Hitchhiking to Substance

Well the staff and I just released some juicy church information in the new document:   The Substance Fall Vision 2009!  As many of you know, we continue to grow.  We have around 450 college students going home for summer this year…yet amazingly, we’ve filled almost every seat since they left!  Naturally, even if we didn’t grow at all throughout the summer, we’d still need to add another church service.  But, thankfully, we’ve been ahead of the curve!

And that’s what this Fall Vision document / podcast is all about:  This fall, Substance is going to be adding another campus!  We’re also going to be doing a new Saturday night teaching event at our Operation Center.  So, if you have time, make sure you read the document or download the mp3 of me teaching it in person.   http://www.SubstanceChurch.com/content/pdf/TheFallVision2009.pdf

http://www.substancechurch.com/podcast/

Lastly, we’re doing a Q & A meeting about our multi-site set-up on Wed. July 1st at 7pm.  So, feel free to come if you want to hear more about all the changes!

But we love you guys.  Keep in prayer about all of these changes.  We believe that God is going to entrust us with over 700 unchurched people this fall.  That’s a HUGE responsibility because, these people aren’t numbers… rather they are sons and daughters, mothers and fathers.  So, thanks for being a part of all this!  As you read it, ask the Lord what part he’d have you join up with.  All right!?  Let’s rock this city!

Why such weird preaching pictures?

We just got more great publicity from the Star Tribune!  How cool is that?!  The article was on churches that market themselves through Twitter and Facebook.  Of course, a photograph of me and Substance was randomly put into the article.  Talk about random!  People started calling me last Sunday saying:  ”Pastor… what a cool little promo!”  But I had no idea what they were talking about.

Ironically, I didn’t “tweet” before this article  : )  (Tweeting is the verb for “to twitter”).   But, heck!  If the article is gonna talk about us… I might as well start!   So check out my new Twitter feed: www.twitter.com/PastorPeterHaas.  And in case you don’t know what Twitter is… it’s like a scaled down facebook!  I give periodic updates on all the crazy things I experience throughout the week.  So, if you like to hear random thoughts from me, then subscribe.  And, I’ll tell you what:  I’m gonna be unveiling some really cool leadership stuff in the coming months.  So, if you sign up, you’ll get the tantalizing scoop before anyone else!

But here is the link to the article if you want to check it out!  http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/faith/47963531.html?elr=KArksUUUU

or alternately, you can search the startribune.com site for the June 14th 2009 article “Chapter, verse, text and tweet”

Thank you Star Tribune!

Teaching Church Planters

Wow, I just got to do one of the coolest things yesterday.  In case you didn’t know, we belong to one of the most amazing church organizations called the Association of Related Churches. (ARC).   Yesterday was a national “C.P.R.” Church Planters Roundtable where people fly in from all across the country to learn about the ARC and other essential church planting mentalities.  But, I actually got to teach some of it.  And I’ll tell you what:  Substance, we’re gonna be doing a lot of this.  There is such a need for new churches.  And there are not enough people putting enough time into mentoring a new wave of planters.  But I’m telling you what:   We’re gonna do it.  So get ready:   God is gonna use us to launch 100′s of churches in the next couple years.