Ministry Update
Not infrequently I bump into people we haven’t seen for a while. The moments are always special, but folks nearly always ask me the same questions: How are you doing? What are you doing? Are you staying busy?
Recently, someone said to me, with delight and some relief, ”Oh, I’m so glad you are still doing ministry. I can’t tell you how much your teaching has meant to our family through the years.”
Well, yes, I am still preaching. Nearly every weekend, somewhere. I was in Brazil for two weeks in April, followed by a weekend in green, rainy Oregon, where I did a men’s retreat. In May, for four weeks, I was the guest of Pastor Sandy Mason and Desert View Bible Church, a great congregation way up in the north Valley. Sandy is taking a well-deserved sabbatical.
Other than preaching, though, I am wonderfully busy building relationship bridges and collaborative efforts among pastors, community and government leaders, and key people in the business community. A growing number of individuals and churches are supporting us financially, and I could really use your help. For information on how to support what I am doing: http://garykinnaman.com/donations and
http://garykinnaman.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/financial-support-for-2009.pdf
Here’s a summary from the last 24 months:
February 2009: First “annual” Summit for pastors of very large and influential churches. About 30 participated. Summit was facilitated by Eric Swanson, national known author of Externally Focused Churches. Three days, two nights in Sedona. As far as we know, the first-ever gathering of this kind in any major metro area in North America.
September 2009: First “annual” Summit and Conversation for high capacity young leaders. Special facilitator, David Kinnaman, President of the Barna Group and best-selling author of unChristian.
February 2010: Second Annual Summit for senior pastors of influence. Twenty-five or so attended, many new faces, three days and two nights. This year we invited the participation of BridgeBuilders (Hal and Cheryl Sacks) and Arizona Call to Prayer (Guy and Terry Chadwick) to pray with us and for us at the Summit. We reserved special place for prayer, and a number of prayer leaders from the participating churches drove to Sedona to join in a day for prayer for the pastors and their churches. Also, this year, the senior pastors of the largest churches in Tucson, Flagstaff and Prescott participated in the Summit.
Rapid Fire Lunches: nearly sixty pastors across the Valley are now engaged in small groups which meet eight times a year (once a quarter with each other and once a quarter with pastors of the larger churches who facilitate conversation).
The launching of at least three more Pastors in Covenant prayer and support groups (in Chandler, Scottsdale, Tucson).
An invitation from Glenn Elliot, Senior Pastor at Pantano Christian Church, to organize and host a special pastors’ luncheon in August for leaders attending the Willow Creek Leadership Summit (video), also at Pantano CC in August. The purpose of the lunch is to inspire and mobilize pastors in Tucson to build relationship and collaborate for the good of their city.
A personal invitation from Catholic Bishop Olmstead, of the Phoenix Diocese, to host a luncheon and conversation (May 14) with a half-dozen or so senior pastors of evangelical megachurches in Maricopa County. We had a remarkable meeting, talking about how we can work more closely together in shared values: right to life, definition of family, and religious freedom.
For the last two years, I’ve been serving as Chairman of the Arizona Council on Faith and Community Initiatives. This is a carryover from the Governor’s Council, which I chaired in 2008. We have sustained the Council, our purpose being.
Additionally, I have initiated or participated in meetings to more fully engage the faith community in:
1. Foster care
2. Education (representatives from the national Secretary of Education)
3. Mortgage and debt scams (with Attorney General Terry Goddard)
4. Faith-based and community partnership with municipalities (with Jon McHatton’s ministry “For Our City,” including Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe, and the Arizona League of Cities)
5. One-in-Five Hunger Awareness Campaign (with Jerry Colangelo, Governor Brewer and other prominent leaders in the Valley). Initiated by Dave Hannah, founder of Athletes in Action and now Exec Director of Lift Up America. Dave had done these campaigns in a number of large metro areas, and he told us he had never seen the cooperative efforts he’s seen in Phoenix, particularly from key local churches. http://endchildhungeraz.org
We will have dozens of churches, including 10 or more of the largest churches in Phoenix collecting food on Father’s Day. http://www.ccvonline.com/Arena/default.aspx?page=12351&promotionId=1702
6. Luis Palau Season of Service, a massive effort to bring churches across the Valley. Bret Edson of MarketPlaceOne is chairing this campaign, followed by a Festival of Faith (Spring 2011) with Luis Palau, likely at Tempe Town Lake. http://www.arizonacityfest.com
7. Central corridor collaboration, launched as a result of a Christian Community Development Association (John Perkins) conference organized by Kit Danley of Neighborhood Ministries. Dick Stafford, Director of Outreach for North Phoenix Baptist is aggressively networking churches in the Central corridor, which he is modeling after our “Pastors of Influence” Summits.
8. A special meeting with Governor Brewer and about 20 key pastors from Phoenix, Prescott and Tucson–to offer our support, to pray for her, and to request that she issue a proclamation for prayer and fasting for our State in economic crisis, which she did. As result, the mayors of Tempe and Tucson has issues similar proclamations.
9. Another outcome of our meeting with the Governor was her executive order to launch www.arizonaSERVES.com a special effort to reach out to local churches to come alongside the most vulnerable people in our communities, particularly those hardest hit by massive state budget reductions.
10. Governor’s Prayer Breakfast (April 22), Planning Team
11. A special May 1 meeting at Community Church of Joy with John McCain and key pastors from across the Valley. Congressman Trent Franks asked me to assist with invitations. About 20 leaders participated.
12. May 12 I was part of a diverse delegation of six prominent faith leaders. In a single day in Washington DC, we met with the staff of Senators Schumer and Kyle, with the Department of Justice, with White House staff, and personally with Senator John McCain, to appeal to our national leaders for sensible and comprehensive immigration reform. We made national news: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/05/13/religious-leaders-press-mccain-on-immigration/#respond