You may not be aware of the many ways that Indian Creek Community Church is a source of joy to others around the nation.

When you give to the ministry at Indian Creek we regularly pass on a portion of what you give to ministries in our city, our nation and around the world who extend our mission to help people find their way back to God and become like Jesus. We choose partners that share our vision for ministry and with whom we have ongoing relationship. They are an extension of us. We are more than a funding organization, we do ministry together. We work together heart and soul.

We believe there is a natural, biblical, progress of helping people find their way back to God and becoming like Jesus. It goes like this--Your life is changed by the love of Jesus so you share with your neighbors, friends, relatives and
co-workers the grace you found. When they find their way back to God together, you grow in community groups, the weekend gathering, and in live out opportunities. Healthy groups will reproduce and grow reaching out to new neighborhoods. In some cases, as we grow, we will start new campuses of Indian Creek, like we did in Gardner. In other cases, we will plant new churches some of which will be in other cities.

Sometimes when I serve locally or nationally others ask how we do what we’ve done. Six years ago I felt led to start a network for church planters. It made sense that if I was going to consult with a few that we would make the help available to many. Three of us joined forces to launch CMA, the Church Multiplication Association. The other two founders were Robin Wood and Greg Wiens. We ran it out of Indian Creek for the first two years. I’ve led CMA for the last two years with the support of Tom Planck and Patsy Wootton.

CMA assisted 58 church plants through coaching and/or funding. Of those 56 are in the United States, one is in Canada and one is in Hamburg, Germany. This year CMA merged into Healthy Growing Churches as the multiplication arm. Together, we assisted six new church launches in 2011 and served 24 churches in the network. Currently there are 8 ongoing conversations about new plants next year in 2012. These churches need funding, pastoral leadership or both.

You might recognize some of the names of people who serve HGC, Steve Chiles, a former Associate at Indian Creek is a board member. Greg Weins, the father of Erin Southards, is the leader of HGC. Ben Stears is a coach for a plant in Oklahoma. James and Tammy Vogt are former staff at Indian Creek and are one of the plants I coached and Indian Creek supported financially. Luke Kendall, my son, is a Leadership Resident at Mission Church in Roselle, IL. Steve Southards served at a church plant in Florida.

I hope you have great JOY when you realize that through your generous giving to Indian Creek you are also supporting the start-ups of new churches across the nation. Your life has a ripple effect that is even reaching to Canada and Germany. Thank you for your faithful, sacrificial, generosity. God bless you.