| Talk about a crazy January. It snowed a couple days ago and the next all it was all melted. We have only had a day or two where the high was below freezing!! It has been wonderful. Most of the time I can walk outside with just a jacket on and enjoy God's beauty without being cold. I love it!! Now that I have said this it will be really cold next week 
I have really enjoyed J term so far. I have had a pretty easy class so I have had a lot of time to hang out and do stuff. Exit 59 (the church I am going to) just officially bought the church they where meeting at so this past week we have been remodeling it. When I say remodeling I don't mean just painting the walls and different carpet. I am talking about tearing down walls, putting up walls, taking out the alter (it was a Lutheran church) with a jackhammer, sanding the floors (to get the glue off from the carpet), building a coffee bar, etc, etc, etc. It has been great. I have been there a couple of days helping out and it is just wonderful to see a church like this band together and work like a church should.
Here are a couple of news articles about Exit 59. The first one is about Muncie Alliance which is the church that planted Exit 59 a little over a year ago.
Stories of God at
Work
 Not Your Average Joe
Does the Word go down better with a cup o' joe?
"Caffeine Christianity" is sweeping the nation's churches. At Muncie Alliance
Church in Muncie, Indiana, Rev. Guy Pfanz is taking the coffeehouse ministry
concept a step further--combining a business and ministry that provides fertile
ground to grow church planters.
"This is a grass-roots stirring," he
says. "We don't have to recruit because the people are already motivated."
Pfanz is all about "growing people for the harvest," and his church's outreach,
which he calls Movement of Alliance Communities (MAC), is spreading quickly
throughout Muncie, which has a large population of university
students.
Several area universities are supplying the Alliance church's
newest church planters. "This is a college-based, multi-site church movement"
says Pfanz. Nearly 1000 of 1800 people attending the five church sites are
students at one of the schools. "We are a movement of communities on
mission."
God provided Muncie Alliance with the coffee-roasting company
through a generous donation from an outsider. Pfranz and his wife, Judy, saw
that as an answer to prayer and launched Alliance World Coffees as a tool to
finance a training center for future church planters. They began at the C&MA
church. "A cup of coffee has a way of opening doors," Pfanz says.
The
church's relaxed coffeehouse environment, complete with a fully equipped coffee
bar and cement floors to accommodate spills in the sanctuary, is attracting
every generation.. "They become comfortable and are willing to open up," says
Pfanz, who has seized the opportunity for church multiplication in the context
of business and ministry.
The Alliance coffee enterprise extends in many
directions with Christ's Command to "go and make disciples of all nations"
as its vision. At the church, attendees are provided with fresh-roasted java
and solid Bible teaching. Many of the churchgoers want to be a part of the
movement.
A two-year, ministry training internship is available for
students who seek deeper biblical teaching and a chance to develop their gifts.
Interns can work for Alliance World Coffees in exchange for a small stipend and
free housing. Pfanz explains. "It's a joint venture, and all the church leaders
in the movement are bi-vocational," he says.
Some of the students
dropped out of university classes to pursue the training program. "We don't see
a need to pay thousands of dollars to study to be a pastor, so we train the
students, and they work at the coffee company," Pfanz explains.
Church
planter Josh Garrels, 24, came to Ball State "to party," he says, believing he
could play the revelry game in moderation and still control his life. "I figured
I had a lot of adventures to experience before I settled down," Garrels says of
his decision to put a relationship with God on the back burner. But when his
sister invited him to the Alliance church, things began to change.
"The
teaching would bring tears to my eyes, and I didn't know why," he says. "I felt
like I was leading a split life: My partying and carousing through the week was
juxtaposed with the purity and love I received from the Word on Sunday. I no
longer had control."
After several months of attending services at
Muncie Alliance Church, Garrels gave his life to Jesus. "I realized to be with
Him, there's no 'back door,' no way out to a secret sin. I had to give Him 100
percent." Garrels withdrew from school and enrolled in the church's ministerial
study program.
Today, Garrels facilitates one of MAC's "sites" [church
plants] in a downtown Indianapolis coffeehouse called Vecinos. It is one of
three franchised coffeehouses owned by Alliance World Enterprises, the coffee
company's parent organization. "Our goal is to finance church planting at home
and abroad through selling the coffeehouse franchise," says Pfanz.
Two
of the newer church plants have witnessed God moving in amazing ways already.
The month-old Mercy House is ready to launch a third service, while the
two-week-old Exit 59 site already has 200 in attendance.
Pfanz believes
God has called MAC beyond its Indiana borders. "We have plans for youth hostels
in a few overseas countries where we will set up cafes in the lobbies," he says.
The vision is to send church planters to the hostels where, in the comfort of
coffeehouse environment, they can plant churches. Nearly 800 students belong to
MAC. More than one hundred of them believe they are called to plant churches, to
which Pfanz affirms, "Growing church planters is what we're all about."
Darren (our pastor) was saying that they are going to start up an Alliance coffee shop in Iraq!
This one was in the local newspaper about Exit 59.
GAS CITY- When Darren Campbell started Exit 59 Church, 2015 E.
Main St., in October 2004, he didn't have one goal in mind.
"It's not about me, it's only about God," he said.
Now, the church with the unusual name, in a sanctuary that can seat about
350 people, is full almost every Sunday.
"We didn't send out any kind of mailer. We didn't have any publicity or
strategy," he said.
It is strictly word of mouth that has caused Exit 59 Church
to grow, he said.
The church is a satellite of Muncie Alliance Church and was sharing space
with Grace Lutheran Church.
However, Grace collaborated with another church, and now Campbell, 33,
said his congregation is looking to buy the building.
Campbell said Exit 59 is a church that prides itself on
being member driven.
"It's about everybody just having their share in something bigger," said
Chris Demarse, who is on staff at the church.
While there may be a lot of college students who attend the church,
Campbell said they don't try to cater to one particular group.
He said many people are attracted to the casual atmosphere and there is
no set structure to the service.
"We're just trying to be a bunch of people that are real," Campbell said.
Campbell, who also owns Tree of Life Bookstore, 3700 S. Western Ave.,
Marion, has an espresso bar at the church and parishioners can feel free to
drink their beverages during the sermon.
One of the plans for the church in the near future is to plant more
churches. This summer there will be another church built in East St. Louis.
"We'll be planting until we die, or when Jesus comes back, that's our
motto," he said.
Eisha Lewis and her husband, Mark, were members of Grace, but they were
so astounded by Campbell during one service they decided to stay.
"We heard Pastor Darren preach and he had such a gripping (message). I
mean you just couldn't walk away," Eisha said.
Eisha said she's not a morning person, but Campbell has changed that.
"Believe me, I don't like to go to church, and I'm faithfully going to
church," she said.
IF YOU GO
The Exit 59 Church, 2015 E. Main St., Gas City, has Sunday
services at 9 and 11 a.m.
If you ever come and visit me make sure to be there for Sunday morning so I can take you there. In a few weeks I should have the web site up so you can listen to the sermons (Podcasts are great thing)!
Matthew
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