What We're Up To This Week

Very little action on the blog because this week is all about very long days!

NLC is hosting a Discovery Center sponsored by one of our strategic ministry partners, the Growing Healthy Churches Network. Fifty people are on our campus this week - candidates for church planting and experienced church planters serving as assessors. All have a common goal - to help these candidates discern God's next steps for them.

It is a grueling process - beginning early in the morning and continuing into the night. It includes interviews, training, interviews and, for the assessors, hours and hours of prayer and deliberation.

It is a humbling process - to have this big of an influence in the direction of someone else's life is a big responsibility.

And it is a time-consuming process. Our Executive Pastor Rob Kendall and I are both assessors and a number of our other staff are involved in support roles.

But I believe it is worth every second because we are involved in building something bigger than Next Level and because there is no better way to reach disconnected people than through church planting.

I'm particularly excited that there is a Spanish-language assessment track this time as well, led by my friend Rusty Price.

So, thanks to our friends at GHCN for letting us host this great week. Thanks to the assessors and candidates for taking time to give themselves away and lay themselves on the line. And thanks to you, NLC, for providing a place and ample time for this great week to happen. The eternities of hundreds of people in years to come will be shaped by this week!