At the LA Super Sunday Weekend at the end of August, LuJack asked me to visit the Washington DC Church, as Elena & I had not preached there for a few years. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, September 25th to a great SoldOut Movement Welcome!
The DC Disciples gave the McKeans a huge
SoldOut Movement Welcome!
That night, we had a terrific time of fellowship at dinner with LuJack & Cathi! When Cathi was a student on the UCLA Cross Country Team in 1990, she lived with us and so she became our children’s “big sister” and Elena’s & my precious daughter in the faith!
Cathi (left) became Olivia’s big sister
and roommate in 1990!
In fact, one night when a brother broke up his dating relationship with Cathi, Elena & I waited somewhat nervously in the living room, because we knew Cathi was going to be really hurt! Well, she came into the house with tears, and so, thinking I was going to comfort her, I said, “Hey Cathi, I have an idea… Why don’t you go out with LuJack again!” At that point, let’s just say Cathi was a “bit” mad at me and asked me how I could be so insensitive! Well, I rationalized, at least Cathi stopped crying! And yes, I’m still continuing to work on my sensitivity!
Kip was privileged to marry LuJack & Cathi
on March 20, 1993!
Thursday, Elena spent time with Cathi, while LuJack and I got together with a brother to strengthen his faith. That night, Elena & I went to the Martinezes’ home and met with 10 disciples responsible for the “shepherding” of the now 126 DC Disciples!
The inspiring DC Church Logo was designed
by Ron Harding, when he served as
the DC Lead Evangelist!
I gave a brief charge from the Book of Acts on Paul’s interaction with the elders in different cities. Then we had a tremendous discussion on: 1) What Are The Strengths Of The DC Church? and 2) What Does The DC Church Need To Work On? Shared very joyfully by the “shepherding group” were the DC Church’s great qualities: Loving, healing, hard-working, resilient, persevering, super-sacrificial and family! Also, we talked about the need to crucify sentimentality to be more hard-line on sin, as well as to not be political in lessons since “we” have brothers and sisters “on both sides of the aisle.” We also addressed the racial imbalance in the congregation. Lastly, we talked about the need to increase their forceful advancement. We started at 7:30PM and ended around 11:00PM!
Kip & Elena will have many more “Shepherding
Meetings” as they did in DC, because these
disciples give so many insights as to
the needs of the church!
Joe & Janette Nelson – a DC Shepherding Couple –
live in Dover, Delaware and drive two hours to
church each way! They are the “pillar couple”
for next year’s Dover Church Planting!
Friday night, Elena & I met with the DC Church! What amazing singing, really not surprising with LuJack as the Lead Evangelist!
As always, LuJack led the singing at the Friday
Night Devo in a very inspirational way!
Davene (left) and Belinda sang a beautiful duet,
Lay My Troubles Down By The River!
I complimented the DC Church that they had already met their Fall Missions Goal! It was excellent for me to have “eyes on” this great church, and what the shepherds had shared the night before was true: The DC Church is about 90% African American and 10% Caucasian. Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, the racial demographics for DC are as follows: 47.1% African American, 36.8% Caucasian, 11.3% Hispanic, 4.3% Asian, 0.5% Others. So in striving to build all of our churches to essentially match their city’s demographics, the Lord put on my heart to build what Andrew Smellie – the DC Church planter – would say is a “vanilla” DC Supplemental Mission Team sometime next summer. Elena & I fellowshipped with these enthusiastic disciples past 11:00PM!
Tragedy struck Santana DeJesus just weeks before
her wedding, when her mother suddenly passed
away. In moving the wedding up, similar to Issac
in Genesis 24:67, she “was comforted” after her
mother’s death by marrying Matt McGruder!
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