Is God a Cheesehead?

 We've returned from the wild North of the Badger State!

We arrived in the early evening of Friday and proceeded to drive the 3 hours from Chicago O'Hare airport to Appleton, WI. Along the way, we stopped off at Culver's for dinner with Olivia's folks (and some long-awaited cheese curds!) We pulled in to Appleton around 10 pm, and were put up for the night with our gracious host family, the Breeds. Dan and Erin welcomed us into their home like family, and we enjoyed some sweet time getting to know their four girls!

We spent the whole day Saturday in presbytery, hosted by Dan's church (Emmaus Road). We were able to watch a candidate for licensure from RTS-Jackson pass his exams on the floor and preach the sermon for the morning worship. Olivia and I were able to mingle and meet several people in the presbytery, including a number of pastors. Networking is not something that I am particularly good at, but I was pleased with how many new contacts we had made by the end of the day. The big event of the presbytery meeting was the On Wisconsin proposal for church planting, which Dan headed up.

The Wisconsin Presbytery of the PCA

The On Wisconsin proposal is for the Wisconsin presbytery to commit to giving $100,000 annually toward future church plants and the training of future church planters, with the overall goal of establishing 16 new churches by 2025. The approach is split into 3 phases: phase 1 consists of bringing in ready-to-go church planters to start churches in strategic areas of Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire, etc.); phase 2 consists of bringing in seminary-trained men to apprentice in already established churches for a time, then plant daughter churches near the mother church in which they apprentice; phase 3 consists of raising up indigenous church planters out of Wisconsin PCA churches, supporting them in seminary training through LAMP (the WI distance-learning seminary course), and then sending them into harder-to-reach areas of Wisconsin (rural, bedroom communities, etc.) In thinking about the future potential of ministering in WI, I would fit into the phase 2 category, and would find a pastoral apprenticeship for a time, before planting a church.

Rev. Dan Breed presenting the On Wisconsin! proposal

After some extended discussion on the proposal it was presented to the presbytery for a vote, and passed overwhelmingly. There was trepidation and anxiety, but the fear of failure was outweighed by the excitement over what God might do through this program, and faithful trust in His plan to reach Wisconsin with the gospel, directly through church planting. This was such an encouragement for us to see, and we hope to be a part of what God wants to do in Wisconsin!

I want to thank everyone who supported us for this trip with prayers and gifts. We could not have made this first step without you. We are excited to be back in Charlotte with our church family, and are looking forward to the last months of seminary!