Greetings from Berwick (and Danville)!

We are now officially one eighth of the way through our residency program! The month of July was filled with some busy, pastoral-type of responsibilities. There were certainly some good learning opportunities.

The month began with helping a young professional from Danville move from his “bachelor pad” into a home as he is preparing to be married soon.

I had the opportunity to help prepare the roadmap for the upcoming series in 1 Peter.

Our lead pastor took a two-week vacation in July. During the first week, I hosted a campfire for the Iron Mill Students, lead our Vacation Bible School team (pictured!) each evening, and preached on Sunday. There were also a couple more activities that I was able to experience that I would prefer not to add to a public blog!

I am continuing to be involved with community group (small group) leadership, outreach team, Elder’s business meetings and prayer meetings, staff meetings, as well as meeting with individuals.

As part of the greenhouse program, I am required to do some reading. As part of this, I finished reading, “A Praying Life” by Paul Miller and “Between Two Worlds” by John Stott (my review/summary here). I am currently reading “7 Habbits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. I am also reading “Allegiance Alone” by Matthew Bates with our lead pastor, discussing our thoughts one chapter at a time.

We are continuing to be involved in the Berwick community, showing up at community-type events and preparing for Fall sports. I’m planning to coach baseball and at the time of me writing this, there is a chance Samantha will be coaching soccer.

We are excited for the progress and excitement we are seeing about our coming church plant in Berwick! Iron Mill has multiplied their small groups over the past year (almost double!), and we are praying about the opportunity to be a part of the multiplication of a new small group in the fall! This would just be one more step closer to planting a church that plants other churches. Plant. Grow. Send!

We appreciate the prayer and financial support so far! We are still looking for partnerships. If you are interested in staying up to date with our needs, follow this blog! If you are interested in supporting us financially, you can send checks made out to Iron Mill Church with “Iron Mill Greenhouse” marked on the memo line. Their address is 2 Church Hill Rd, Danville PA 17821. You can also give online at https://ironmillchurch.com/give/ by choosing “Iron Mill Greenhouse” in the drop-down menu instead of “General.”

Thank you for your generosity! We look forward to keeping you up to date each month!

Serving Christ with You,

Brandon and Samantha Glenn

Greetings from Berwick (and Danville)!

We are now two months into our Church Planting Residency program with Iron Mill Church in Danville, PA! The month of June was filled with getting to know more people and getting involved with serving and outreach.

As described in a previous blog post, we are in the “Look” phase of the program right now. So, Brandon is continuing to observe many meetings and activities at Iron Mill. Brandon had the opportunity to observe a new members’ meeting at Iron Mill, community group leaders/hosts meeting, youth leaders’ meeting, outreach team meeting, elders meeting and more!

However, we are beginning to do some more activities as well. Brandon is preaching once per month. Here is the link to the service in which he preached in June: https://fb.watch/6CSmKgRkXh/  He is scheduled to preach again on Sunday, July 18.

Brandon helped prepare Iron Mill’s upcoming series called “Fear Itself,” which included brainstorming the four main topics, main scriptures passages and the scripture reading guide. We are also involved in a community group in Bloomsburg, which has been a great way for us to connect with others on a deeper level and gives our children more time with their new friends. Brandon is also involved with leading, organizing and recruiting volunteers for the recreation/games for Vacation Bible School. Iron Mill is partnering with First Baptist in Danville for their VBS. Iron Mill’s part is to run the recreation/games time. We also met with some families from the Berwick area that are interested in joining the Berwick church plant once that begins!

One of the more exciting opportunities for involvement was Danville’s Spring Fling! This event was an “all hands-on deck” outreach opportunity for Iron Mill. We set up two booths, proving fun games and opportunities for kids and adults alike. Our goal was to put Iron Mill information into people’s hands and start conversations with people attending the Spring Fling.

We are continuing to seek involvement with our Berwick community through AYSO and Little League, both ending in the month of June, but we will be involved in some level in the coming months.

We appreciate the prayer and financial support so far! We are still looking for partnerships. If you are interested in staying up to date with our needs, follow this blog! If you are interested in supporting us financially, you can send checks made out to Iron Mill Church with “Iron Mill Greenhouse” marked on the memo line. Their address is 2 Church Hill Rd, Danville PA 17821. You can also give online at https://ironmillchurch.com/give/ by choosing “Iron Mill Greenhouse” in the drop-down menu instead of “General.”

Thank you for your generosity! We look forward to keeping you up to date each month!

Serving Christ with You,

Brandon and Samantha Glenn

Greetings from Berwick (and Danville)!

We officially started our Church Planting Residency at Iron Mill Church in Danville, PA. The month of May has brought many learning opportunities and lots of people to meet!

We started off this month by participating in my “commissioning service,” which also landed on the Christian and Missionary Alliance’s Church Planting Sunday. Our lead pastor, Jason Sullivan, an elder from Iron Mill and I shared preaching responsibilities for the sermon aspect of the worship service. Iron Mill showed great excitement as they saw their dream of multiplication coming to fruition!

We followed our commissioning service with an elder-recommended week off between transitioning churches. Our family took a trip to the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter. Both were great experiences for both children and adults!

The Alliance has a great plan for church planting residents, which is what I will be following. The two-year “greenhouse” program is broken up into four phases, each lasting six months. The phases are Look, Learn, Lead, Launch. I am currently in the “Look” phase, which requires me to observe as much as possible. Each phase has nine different areas of learning: prayer, preaching/teaching, coaching, teamwork, community/small groups, evangelism/disciple making, credentialing, education, personal growth and formation. These nine areas will remain the same throughout each phase, but the activities in each phase will change. As part of these phases, I will be required to complete a few tasks per learning area as well as reading books to aid in my growth.

This first phase, labeled “look,” is all about observation. I am to observe the culture of Iron Mill and ask questions about how and why they do things certain ways. In May, I have been able to attend our community group with our whole family, listened to multiple sermons by other pastors, observe a staff meeting, observe an elders meeting, observe an outreach team meeting, observe a community leaders meeting, preach my first Iron Mill sermon, prepare a message reflection guide, create a BLESS list, begin reading Gospel Allegiance, participated in student ministry, and started the licensing process through the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

We appreciate the prayer and financial support so far! We are still looking for partnerships. If you are interested in staying up to date with our needs, follow this blog! If you are interested in supporting us financially, you can send checks made out to Iron Mill Church with “Iron Mill Greenhouse” marked on the memo line. Their address is 2 Church Hill Rd, Danville PA 17821. You can also give online at https://ironmillchurch.com/give/ by choosing “Iron Mill Greenhouse” in the drop-down menu instead of “General.”

Thank you for your generosity! We look forward to keeping you up to date each month!

Serving Christ with You,

Brandon Glenn