Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
     Greetings to all of you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
      Thank you for your prayers and support for this new work Imagine. We are blessed by all your efforts for the Lord and His Kingdom.
     To give you an account of what has been happening and what steps are being taken towards the development of a church body I'd like to share the following with you.
     Over the past several months we have labored to begin two missional communities, seeking to follow an incarnational and missional church model. One is called Sprout (and up to now has been the most active connecting with well over a hundred people). The other is an intergenerational community called Imagine-- Growing Together, which is really just getting started.
     This past month Imagine--Growing Together has adopted a family for Christmas through Family Promise. They have met with the family and made a list of their needs and are already busy seeking to meet those needs. They are also planning a Christmas service on the evening of Dec. 23 at Beall Park (they've rented the community center there for $65.00). Many contacts were made at the Belgrade and Manhattan Festivals of Light, through some creative ideas for outreach, and, of course, we look forward to many friends and unchurched family members coming to this as well (we can seat 150). Our middle school, high school and college age kids are producing a video on the meaning of Christmas, which will be 10-15 minutes long, that we'll include as part of that service.
     Most exciting to me is that we now, as of a month ago, have started our first huddle group. Huddles are simply how we hope to build a disciple making culture at Imagine. Since making disciples is the primary task of the Great Commission this is a centrally important element of our new work. We are using the Lifeshapes from www.3dministries.com to begin this phase of our ministry. I have talked to several church planters who have used this material, based on Jesus teaching in the Gospels and His pattern of disciple making, and am so pleased we have seven people who've made the commitment to join with me to go through it. I look forward to giving you updates in the months to come as to how the Lord uses this to transform lives. The idea is, from talking with others who are doing this kind of ministry, that in six months to a year each of the folks I'm discipling will be able to start a huddle of their own by discipling 4-6 others, and in six months to a year those folks can do the same (following the principle of 11 Tim. 2:2).
     The three key components of missional churches are missional communities, huddles and celebrations (all group worship services). The rhythm of others, as to how and when they do these components (both in the CRC and outside the CRC), seems to vary a lot. This service on the 23rd will be our first celebration. But, I'd like to see if we can start with a bi-weekly celebration/worship service rhythm in January or February.
     Finally, I'm continuing to explore ways of making money. People who know how slow missional church planting is, as far as becoming self supporting financially, tell me that this is almost always necessary. So, I hoping and praying this January the Lord will open some doors and give me some direction in this regard.
     Once again, thank you for your prayers and support. They are greatly appreciated. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to call me, I love to talk about what the Lord is doing at Imagine. May the Lord's richest blessing be on you in this coming year.
               For Jesus' sake, Randy VanOsdol