Pastor Andy Adams

I first studied the book of Nehemiah near the end of my seminary education while reading the book, Visioneering by Andy Stanley.  I vividly remember reading about Nehemiah’s boldness and willingness to risk everything for the vision God had given him in our “on call” room as a hospital chaplain.  I asked God to give me that kind of courage and more importantly, a vision worth risking everything for.  A few months afterwards, I was appointed to start a new church in the Champaign-Urbana area.

Nearly nine years later, Quest is approaching her seventh birthday and we’re studying the book of Nehemiah for the first time as a church family. Over the years, God has given us a vision to reach out to the unchurched people in our community, and over the years, Questers have sacrificed significantly in order to do so.  We have experienced ups and downs which remind me of some of the obstacles and opposition that Nehemiah faced when rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.  Some of our biggest obstacles have revolved around being a nomadic church – that is, a church without permanent worship facilities which not only serve as a tool for more creatively sharing Christ’s love through worship, but also serve as a consistent visible reminder of our ministry in the community.  Despite those obstacles, Questers have united together around the vision of sharing the love of God with our community.  And as a result, over 200 people of all ages now call Quest their church home, and over 50 people have surrendered their lives to Christ, forever changing their eternal residence.  Furthermore, God has used Questers to make a lasting impact in our community and around the world. God has been so good to us!

But God is not done with us yet.  He has given us a big vision which will require us to be stretched time and time again for the sake of sharing his love with more and more people.  Just yesterday, a mentor of mine reminded me that, “If God’s call on your life seems manageable to you, it isn’t God’s calling.”  That’s so true.  God has invited us to be his hands and feet.  He has given us a task that is impossible without him.  The more faithful we are, the more challenging the task will seem, and the more we will have to depend on God.  That is how God molds us and shapes us into wholehearted followers of Jesus.  Certainly, following God is not for the faint of heart, because God has never called us to play it safe.

Over the last several months, Quest’s leadership team has discerned God’s leading us to become a more visible presence in the community by moving our office location to a highly trafficked area on Windsor Road, a stone’s throw from where we worship at Next Generation School.  The purpose of this move is to connect with more people in our area and invite them to experience the love of God in the Quest community.  On some levels this move seems daunting, even risky.  It will increase our monthly expenses significantly.  But where we can’t, God Can.  All he calls us to do is be faithful to his call and be willing to risk everything for his vision.  Please pray for Quest!  We are in the middle of an exciting time where God is giving us the opportunity to risk our comfort for the sake of reaching out to people who are far from him.  Amazingly, that is what I prayed for God to do nine years ago in a hospital room!

June at Quest was an amazing month. So much happened in such a short period of time. I’d love to share some of the exciting highlights. Please continue praying for what God is doing in and through us!

• First, Rev. Albert Barchue from our partner district in Liberia spoke at Quest on June 5^th and spent most of the month with our church family.  I can’t begin to express the God-pride I have in Questers for all their generosity and hospitality. Questers gave over $7,000 to the work of God in Liberia in the short time Albert was here and the new relationships Albert established with Quest and other churches in our district will certainly bear fruit in the coming months and years. Praise God!
• Not to be outdone, our ONE Worship experience with Restoration Urban Ministries on Pentecost Sunday, June 12^th was nothing short of a glimpse of heaven. I was privileged to share God’s Word. Keep praying for Questers and all Christ followers in our community to not only preach, teach and learn God’s Word, but to LIVE God’s Word everyday through acts of humble service to those “like” us and “not like” us.
• Then, while I was blessed with a couple weeks of vacation, the rest of Quest was blessed with wonderful preaching and teaching from Rev. Gary Ford and Rev. Danny Cox.  These two “elder statesmen” in our United Methodist conference have had a lasting impact on me and Jeremiah respectively.  I was privileged to be able to hear them each preach at Quest this month.  I hope you were too.
• The last week of this month was our 4^th annual mission trip to Red Bird Mission in Appalachia.  I heard from the 10 Questers who went that this was not only fun and community building, but life changing.  You may want to prayerfully consider going on next year’s Red Bird Mission Trip to be held from July 1-7, 2012.
• I also wanted to share with you that I, along with over 20 Questers completed a 9-month journey through the Bible at the end of June.  The ending of this Disciple Bible Study was bitter-sweet for me.  I learned so much and so thoroughly enjoyed weekly time with the two groups.  I was also blessed to see them grow.  Now for me it’s on to planning for more outreach and discipleship opportunities in the Fall.  Please pray for these Questers to continue to grow in their walk with Christ and reach out with the gospel to others.
• Finally, I wanted to share with you that at our Annual Conference session (which I asked for prayers about last month), I was elected to represent our conference as one of six clergy delegates to General Conference (the highest decision making body of the UMC).  I was not only honored, but humbled to be thought of as a worthy representative.  However, I covet your prayers as this will be a demanding task culminating at next year’s General Conference held in Tampa, Florida from April 23-May4.  Please pray for me, my family, and the broader United Methodist Church.

As you can see, June was an amazing month. I can’t wait for the REST of the summer!

Here is part of a journal entry of mine from January 13, 2009:  “This was a day I hope I will never forget as long as I live.  Surely, I experienced a bit of the joy of heaven.”  This was the day that I was able to visit the Wayzon United Methodist Church in Liberia.  In 2008, Questers raised enough money to build Wayzon’s church building, dig a well, support some pastors financially, and send numerous children to school.  Rev. Albert Barchue, the District Superintendant of our partner district, traveled with us to the Wayzon church.

I will never forget how they met us in the road.  Here is some of how I described it, “It was like something out of a dream…the people were all in the street waiting for us.  The first thing I saw was a sign that said, “Thank you Quest UMC,” and an old man dancing.  We got out of the van and the crowd surrounded us with hugs – especially the old man – who Albert told me bawled when he heard the church would be rebuilt.  It was his last hope before he died…When I spoke, I shared how seeing broken lives breaks my hearts, but God can take broken lives, just like broken buildings and make them new…I told them that the people of Quest are simply people whose lives had been broken, but are now made new, and out of our love for God, the one who made us new and loves us, we want to share that love with others.  I asked them to do the same.”  Reflecting on it later, I wrote, “It was the most amazing 60 minutes of “ministry” I can remember.  I am so blessed to be here.  I don’t think I will ever be the same.”  Writing about Albert that same evening, I wrote, “He feels like a lifelong friend already.  The partnership and camaraderie I feel with him goes beyond words…I would love for him to come to the US and stay with us for a while.”

Well, over the last two years since that day, Albert and I have stayed in contact, Quest has sent many more thousands of dollars to Liberia to dig wells (6 more), support pastors and sponsor kids going to school.  And, by God’s tremendous blessing, Albert was able to spend nearly the entire month of June in our area.  Albert shared a powerful message from God about the Greatest Commandments (Matthew 22) on June 5th – a day I, along with other Questers will not soon forget.  Then Albert was able to spend the next three weeks traveling around our district sharing about the work of God in Liberia.  I shared a tearful goodbye with Albert before he left.  He was overwhelmed by the blessing of God he experienced through the Quest family. He was forever grateful. Thank you, Questers and friends of Quest, for your prayers and sacrifices for God’s ministry both in Champaign-Urbana, and around the world.  I am so proud to be your pastor.

So many of you know that Quest was born out of New Horizon UMC back in 2004.  I was appointed in July of 2003 to start a new church out of New Horizon, a congregation that I had been a part of from 1995-1999.  New Horizon is where I was inspired at what God’s church COULD be.  New Horizon is where I experienced God’s call to vocational ministry.  New Horizon is even where I met my wife.  So, to have had the opportunity to “come home” and birth a new church out of a church I loved so much was a true blessing.

It’s been six and 1/2 years now since Quest was birthed from New Horizon.  Over those years I’ve had plenty of time to reflect on our “mother-daughter” relationship as churches, but it was only last week that I actually put some of those thoughts into writing.  Roger Ross, the founding pastor of New Horizion, friend and mentor, asked me to share some of my thoughts with him as he had an opportunity to teach about the “mother-daughter” model of church planting to a group of potential new church pastors.  So, what I wrote for him, I’ll share with you.

4 Best things about our mother-daughter church planting experience:

1. Replicating healthy DNA – by in large, those who came from New Horizon to Quest were rooted in an outreach mindset, saw the value of evangelism and discipleship and “got it”.  Being able to start a church with a core of people who have already, for the most part, experienced a taste of the vision you’re casting is invaluable.
2. Along those same lines, we launched with moderate financial stability because part of the healthy DNA included tithing.  It hurts the mother to have a dozen or so tithing families leave, but is an amazing blessing to the daughter.  Furthermore, there were financial advantages of startup office space, administrative support, special offerings, etc. (There is a double edged sword on this though – there is benefit in having financial challenges because it teaches dependence and shows who is truly bought in – great character can be developed through financial hardship.  I felt we had a very good balance between the blessing of stability and the blessing of challenge.)
3. An ongoing and supportive relationship with the mother church – from the daughter’s perspective, we have “come home to do laundry” many times over the years.  Whether that is borrowing equipment, utilizing facilities, sharing ideas, or simply getting emotional support, the daughter can benefit greatly from having a concerned and loving mother.
4. Community connections – As a new church planter, it is vitally important to develop relationships with as many people as possible in the community.  Having a church full of people to help you make connections is tremendously valuable.  Some of our early seekers from the community (who weren’t part of any church) were connections we made directly or indirectly through relationships within New Horizion.

4 Worst things about our Mother – Daughter experience:

1. If the health of the mother is poor (either systemically or temporarily), it will bode poorly for the health of the daughter.  In our case, New Horizon was a healthy, missional and growing church, but by the end of the first trimester, there was betrayal of trust within the New Horizon staff that devastated our mother and lead to her being in ICU for a time.  Needless to say, the large majority of resources and energy from New Horizon went to preserving her own life, and the pregnancy was no longer the focus.  Therefore, for Quest, it was necessary to “get out of the unhealthy womb,” but it wasn’t the kind of birth either the mother or the daughter hoped for.
2. The challenge of casting an alternative vision that reflects positively on the mother church rather than negatively.  When casting vision within the mother church, to people who are already churched, oftentimes, what attracts them is the vision of what will be DIFFERENT from the mother church.  If not careful, you can create disunity between the mother/daughter simply by the way you cast the vision.  I found this challenging, but not impossible.  However, I realize that some churched people hear what they want to hear and project their alternative (different from the mother’s way of doing things) desires on the daughter without being invited to do so!  That leads to the next one…
3. People leaving the mother church to go with the daughter church for the wrong reasons.  There is only one good reason – a call from God.  It’s hard to quantify, but I believe that about 50% of the people we received from the mother church came for the right reasons, and they make up the few who remain six years later. Of course, people will ALWAYS come to a new church from other churches with wrong motives (whether they realize them or not), but it hurts more from the mother church because they are supposed to make up your CORE. Poor reasons to come include, but aren’t limited to:
   1. Escaping the mother church for any reason (personality conflicts, difference of opinion on vision, avoidance of capital campaign, tired of serving, etc.)
   2. Sound’s like fun
   3. A desire to be a big fish in a little pond
4. Awkward tensions between mother and daughter in subsequent years because of people leaving one church for the other when they are dissatisfied or disgruntled.  Being open and honest as leaders of the two churches is absolutely necessary.

As I shared with Roger when we spoke, I would not trade our experience for any other. I feel the Mother-Daughter Model is the best IF certain criteria are met.  Maybe someday I’ll blog about that criteria.  In the meantime, enjoy a beautiful day.

Later this month I will be older than Jesus ever was when he walked the earth.  That’s right, I’ll be turning 34.  It hit me a year ago (anticipating my 33^rd birthday) that I would soon be as old as Jesus was when he died and was resurrected.  Now I’m recognizing that from here on out, I’ll always be older than Jesus ever was while he ministered to his followers (now, now, don’t get all theological on me – I know Jesus is eternal, but I’m talking about his earthly ministry in the flesh!).  There are a few things about this that have caused me to reflect, so I thought I’d share with you.

I realize I’m getting old.  Now I don’t mean to offend any of you who are older than I am, but chances are, you’ve felt this way too.  I will be older than Jesus, but certainly not wiser.  That leads me to my second reflection…

What is holding me back from being more like Christ? Since I’ll soon be older than Jesus, why is it that I’m not more like him?  True, he was surrendered to his father’s will from birth, and I didn’t surrender my heart to Him until I was 13, so he’s got me there.  Furthermore, He lived his life completely surrendered to his Father, and at times I’ve been half-hearted at best.  So what is it that keeps me from being more like Christ?  The answer is simple.  Sin.  I see myself in Paul’s self-description in Romans 7:14-24 – that even though I love God and want to follow Him wholeheartedly, I recognize another law at work within me: the law of sin and death.  But Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:25)  As I “get older” I want to be more intentional about becoming like Christ by living by his Spirit and not by my sinful nature (Romans 8:5-11).  Still, I have further reflections, like…

How is it that Jesus has so much impact in his full-time ministry even though it only lasted 3 years?  The corollary to that is, Why haven’t I been able to have nearly as much impact even though I’ve been in full-time ministry for almost three times as long?  Well, I could get defensive and say things like, “Well, He was God,” or “His focus was different because He wasn’t married and didn’t have kids,” or “it was just different back then,” but then I’d miss out on learning from Jesus.  And in my reflections, I’ve come to realize that Jesus, more than anything else, followed his own summary of the Law – He loved God with everything he had, and he loved people (see Matthew 22:36-40).  As I prepare for another year of ministry, I want to cling to Jesus’ example and strive first and foremost to deepen my love for God, and secondly, to love people the way Jesus did.  Our relationships with God and people are the only things that last for eternity – it’s no wonder Jesus focused there.

As you may guess, I have more reflections as I get older, but I’ll leave you with that.  I pray that you would take time to stop and reflect – ask, “What is holding me back from being more like Christ,” and follow Jesus’ example of investing in his relationships with God and people.