Greetings!
It has officially been six months since beginning our Greenhouse Church Planting journey! What a blessing these first six months have been. We want to praise God for the blessings and progress made over the last six months. Looking back, there’s no doubt that the Holy Spirit has empowered this journey! My prayer is Paul’s words, that my speech and message would be in the power of the Spirit, so that our faith may rest in God, not in the wisdom of men (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). In this letter, I plan to highlight some of the bigger items. If you would like to hear more specific things we’ve been up to, our monthly updates are available on www.plantgrowsend.com.
Phase 1 – Checklist
There were a number of items on our checklist that we were able to accomplish. This included a lot of observation and reading. For a full list of books I’ve read, check out www.plantgrowsend.com.
Preaching Opportunities
I’ve continued to have preaching opportunities about once per month. When we started at Iron Mill, Pastor Jason Sullivan had just started a series called “Gifted,” where we talked about spiritual gifts and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Then, we went into a series called “Fear Itself,” followed by “Hope in All Season” – an expository look at 1 Peter. All of my sermons are available on Iron Mill’s website (ironmillchurch.com) under the Sermons tab. You can then click on “Preacher” and choose Brandon Glenn.
Pastor Jason has been coaching me to be less dependent on sermon notes. When I began at Iron Mill, my routine was to manuscript my sermon, practice it around eight times, then take my full manuscript with me to the pulpit. Over the course of these six months, I have learned how to be more efficient in my preparation time, and I am now taking just an outline version to the pulpit.
Multiplication
We initially joined a community group in a home in Bloomsburg. The living room quickly ran out of space as the community group continued to grow. We decided it was best to multiply out of this group and create a second Bloomsburg community group for Iron Mill. I’m currently leading this group with the expectation that we will be multiplying out of this new group again next year to begin a new community group in the Berwick community.
District Conference
I had the wonderful opportunity to attend my first District Conference! Having only experience with independent churches, this was an entirely different experience for me. It was great to meet many other Alliance workers in our district and hear the vision being cast for our area. At this conference, our lead Pastor, Jason Sullivan and I (pictured above), were interviewed to give God the praise for bringing us to where we are currently, and we pray that after hearing our testimony other churches in Eastern Pennsylvania would also be willing to pursue a Greenhouse journey.
Licensing
As of October 28, I am officially licensed as a Pastor of the Christian & Missionary Alliance. This is the first big step towards ordination. The CMA has more of a discipleship model when it comes to ordination. I will be paired with an ordination mentor, read books and write papers over the course of the next two years until I will be ready to sit for an Ordination Council interview.
Looking Ahead – Phase 2
Over the next six months, I have a new set of checklist items to learn and grow in. The four phases of the Greenhouse program are Look, Learn, Lead, Launch. I will be learning in areas of prayer, preaching, coaching, teamwork, small groups, evangelism, and more.
Thank you!
We can invest our time into preparing for church planting because of generous people making financial contributions! If that’s you, THANK YOU! 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 our 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. The 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 through this greenhouse process!
Serving Christ with You!
Brandon Glenn
