We from the C2C family believe God is directing us to emphasize three things during the next few years.
1. Extension through missional ventures and spiritual breakthroughs.
2. An increasing desire for and proficiency moving in God’s supernatural power.
3. An increasing emphasis in Apostolic prayer.
One recent missional venture is a church plant forming in Columbia MO lead by D’Markus and Gabrianna Thomas-Brown. Here is an update letter from them.
Love and greetings from the church in Columbia!
D’Markus Thomas- Brown is leading the plant
We are a group of believers of different ages, races and socio-economic statuses who have spent the past few months experiencing ourselves being built together by God, the Master Builder, into His family, the church.
Mary Allemang and I (Omonse) have lived in Columbia for a little over two years, and CJ Talton moved here in August of 2014 when we got married. D’Markus and Gabrianna Thomas-Brown were sent here in July of 2014, which marked the beginning of the church plant here. Sarah DiMaggio, a childhood friend of D’Markus was added to us and Savannah Schrock moved here in November. The Huff family (Buddy, Pam, Elias and Christian) are planning on moving to Columbia this year, and in the meantime Buddy Huff has been with us during the week and with his family in Kirksville over the weekend. D’Markus and Gabrianna bought a house on the north side of Columbia in September, where Mary, Savannah and Buddy (during the week) also live, and where we meet.
So far, we have hardly made a collective reach into the community to attract people. It is the mandate of the church to be ambassadors of God, and to see to the ministry of reconciliation that was committed to us by Christ, but in this very foundational time, God has put it on our hearts to focus on developing our culture. The culture of the church is to be the culture of the Kingdom of God, rather than our personal preferences on how we’d like to see things happen. It’s not so much determining what songs we’ll sing, and how we’ll dress, but how we will live, namely in submission to one another, in dependence on the Holy Spirit, as a people of prayer, with hospitality, in vulnerability, openness and accountability to one another.
On a typical week, we meet in the evening on Mondays and Wednesdays, and on Sunday mornings. Mondays are
Buddy Huff helped on a church plant in Pittsburg KS 23 years ago and now is helping plant in Columbia
prayer nights, where we start off with worship and then go around the room discussing prayer points before going into popcorn prayer (everyone prays aloud as they are urged). Wednesdays are Bible study/ Devotional times where we read from the Bible or from a book (we have currently reached the end of our first book “Receiving the Holy Spirit and His Gifts” by Terry Virgo and Phil Rogers). On other nights of the week we’ll often sit around the dining room table haggling over property in a game of Monopoly, or trying to get ahead in Settlers of Catan. Board games (any games, really) are definitely our favorite group activity, bringing about the best of times, and the worst of times!
On Sunday mornings we get together for breakfast at 9:30am, enter into worship, then D’Markus leads the meeting, bringing the topic that we’re going to talk/read about. The topic has been relationships for about five Sundays in a row – and we’re really seeing ourselves as being in what we’ve come to recognize as the “marriage phase”, where God is drawing us to cling to one another as we die to ourselves and into Him. In the past months we have been reading on, praying about, and eating, drinking and living relationship – the desire of God for His people. Vulnerability has been a common topic. We’ve felt that in this season, God has been (and still is) building and fitting us together, dealing with our individualism and selfishness, and teaching us how to “lay down our lives for our friends”.
We’re on the verge of a shift in our everyday norm; we’re beginning to feel the pull from God to bring others into this family, and we hope to kick off this new day at our Easter Jam which is happening on Easter Sunday. We’re so excited to see what God is doing and will do, it’s a privilege to walk with each other and to walk with Him.