Our Camden brothers and sisters have been working their tails off since they were planted last fall, but in the last few weeks an even bigger push is underway to secure a building and meet new partners.
I would like to highlight the tremendous efforts of the Camden’s Next Site Team.
They are lead by Rob Lairmore and so far his partners are John Londres and Lindsey Markelz.
The team is charged with finding a permanent space for their young congregation to call home. Although it’s only a few miles away, the landscape of Camden, New Jersey is amazingly unique when compared to Philadelphia. This presents many different challenges that Frankford & Norris and Broad & Washington never had to face. To carry out God’s work amidst these challenges takes dedicated and imaginative Christ followers. I think it’s safe to say that we are blessed enough have those kinds of people in Camden.
Some of the major hurdles that the team is working with include, interpreting laws involving zoning and the geographical landscape. Camden County is very spread out and driving is just about the only way to get anywhere. This means that they are going to have to paying attention to things that Circle of Hope hasn’t had to pay attention to before. One example would be ensuring that our meeting space has enough parking spots to accommodate 100+ people. Another would be dealing with a very different commercial real estate market. In short, we are in a new realm and the team is responding to that creatively and faithfully. We are counting on God to do the heavy lifting in this process, but we are also positioning ourselves to respond to the spirit.
A few ways that the Network can help their efforts are as followed:
- Continue to pray faithfully
- Bring your cells across the river to a PM
- Let your friends and family in New Jersey know that we exist in the Garden State
Tags: camden