Update 4/21/23 - Who is Josh Rice?

First, we are still renovating. We have two chairs in our living room but no other furniture. The good news is that the plastic sheeting has come down because we are not creating lots of dust. Walls are down and tile flooring has been removed. We are painting and prepping the floors for new vinyl plank flooring.

Who is Josh Rice? Josh is an elder at the local church that we are attending. I first met Josh on our visit in February. He immediately asked me to email him everything about us church planting, our planning, timeline…everything. He emailed me back that he was feeling the call to plant a church in East Springdale and that his timeline had been accelerating. Our email exchanges quickly turned into dinner at his home where we discovered that we were very like-minded in our planting desire, theology and philosophy of ministry. Of course, we have differences but they are minor compared to our similarities.

I had breakfast with Josh last Wednesday and things have definitely been happening. He has secured an old grange building. It used to be an old school house but it looks like a country church. The owners are leasing it to the church plant for free. He then invited me to join him on an epic run to Lincoln Arkansas where we loaded 30 pews, a pulpit and a communion table - also free. After getting a blow out on the highway and unloading at the church building, he dropped me back at my car around 10PM. He and a few others went back for the last 9 pews. Those pews were heavy!

Im not quite sure if I am to partner with Josh to plant this church OR if I help him start and then branch off a new church plant at some point. Pray for wisdom as we proceed but it feels like my work is being laid out before me. Josh is excited to have a partner because even though things are happening, he knows the work of starting a new church is daunting. The plan is to launch this fall, perhaps September or October.

I will post more details later. If you have questions just email me!

Bart