Hanging with Barry and Christina Rice – Church Planters in Orlando, FL
So a couple of Mondays ago, Sarah and the boys and I got to drive up to Orlando for 2 reasons: 1) Will had an eye appt. with his eye surgeon. The good news is that he looks great and doesn’t have to go back for 6 to 9 months! So Praise God! 2) We wanted to meet up with Barry and Christina Rice, church planters and pastors of Greater Orlando Chruch!
Barry and Christina are ARC Church Planters. They have 4 kids and are just great to hang with. Sarah and I had the privilege of spending an entire weekend with them last October. We were able to do some onsite vision casting and coaching last October! So it was great to see them again and connect with them! It totally filled our tank.
We met at the world’s biggest McDonald’s in Orlando (which was great for the kids). We were able to talk for 2 hours and it was such an encouragement to hear that their church has really solidified and they are beginning to see a clearer vision for the future than ever before! They came with a list of questions for us! It was so refreshing and great to share so much more of what we’ve learned in the past 5 1/2 years of doing church planting “Up the Middle.”
Many of their questions were centered around the idea of, “Okay, I think we’re actually going to survive this thing, so…. Now What do we do about…” a number of different issues and areas! I can remember so vividly being in those days when we were starting to stick our head up above the weekly grind of church planting and begin to survey the landscaping to discover, “Okay, now what do we do with this thing?”
Sarah and I have such a heart for church planters. We love the opportunities God is opening up for us to share our story and so many of our experiences with them. Hopefully they won’t have to make the same mistakes and can learn from ours!!!
(By the way, I think we talked Barry and Christina into spending a weekend with us at Next Level at the end of July. I’ll keep you posted!)
Just a Church Planting Bloggish Thought,
Matt
Awesome to hear that Will's doing so well!
How exciting to hear of another ARC church doing well. It's amazing how God is moving right now. Between the updates from your blog, and experiencing God in a very real way last Sunday…it's breath-taking. How blessed we all are to have such a great pastor leading us, AND mentoring other pastors! Scott and I continue to keep you, your family, and the entire leadership team at NLC in our prayers. God is about to 'bust loose' in a very real way soon. I can't wait.