A little over two years ago, God called us to leave our friends and family in Colorado and move 1,000 miles away to Madison, Wisconsin, to become Church Planters. I came on staff with Converge Great Lakes (formerly known as Great Lakes Baptist Conference and part of the Baptist General Conference) as a Church Planting Intern. Our desire was to learn more about church planting with the thought that someday God might call me to be a lead pastor and to possibly plant a church as the lead planter. For the last two years, we have served with Ezra Church and it has been awesome to see God build and establish His church! In the past two years, Ezra Church has baptized 14 people, helped over 85 adults find community through being a part of a small group, and grown from a core of 50 people to a church of over 200 people! Your support, encouragement, and prayers helped make that possible!
Through the guidance and direction of Converge Great Lakes and the Ezra Church Leadership and after much time in prayer, I feel that God is calling me to step out in faith and to take a position as a senior pastor! We are going to take the next couple of months to pray and determine if God is calling me to (1.) be a lead church planter and to plant a new church with Converge or (2.) if God is calling me to go to an established Converge church that is looking for a new senior pastor.
We have finished the Pre-Assessment Phase of the church planting process with Converge. The next step of our journey in determining if God is actually calling us to plant a church is attendance at the nationally renowned Converge Church Planting Assessment Center next February. This four day intensive assessment looks at potential church planters through a grid of sixteen non-negotiable traits that Converge has found to be essential for successful planting over the past twenty years. Once we complete this assessment, we will have clear confirmation one way or the other concerning whether I am called to be a lead pastor in a church planting context or a lead pastor in an established church setting.
Converge (Baptist General Conference) also has a Pastoral Placement Process (P3), which helps match pastors like me who feel called to be a senior pastor and churches that are in need of a new senior leader. I have finished my P3 assessment and we are waiting and praying to see if God is leading us to an established church. We have told Converge that we would be open to going to a church in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, or Colorado.
We want to thank you for your prayers and encouragement over the last two years! We could not be on this ministry journey without you! We would appreciate your continued prayers over these next couple of months as we wait on God and prepare for wherever he is leading us next.
Thanks and God bless,
Kristin and Erik Lindeen
Fellow Laborers In Christ
Madison, WI.
ERIK LINDEEN 