3 Degrees of Iowa Separation (Tapping into Relational Networks)

For the past couple weeks, I've been traveling to various places in Iowa to talk with church planters or pastors of churches that are planting.  In each of the four appointments I've had so far, I've really enjoyed meeting such great guys.  I'm learning lots about church planting in Iowa, I've been inspired by the visions and experiences of these gentlemen, and am having a bunch of internal thoughts affirmed through these conversations.

Today's journey took me to Ottumwa to meet Marty Schmidt, lead/planting pastor of thebridge.  I thoroughly enjoyed hearing his church planting story over some delicious barbecue.  Then he showed me the homeless shelter thebridge helped build/renovate, the offices their church staff uses, and even the incredible Bridge View Center they get to use each Sunday.

While in their offices, I met their Community Pastor, Cy McMahon.  In typical American-fashion, Cy asked me where I was from.  I gave my standard reply to this standard question: "Southwest Iowa."  When he said, "Really?!?" his tone revealed he was from the same area.  Turns out, he was from Farragut, Iowa, which is only about a 15-minute country drive from my hometown of Shenandoah.  My mom taught in the Farragut district for almost 20 years alongside Cy's mother.  In addition, a few years ago Cy lived in Pella, where my parents now live, and he ran into "Mrs. Bird" there and remembered her from her Farragut days.

In each of my church-planting appointments, I have had similar "Iowa" moments like I had with Cy.  But that's not the only time; I also have these Iowa connections at weddings, at social gatherings, and at random times.  If Kevin Bacon believes there are six degrees of separation in the world, I would estimate there are about 3˚ in Iowa. (To make non-Iowans reading this feel more at ease - Iowans aren't all related, just relationally connected.  There's no in-breeding here, so let's just keeping moving along...)

What this means to me is that when one person in Iowa has their life changed by Christ, they have a built in network of family and friends that probably spreads all across this state.  And if those people were to see the change of Christ in that individual's life, it might draw them to a relationship with Jesus as well.  This means that when one person believes upon the cross of Christ, the ripples of that belief don't just change their one life, but could potentially affect lives all across a state.

While Iowa is made fun of by the rest of the nation as "flyover country", I instead see wonderfully connected people in need of the beautiful news of Jesus.  That's why I want to start a church that will help start other churches all around this state to help Iowans find the one connection that really matters.

Posted via email from erin bird's web nest