The Next Thing

Dear Friends,

We can’t believe that it’s been nearly four years since we uprooted our lives in Pennsylvania to attend seminary in Kentucky.  So much has happened and yet it still feels like only yesterday that we were packing our U-Haul and hitting the road.  Now, as we approach the next chapter of our lives, we’re faced with the question “What next?”  Well, we’re happy to announce that we have direction for the next stage of our life and we’re pleased to share it with you!

The Great Lakes Conference of the Brethren in Christ has asked us to lead a church plant, here, in the greater Lexington area. We’ve prayed long and hard about this opportunity (with many of you) and are happy to announce we have accepted this charge.  God works in mysterious ways; when we moved here we were pretty certain about two things: We were not staying in Kentucky and we were not called to be church planters. But as you know, God has a way transforming our certainties into examples of his goodness, grace, and glory.  In the words of a dear friend, “we may not be called to be church planters but we are called to plant this church.”

While we are in the beginning stages of the work, we believe that we have a vision of what this church is called to become. Over the next few years we will be planting a “church-planting-church”, that is a church that will be cultivating, fostering, and planting future Brethren in Christ churches.  

But even more, we are developing a “church planter” incubator.  In cooperation with Asbury Theological Seminary, we intend to create internships for others in the Brethren in Christ who feel called to plant in their own conferences and communities.  These internships would provide hands-on training that is coupled with excellent classroom instruction from some of the world’s leading experts in 21^st century church planting.  

Most importantly, though, we intend to become a church that serves the needs and lives of the people in Lexington, Kentucky.  We are calling this new community “Plowshares.”

Why Plowshares?  Because we believe that at this time in our nation, we need a fresh vision of God’s radical peace and a reminder that the day is coming when we will “beat our swords into plowshares” and walk in his ways (Micah 4:2-5).  It is a constant reminder that we are ministers of reconciliation, ambassadors of God’s peace in a broken, divided, and hurting world.

Plowshares, though, has another meaning for us.  In keeping with the farming metaphor, we remember Christ’s injunction that “the fields are ripe for harvest, it is now the time for reaping.”  The city of Lexington currently reports that 47.8% of its population is “religiously unaffiliated”.   Further, Lexington is projected to grow significantly over the next 10 years.  As the population grows, so too will this incredible need.  Plowshares will be a church that is focused on sharing the message of God’s peace and reconciliation with the “unchurched” and “dechurched” people of our city.
            Finally, we believe that some of you, reading this today, have been feeling a similar call to engage the world for Christ in this type of ministry.  We would like to invite you to join us in this work. As we’ve prayed, we recognize that this church plant is not a “Luke and Christina” thing – it is a God thing; it is a BIC thing, and it is a Church thing. We can’t do it alone and we believe God is calling others to join us.  There are three ways that you may get involved:

1.     Prayer:  Please join us in prayer as we seek to share the story of God’s Redemption with the city of Lexington.

2.     Give:  God is calling some of you to support this mission financially.  We are a 501c3 organization and welcome you to partner with us financially to support this important work.

3.     Come and See:  In the Gospel of John we read about two disciples who felt drawn to join Jesus in his ministry.  When asked where he was staying Jesus responded, “come and see.”  If God is stirring your heart to step out in faith and join this new work he is doing in Lexington, we’d like to invite you to “come and see.”  We’d like to pray with you, share with you more about God’s work here, and discuss how you might be able to get involved on the ground. 

We’d love to discuss these items or any other with you in more detail.  You are welcome and encouraged to contact us anytime.  Luke can be reached at luke.embree@gmail.com and Christina at christina.embree@gmail.com. If you’ve got our phone numbers, feel free to call! And keep an eye out for Luke’s blog launching later this spring or check out Christina’s blog at www.refocusministry.org.

Can you tell we are excited?  We hope that you are too!  We look forward to hearing from you and we will keep you updated as we move forward to “the next thing.”

In His Love,

Luke, Christina, Hannah, Naomi and Caleb