Our Approach to Church
Begin with Discipleship:
The Great Commission of Jesus Christ instructs all believers to go and make disciples. We believe that if we go and make committed disciples of Jesus, then we will have a church. So rather than spending our time and energy developing a meaningful worship service, we have focused on developing a process of discipleship to teach people the way of Jesus. We begin by sharing the story of God. Then, over several weeks we explore what it means to have a trusting relationship with God, what it means to live on mission, and how share all of this with the church. Our goal is for people to encounter the living God and be formed into the likeness of His son. If a participant is willing to go deeper we work with them to develop their own rule of life incorporating specific practices, such as prayer, reading scripture, service, and community. We have just begun to bring our first set of people through this process in September.
Value Reproducibility:
The way of Jesus was meant to be passed on from person to person. It was meant to reproduce, to spread and grow. We are trying to do everything in such a way that it can easily be passed down from person to person. We hope that God is using us to start a movement among lost people in Wichita that will grow from house to house, from neighborhood to neighborhood, spreading over the whole city of Wichita and state of Kansas. We have not set out to just start a church, but to make disciples who start churches, who start churches, who start churches. For this dream to become a reality, the basis of what we pass on must be simple. The message must be simple, the practices must be simple, and the structures of church must be simple. Therefore, we are developing a discipleship process that can be passed on and administered by anyone. We are structuring our church gatherings so they can be easily duplicated from one house to another. Given our target area which consists mainly of working class neighborhoods, we are also trying to structure our churches as inexpensively as possible. We are trusting God to lead us into new church structures and discipleship processes that will allow the seed of the gospel to take root in many new hearts
Trust God, Live on Mission together
Well it’s been a few weeks since my last update and I wanted to share some good things that have been going on over here in Kansas.
Well I have been living in Wichita for just over a month and I can happily report that it is finally feeling like home here. We are still getting settled into our house but every day we seem to be unpacking another box. Kristen and the kids are adjusting to the new house and new city extremely well. Chloe is enjoying her new soccer team. Chloe is basically the biggest of the children out there so needless to say if she wants the ball she knows how to go get it. In fact be on the lookout on my facebook page for a video of Chloe pushing a few kids out of the way to get to the ball. I promise I am not teaching her to play dirty, well maybe just a little haha. Elijah is still really loud and still loves Lightning McQueen. Kristen is enjoying the time she is able to stay at home with Chloe and Elijah and she is doing a fantastic job making our house a home. I’m doing well and I love my job at Starbucks. I get along great with all my managers and coworkers and I’m known as the resident pastor there. In fact one of the ladies who will be getting married in the near future has already asked if I could and would be willing to officiate their wedding. Needless to say we are really enjoying making new friends and engaging our community in a very positive way.
The church plant is beginning to really pick up some steam. We have spent the first month dreaming, planning and developing a process for our house church. Micah Lewis has captured some of our thoughts and ideas on paper. Below is what he has recently written.
We have established a set of shaping values to help us approach this new church planting. These values are directing us through the discernment of our church planting priorities and will shape the rule of life for the churches we end up planting. Values come from theology. So we begin there.
God created the heavens and the earth and it was very good (Gen 1-2)
• Humanity was created to have a trusting relationship with God (2:16-17)
• Humanity was created to live in community with each other (2:18)
Creation was cursed because of the events in the garden (Gen 3)
• Humanity’s relationship with spiritual forces (3:15)
• Humanity’s relationship with each other (3:16)
• Humanity’s relationship with the rest of creation (3:17-19)
• Humanity’s relationship with God (3:22-24)
God is restoring his creation through the person and work of Jesus Christ (Rev 21-22)
• Jesus defeats the spiritual forces of evil through the cross (Col 1:20, 2:15)
• Jesus brings humanity back into a trusting relationship with God and each other (1
Peter 3:18)
• Creation is liberated from its curse when humanity is redeemed (Rom 8:19-21
• What began through the resurrection of Jesus will be completed when he returns
again (1 Cor 15:20-28)
Because this is the story we are living in, we have drawn three broad conclusions. First,
we are called to live in a trusting relationship with God. Second, we are called to join
God in his mission. Third, we are called to live together in community.
We trust God by:
• listening to him through prayer, scripture, and the people of God
• obeying him as he leads us
Living on mission includes:
• participating in our own personal spiritual formation
• connecting others to God through Christ
• practicing hospitality by welcoming new people into our lives, and joining others in their
lives.
• working for justice by helping the poor, the weak, and the marginalized
• witnessing to the mighty works of God and telling his story
We do it all Together
• We share our relationship to God with others through communion, worship and fellowship
• We join one another in living on mission
“TRUST GOD AND LIVE ON MISSION TOGETHER”
It’s been a very productive and busy month. Kristen and I have been trying to get out and explore our city a few times a week. We have been trying out different local doughnut shops, we have joined the YMCA, and Kristen has had time to take the children to the park across the street. We are continuing to serve at Simple house weekly which is a local clothing and food shelter. I was able to speak at Carpenter Place (a teen girl children’s home) last week during their chapel. This weekend Micah and I are attending a spiritual formation conference held here in Wichita and we are excited about being able to refresh and renew while gathering some new ideas on spiritually forming others to be more like Christ.
Thanks for all the support and prayers.
Kyle <><
I will be adding some updates to my blog www.keckmott.com this week. Make sure to stop by if you get a chance.
Update from Wichita
Today I find myself sitting at Starbucks reflecting on my journey to Wichita thus far. We have been in Wichita for almost 2 weeks and I can’t even begin to describe how difficult this transition has been for us, but how amazing it has been all at the same time.
We had a very difficult time getting closed on our house. We were delayed nearly a week causing us to continue living out of a suitcases for almost a month. The homeowners did let us move in our stuff early which was nice, but then we began to discover little things about the house we weren’t expected. Like how our back yard has a nice little flood spot, the appliances were basically broken and we found some dead rabbits in the escape window outside of Chloe’s room. We finally were able to close on Wednesday and the house finally started to feel like a home. We are beginning to feel more settled in here in Kansas, but we find ourselves often thinking about our house, family and church family back in TN. I will try to post some pictures once we get rid of the boxes.
On a positive note I finished my training on Saturday and I am now the newest barista at our Starbucks. I have had a great and positive experience already with the people I am working with. I really love getting to interact with my coworkers and with all the customers. This is the first job I have worked at outside of church work in over 10 years. I think in the next few weeks I will try to write a blog on how working at Starbucks is a lot like being a minister.
Our house church is off and running. For the past 2 weeks we have been meeting at the Lewis’s house to share a meal together, take communion, read scripture, study and fellowship. Over the next few weeks we will be experimenting with some different formats. We know we will share a meal together, take communion together, share scripture together, pray and listen to God together, and a story time for the children. Micah and I have been working through an orientation process that will help explain what we feel like God is calling us to in our house church. Our main focus will be to “Trust God and live on mission together.”
We have also begun making several connections and contacts in Wichita. Both Micah and I work at different Starbucks in the city which is opening the door for new friendships, and God as already blessed me with some great salted conversations at work. Micah is currently jumping on board with the local children’s home and we will all be serving at a local downtown food pantry (Simple House). Nathan and Chloe (our oldest children) are on the same soccer team at the YMCA. Kristen and I have been able to meet some of our neighbors and we look forward to opening our house soon for a BBQ.
God has definitely be present throughout this whole process and we are all very excited about what He is doing. We have a few people that we plan to start a discernment process with to see if God is calling them into our house church and into our intentional way of living. Please be praying for us in these specific areas:
1. The City of Wichita: We sense a lot of brokenness in the city.
2. Our Neighborhood: We feel God is at work there and we want our neighborhood to be a dwelling place of God
3. Financial support: First we want to praise God for so many people who are partnering with us. Secondly we are still looking for partners who can give financially.
4. Our house Church: Pray we can Trust God and live on mission together.
God is good all the time and we are excited to be on this Journey with him and I’m thankful that God has blessed all of you who are reading this in my life. You are the ones who have shaped and formed me spiritually. Have a great day and be blessed.
For more information about giving you can go to www.keckmott.com and click on the church plant tab.
Kyle <><
For your enjoyment
The past year has been a long season of discernment for Kristen and I. In May of 2010, we decided to transition out of our current youth ministry as we began to see God calling us in a new direction. We spent the next several months praying, studying and seeking Godly advice from our friends and family. We investigated several ministry opportunities and attended various ministry conferences. Throughout this period of discernment, God continued to awaken in our hearts the call to join in a church planting ministry. In November, Kristen and I attended a Discovery Lab hosted by Mission Alive to further think through this new journey. There the Mission Alive team also confirmed their support for us to pursue church planting, and recommended we partner with our good friends Micah and Amy Lewis to begin ministry. The Lewises had committed in September to partner with the Riverwalk Church of Christ in Wichita, Kansas.
In September 2010 our good friends Micah and Amy Lewis partnered with the Riverwalk Church of Christ in Wichita, Kansas to begin working on a new church planting project. In February, Kristen and I made a commitment to begin our church planting residency with the Lewis Family in Kansas. God has been at work leading the Riverwalk congregation to support a church planting ministry in their community. We are excited and thankful for this new partnership. Currently, we have started the process of making a transition to Wichita, and hope to complete our move this summer.