The last month has been a flurry of transition. We have many changes – good ones – sitting on the horizon of our life.

The most fun is that in the next couple days we’ll welcome little baby Chloe into the world.

We’ve painted the nursery (= a wall of the master bedroom), put up the crib and changing table, and been showered with many pink gifts.

Chloe was the name of a house church leader in Corinth, Greece back in Paul’s day (cf. 1 Cor. 1:11). She had such clout that some from her household communicated with Paul about problems in the Corinth house church network and he responded by writing what is now known as 1 Corinthians.

We hope that our Chloe will carry on the legacy of kingdom leadership embedded in her name.

I’ll blog again when I have pictures and updates. Your prayers are appreciated.

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Our family expansion has called for us to transition to a more suitable nest – one that will have room for Chloe (other than a closet) and poise Ryan for good education.

We are, therefore, in the process of closing on a handsome little house in east Dallas/Lakewood, about 10 minutes from the city center.

We’re looking forward to the way this new location will help us to connect more with the young families in Dallas and experiment with more organic structures for children’s spiritual formation. It’s an exciting part of Storyline’s future growth and development.

My wife has endured almost eight years and eight moves chasing our dreams in the kingdom of God. God bless the woman. I know she’s looking forward to this transition into a more permanent dwelling space.

We’ll probably not move in until January after we’re able to do some minor renovations.

Please pray for us as we transition to a new place.

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As I mentioned in a previous blog post, Ryan and I decided to pursue part-time jobs to replace part of our salaries from Storyline. For two reasons: 1) it allows us to model what it looks like for ‘normal, working people’ to lead house churches and live on mission; 2) it relieves some of Storyline’s financial burden in our transition to financial sustainability.

At the end of August I took on a part-time sales job with a friend’s start-up company.

The job is very flexible. I can work my 10-15 hours/week from just about anywhere.

And, I don’t have to sell anything to my peers here in Uptown – which is the only way I could see myself doing sales. I was wary of the kind of relational dynamics it might create if I was sales rep / church planter to some of my disconnected friends.

So far, I’ve really enjoyed the challenge. I’m wired to talk to people and to persuade, so in some ways it’s a natural fit.

The job does have its share of ups and down. I’ve had to develop patience and deal with disappointment when things don’t go the way I hope they will. I’m learning to push through rejection and cranky responses. In those ways I suppose it’s similar to other work I’m currently doing.

My main concern initially was that the sales job would drain energies I would otherwise use for the work of church planting.

Not so. Turns out I am indeed extroverted. Talking to people energizes me, no matter what it’s about.

Perhaps the greatest thing about this job is that the sales cycle ends in December. If I do great, that’s great. If I’m terrible and don’t end up liking it, the sales cycle ends in December. I can move on to other things.

Please pray for my co-worker, Ryan, as he begins to look for part-time job opportunities as well.

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I’m currently going through a coaching certification track with Mission Alive and CoachNet.

Turns out it’s perfect timing.

We’re working toward starting the fourth house church in the Storyline Community later this month. The first Storyline house church (Tribeca) has a new leadership team of which neither the Porches or the Kisers are part. Our church planter in residence, Micah Lewis, is working with us until next August. A seminary student at Dallas Theological Seminary is joining us as an intern over the next several months. We hope to start a couple more house churches beyond the fourth by February 2009.

In the midst of all this development in the community, I’ve sensed God calling me into more of a coaching role. Rather than spend a lot of my time as an on-the-ground house church leader, I’ll come alongside and support other on-the-ground house church leaders.

I’m thrilled about it.

I just finished reading a fantastic book, Coaching 101, by Bob Logan and Sherilyn Carlton.

I’ll post a review of the book soon, as well as what I learn in my Coaching Lab on October 9-10.

Pray for me as I develop as a coach – that God will have mercy on the poor souls that I coach, and that I’ll grow as a listener and encourager.

Finally, praise God this long post made it to the blog! I wrote this exact post a week ago and it was deleted somehow as I posted it. I hadn’t saved it. It took me a week to work up the resolve to write it again.