Greetings y'all. I was talking with Doug Ruecker at a recent meeting, and it occurred to me that most of you may wonder what the average month of a Mission Developer Pastor looks like. I mean, it all seems very mysterious, right? Pr. Lenny is running around and creating a new church out of nothing?!? What does that even mean? So, here is a list of the things I have accomplished since February 3, my first day.
1. I established the website for the new church plant. This will be the forward-facing media outlet and information hub for this new community. Check it out at: churchwithnoname.org.
2. Logo design of new church. I decided on something simple yet effective.
3. I had eight meetings with possible church plant team members. These were opportunities to talk one on one with folks discerning a call to this new thing. If you would like to set one up call the church and leave a message or email me at
4. Had one new family discern joining the Messiah family of churches specifically to be a part of the church plant.
5. I spoke at two events, one in Minnesota at St. Olaf College around my work with the book "Dear Church" and the Lutheran Seminary in Chicago as the Black History Month keynote preacher and speaker. These were great opportunities to highlight on the national level the work we are doing here.
6. Preached two times at Messiah and participated in worship most of the month. The preaching opportunities I used a springboard to an open invitation to join the church plant team. Maybe you were there?
7. Did Ashes on the Go in the uptown district and had over two dozen interactions with folks in the area and directly invited them to this new thing we are doing.
8. Created Lenten discernment meetings about the Launch team, and maybe you will join me for the first Wednesday the 11th right after worship.
9. Met with both area Bishops (Bp. Jaech from the SW Washington Synod and Bp. Larson Caesar from the Oregon Synod) and our local Director of Evangelical Mission (Pr. Melanie Wallschlaeger) to find areas of intersection in our work.
10. Explored Vancouver and have settled on the uptown area for where I want the storefront church to be.
11. Met with two Episcopal priests in Portland to discuss possible collaboration events.
12. Met with the Storyline Church, our natural partner, as an ELCA church plant in Milwaukee OR.
13. Created our first major event with the Pop-Up Worship team from Baltimore, MD, July 31. More details to come.
So, there are other things I did that are still not concrete, but this is the average month of a church planter. It's full of incredible mystery and discovery and Holy Experimentation. I hope to give you a little update from time to time as we discover together just what Jesus is up to in downtown Vancouver.
Rev. Lenny Duncan +