to loving and serving our community.
A commitment to relational evangelism.
A commitment to mission work across the globe.

WHEN

I have already resigned from LifeWay effective March 31st.  We will thus be moving to Knoxville in early spring.  In the meantime, we'll be visiting to meet with those who may be interested.  In early April, we'll begin meeting regularly with an initial core group of individuals and families who have shown interest in being a part of the church in its' earliest stages.  We'll most likely be meeting in a home for those meetings.  We'll continue to meet with this core group throughout the summer while hopefully adding new folks along the way.  This will be a highly significant part of the journey and we trust it will be a special season for all involved.

In the summer, we'll also be hosting a series of larger gatherings. We're already anticipating what the Lord may do in these times dedicated to prayer, musical worship, and teaching. Hopefully, these will provide an ideal atmosphere where new people can investigate what God is doing in this new church.  This will also provide another important avenue to connect people to our core group throughout the summer.  We're trusting and seeking the Lord with all of the timing, but our current hope is that we'd begin meeting weekly for worship as early as the fall.  While some may see these services as when we officially "launch" as a church, we believe that God had already begun this work and trust that some of our most valuable and precious days will be far before that.

WHERE

At this time, we feel led towards West Knoxville.  This is, of course, a rather broad area.  However, there are a few specific communities that we're praying over as we consider our target audience and possible facilities to gather in.

As for why we're doing this in Knoxville, we believe it provides us the most natural opportunity for Kingdom impact.  We know there is still a large population of unchurched people in Knoxville.  In addition, we're blessed with a strong support network of individuals and churches there.  I've already been able to share this with several friends and key ministry leaders in the community and we've been overwhelmed by the support we've received.  Obviously, we're excited about joining together to reach the area and the world for Christ.  Each church has its' own unique ministry and yet one unifying goal - the glory of God.

HOW

Long Hollow, our wonderful church in Nashville, will be our primary sending church.  While a partnership with Long Hollow provides us some sustained financial stability, it also allows us to establish a church how the Lord leads us in Knoxville.  This is not a satellite campus or a video venue of Long Hollow. Rather, this is another iteration of God's global work at Long Hollow as they seek to empower leaders to start new, unique churches.  While I will lean on their experience and insight, this new church will have its' own leadership and vision.  We also have freedom to partner with other churches as the Lord may provide.

WHO

We are extremely excited to see whom the Lord will bring together to be part of this new church.  I served a wonderful church in Knoxville in the past and also have many dear friends at other churches in the area.  So many of you love your church and are highly invested there.  We rejoice with you in this and have no expectation for you to join us.  

We're simply trusting that God will be leading the right individuals towards this new work.  We are hoping to connect with those looking for a church while also providing a church home for new believers in need of fellowship and discipleship.  We believe that God will not only be raising up our core group from within Knoxville, but we also believe that He's going to prompt a few key partners to actually move from their current location to join us in Knoxville. It's going to be an amazing adventure and we can't wait to do life with all those He is bringing together.  That might just be you!

If you have interest, questions, or just want to connect - we'd love to hear from you!  My email address is jasonchristopherhayes@gmail.com.  We're also on Facebook and Twitter.  And, of course, we'd love to connect by phone or in person.  We'll have a website and other communication channels available in the future.

 

 

Look at the following passage:

 

 

Jesus’ desire to initiate change in people’s lives wasn’t limited to the lives of the two disciples who approached Him that day. 

 

Andrew was so intrigued by Jesus that he went and found his brother Simon Peter and brought him to meet the Messiah.  Something about Jesus made Andrew want to introduce Him to his brother right away.  And Jesus was interested in meeting others as well.  That openness must have been extraordinarily compelling to those men. 

 

Personally, I wouldn’t be excited about following a man who wouldn’t also accept those I loved most.  But Jesus not only wanted a relationship with their loved ones, He wanted one with everyone.  They didn’t know it then, but the disciples weren’t signing up just to follow a man; they were committing to a larger cause that was bigger than any one of them. 

 

Do you ever find yourself acting as if the gospel is somehow reserved just for you, people like you, and the ones you love?  Whether you live in the suburbs of Chicago, on the streets of Los Angeles, or in small-town Alabama, you don’t have exclusive rights to the gospel.  Despite what we often like to believe, the gospel isn’t original to our western-hemisphere culture, either.  Its origin doesn’t trace back to us, and yet we act as if it’s reserved for us.  The very nature of the gospel is that it was meant to be shared.  Jesus, who encompassed the gospel, made himself available to all people for all of time.