I am sitting in our new bedroom in our house in North Brunswick New Jersey. I came in to change t-shirts and then get back to throwing boxes around but thought I would sit down to write.  It is amazing to see the planning, prayers and providence that have brought our family to finally relocate here to New Jersey.  We are working hard to settle the house, put in a home office and prepare our hearts for the days ahead.  Kasey has already done so much in the house; painting, unpacking and giving things a special touch for our family.  We are so thankful for the friends who have helped with the move in process - a special shout out must go to Worth and Amy Lumry who helped Kasey so much when I made the final run to NC to fetch the kids.  Some of the Jacob's Well team has already moved in and we await three more arrivals by September 1st.

It has been a long summer where God has taught me some patience and revealed to me how much I want to see things go a certain way.  Nothing wrong with wanting things to work out, but learning to yield control is another animal all together.  Thanks for praying for us as we lived out of suit cases and on the road this summer. 

Pastor's Training Program (PTP)

The last two weeks have been quite a flurry.  First I drove from NC to NJ to fly from Newark to Seattle...complicated but I had booked tickets before our other house fell through.  I was in the great state of Washington for four days with the first meeting of Mars Hill Church's first ever pastor's training program.  The church planting division of Mars Hill and the Acts 29 Network are bringing in 12 church planters for four day training sessions every six weeks over the course of the next nine months.  It was humbling to be in boot camp with 11 other men following similar paths around the country.  Mars Hill is completely footing the bill for this and we are thankful to be a part of it.  Please pray that these trips would continue to provoke vision, inspire me forward and equip me as the pastor/planter of Jacob's Well.

Upcoming Seasons of Ministry

Everything around here will get going in September with the kids starting school and our initial planting team will begin meeting in our home.  During our summer sojourns we worked hard and sought the heart of God to lay out a plan for the coming year.  We have broken down the year into four seasons as we do the work to launch the new church here in Middlesex County.  Forgive me if I use a football metaphor to lay it out...

Mini-Camp - August 1-September 6

Throughout summer you have mini-camp to make adjustments to new teammates and new surroundings.  During the month of August our goals are simple.  Move in, unpack, become New Jersians and prepare for school to start.  Transitioning our family is also a priority so I am making time available to help out around the house.  I will also be connecting with some campus ministry friends to help with their labors at Rutgers this fall.

Training Camp - September 7 - Christmas

In the early days of Jacob's Well we will be building a community of people focused on living for the glory of God and the good of the city by extending hope through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We will spend this season training, worshiping together and preparing for the work ahead.  We will be equipping the church in this season to be missionaries in culture and reach out effectively to people here in Central Jersey.  A good training camp bonds the team, gives a rhythm to your work and provides sound fundamentals.  During this time we will network extensively and share Jesus with those whom we meet.   Please pray for our first gathering at our house on Sunday night September 7^th 2008.

Team Building - January - March 2009

You need offense, defense and some good special teams to win football games.  In order for us to move towards meeting publically as a church we will need to build some teams as well.  We'll need to shape ministry with kids, worship, technology and hospitality teams as we move forward with Jacob's Well.  We are focused that the church ¹ a service, but we also have orders to devote ourselves to the public reading of Scripture and to preaching and teaching (Read 1 and 2 Timothy).  Our community will be much more than Sunday morning, but we'll need good teams for our Sunday gatherings when that season arrives.

Preseason - April - August 2009

Right now preseason NFL football is in full swing.  Rosters are full of hopeful talent working to land a job.  More importantly the teams are learning to work together and gel towards common goals.  We plan on having public services once a month next summer down the stretch.

Game Day - September 2009

College students come back into town here in September.  The School year starts here in September.  Jacob's Well will (God willing) begin a public proclamation of the gospel and observance of the Lord's Table on September 27^th 2009.  It is also Kayla Joy's, my oldest daughter, birthday...which we both think is cool.

Financial Update

We are about 97% towards our Phase I support goals with current partners faithfully on board.  It is a great joy to work with you in this and our family is grateful for all your prayers and support.

As we meet new people, connect with friends moving to town and prepare for the work, please pray we find some needed rest and Sabbath as we carve out a new pattern of life here in New Jersey.  We thank you for praying for us and Jacob's Well.

Blessings in Jesus,

Reid - For the Monaghan Crew

Prayer Requests

• Family adjustments - making new friends, adjusting to new school for Kayla and Kylene, Kasey to connect in the community
• Effective networking and opportunities to share the gospel with others - please pray that God works in many lives here
• For God's protection of our hearts and minds in the midst of so many transitions and unknowns
• For God to add multi-ethnic leadership to our core group/launch team
• Pray for me as I serve and lead team Jacob's Well towards God's future...for humility and dependence upon God.

It has been about a month since we last wrote to you about the change of plans that had us sojourning in North Carolina a bit this summer.  I think the frustration of the delay has subsided and we are enjoying some time as a family while looking forward with expectation to the work in NJ.  In this update we'll have some fun with real estate and update you on our plans and preparations for Jacob's Well. 

The Joys of Real Estate - Jersey Style

Moving is always a bit complicated...but just how complicated can it be?  I guess things can be particularly strange when moving to the great state of New Jersey.  Kasey and I have some good news; we have found another home, have signed the contract and are working through some details on our way to a July 28 (God willing) closing.  I'm not sure how to describe the whole process other than "comedy."  First, we have dealt several times now with a NJ law that allows an attorney to review a contract signed by both parties for up to three business days.  The loop hole is that during that time the seller can have open houses, take other offers, start bidding wars etc.  In my dismay we actually looked up the law to see if this was legit; it was.  Seems like a nice loop hole that sellers are using to their advantage.  We actually had to bid up after signing our deal to get this house, but I am thankful to say that it is now really, really under contract.  Bizarre; now for some more fun...

After our home inspection there were a few issues that surfaced which needed attention. There is a crawl space with some minor water issues and a leak in a chimney which has caused some wood damage around the fire place.  Thankfully, not show stoppers, but things which needed to be remedied.  Negotiating these issues has been quite a process.  We had some contractors give us estimates to see what we were dealing with and to be able to discuss this with some knowledge.   After our estimates were in the seller verbally told us (through real estate agents) that they would fix all the problems.  It turned out that they would fix the problems according to what their contractor recommended.  I asked to see their contractors report, invoices, etc. and to have his license number and phone number so we could call and see what he completed.  Apparently, the contractor only speaks Chinese and could not talk with us.  The seller is Chinese, the real estate agent is Chinese and the contractor speaks no English...only Chinese.  It can be easy to feel as if we are out of the loop a bit.  We want to be nice and play well with others, but we are not feeling certain about the contract work and as we have been unable to see a report on what was done. It seems the sellers are very nice people but we are struggling to all get on the same page - would you pray for this?  Thanks.  OK, I can laugh again.

Happenings with the Monaghans

It is interesting to see how fast this past month has gone by.  We have enjoyed being together with Kasey's family and connecting with Vintage 21, a local church in downtown Raleigh.  I have put some good work into the beginnings of a Family Worship resource as well and have been rewriting some evangelism training.  These are still very much works in process, but I am thankful for the progress which has been made.  I have some more time set aside this week for writing and look forward to that time. I do miss my library though; it is a bit tough to write without your own books standing ready to help. 

I also have been doing some reading and prep work for a Pastor's Training Program I have been invited into through Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA.  They will be flying me out to Seattle every six weeks from July to May to invest in my life as a church planter.  Mars Hill founded the Acts 29 Network and is deeply committed to church planting; I am thankful for their invitation and investment in my life. 

Kasey and I recently returned from Vail Colorado where Acts 29 held its annual lead pastor's retreat.  This event is provided by Mars Hill at no charge to the pastors and has the purpose to bless, encourage, refresh and strengthen church planters and their wives.  We just had to get our own airfare.  We joined together with 91 other couples to be poured into by an older couple, to fellowship with other planters, to get some R&R and receive teaching on the state and labors of Acts 29 Network.  We were so encouraged by the quality people we spent time with and left very fired up for the work ahead.  I was particularly encouraged as Kasey got time with some planter's wives who are walking similar paths; they were a great encouragement to her.   After returning from Colorado I enjoyed the new Pixar film WALL-E with my two little girls - I wrote a little commentary on the movie here if interested.

Well, that is about all for now.  Hopefully I will write to you in early August from our new home in North Brunswick, NJ.  I have realized so much over the past few weeks that I need patience and trust in the Father's good plan.  It has been good for me to slow down, spend time with family, count the costs of the mission ahead, pray and seek God for all he has before us.  I have also been able to do some reading on the presumptuous nature of the new atheism, biblical theology and some letters from Jack Miller on servant leadership. 

Please know that we thank God for you often and have appreciated the e-mails and calls from many of you since our departure from Middle Tennessee.  We miss our friends there already.  Well I need to bring this to a close and get back to plowing through a pile of e-mails. 

Grace and Peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ - he is our strength and hope in every season,

Blessings in Christ,

Reid S. Monaghan

Prayer Requests

• Final House Details
• Wisdom and Hard Work for our first month in NJ - we will have only a month before school starts and need to get ready to roll out
• Our children to adjust well in our first year in NJ
• For fruit in our efforts to share Christ with people, build a launch team and see a movement begin in the Northeast. We are praying for many NJ people from various cultural backgrounds to join in the work before we launch
• For our launch date - we are praying for either April 09 and Sept 09
• Pray for future staffing decisions as we move forward in this work

Jacob's Well DNA

Jacob's Well Doctrine and Theology

We are on a bit of a walk-about these days making our way towards New Jersey in this journey called Jacob's Well.  As most of you know a house sale broke down for us last minute which sent us scrambling to a quickly cobbled together a "Plan B."  To be quite honest, I really want to be in New Jersey this summer.  I wanted the time to settle the family, ready a home and set up my library in a home office.  Much more than missing my books, which are living in small lonely boxes somewhere in storage in Nashville, I wanted the time in New Jersey to love on the family before I put both feet into the work of planting in the fall.  Yet I have been reminded that our "Plan A" is not always the path of God and that he directs our steps as he fits.  The truth of this Hebrew proverb is strong for me today:

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps

We know that this life travels up and down through various turns of providence.  Yet we also know that his hand and character are the great constants holding our lives as he unfolds his plans. So the next steps for us were to load up two movable storage units with a company called PackRat (think PODS but with Carolina blue designs) and have them taken to storage while our family relocated to North Carolina.  Carolina is a sweet place for me as it is the place of my spiritual birth; quite literally I met Jesus during my time in these parts.  It has brought a bit of reflection to my life these days.

It is also a sweet place for our family because it is home for Kasey and we love her family.  The kids are doing well and having a great time at Nana and Grandpa's house; they also love the family dog Buddy.  We will be attending church with some friends here at Vintage 21 - a church in the planting network with which we are involved.  We are thankful for many things - and I am trying to thank God for the delay.  We will also connect here with some dear friends and ministry partners...a cool and an unexpected blessing.  Yet there is work to be done in New Jersey and step one is a place to live; and these steps are moving.

House Hunters - The Kasey Edition

This past weekend my wife went on a mission.  And believe me, Kasey on a mission is an exciting thing to watch.  On Monday May 26th we finished our packing and set off on a trek on I-40 from Nashville to Raleigh. We exhaled on Wednesday and then Kasey climbed aboard a plane on Thursday to go see some new houses on the market in NJ.  After spending a few days there she made some first steps in the right direction on another house.  We offered, they countered...we offered, they countered and have a tentative deal that is moving forward.  We are thankful as the house is more affordable and much more suited to our family and starting a church.  Please pray that the many moving parts and details would all work out.  The one catch is that we will likely close in late July, leaving us in NC a little longer than I anticipated.  Yet God's good hand seems upon all of this and we ask your prayers.  Once things move along in the house deal we will hopefully be able to say more.  Interesting enough, our in-laws have cable and for some reason I have been watching the show House Hunters on HGTV and feeling some strange solidarity with people wandering through homes.  As a caveat...men, you should regulate the amount of HGTV you watch - there is some unwritten man law somewhere I don't want to cross.

Schedule? What Schedule?

During the next 6-8 weeks I want to make the most of this time.  I want to get some work done on some projects for Jacob's Well which will be useful to the church once we get started.  I want to finish the final bit of fund raising for Phase I of the plant (we are roughly at 96%).  I want to enjoy my family and get some rest in the calm before the storms of the final move and the launching of new ministries.  I want to stay in contact with Jacob's Well partners and friends moving to NJ with us.  More than anything I want to deepen in my walk with Jesus and not go into the work with a dry soul.  So I am sitting before a blanker than usual calendar and seeking God's wisdom for priorities and a schedule in this season.

Kasey and I are grateful for our family, our kids, our friends and a summer in NC.  We are also thankful for God's call upon our lives which means heading north here soon.  Please pray for us in this season of the in between.  In some sense this gives broader clarity to the truth about all of life.  We live every day in an "in between."  We live in a fallen world outside of Eden sojourning towards an eternal kingdom.  We live in a transient age that will soon fold into eternity. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 reminds me of our pilgrimage.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Yet there are many more travelers who will join the journey with Christ; we pray for them, long to meet them, long to share the gospel of grace with them.  We thank you for seeing this vision with us - for communities to be birthed who live for the glory of God and the good of the city by extending hope through the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

We thank each of you for your prayers, partnership and friendship in the gospel.  Our e-mail and cell phones are the same so feel free to contact us if you need anything. 

Grace and peace in the journey,

Reid S. Monaghan

Please Pray

• For our team's transition to New Jersey - some are on the move even as I write
• For our planning for year one in New Jersey - for adjustments due to the delay
• For God to provide for the work - people, leaders, finances, places to meet, encouragement, boldness and humility
• For our marriage and family as life has been shaken up for all
• For the house we are working on in NJ

Glory to God

• The single guys of Jacob's Well just landed a huge 8 bedroom house a few blocks from Rutgers - a great location for ministry and living
• For our supporters who are regularly giving to this work
• For his giving us a life to live worth living
• For his love, his grace, his truth, his passion, his hope, his joy, his peace, his patience, his justice, his kindness, his severity, his mercy - for who God is in Jesus

I wrote this e-mail a couple of weeks ago - I thought it would be appropriate to post it here as well.  We'll have a more thorough update here soon.

--------------------------------------------------------------- 

In light of our last update, this e-mail is a bit unexpected for us.   We need to ask for prayer in regards to our housing situation...to make a long last two days story short, the house appraised way too low.  We countered with the seller at the lower appraised value and they were not too flexible.  Unfortunately, we found it the prudent course to cancel the deal.  We had much counsel to not do something financially unwise particularly in light of the real estate downturn.  We feel OK with the decision but our summer just became very complicated. 

We will likely move our things into PODS or PACKRAT type storage and have it moved to their storage to be driven to NJ at a later date this summer.  It looks like our family will have a few months this summer in Raleigh.  So here are the new plans as of today...

• Pack and move our stuff this week - out of house by May 27^th
• Travel to Raleigh to stay with Kasey's family for a season
• Continue to pray and look for a reasonable priced home that will serve our family and ministry
• Move to NJ later this summer - most of our team is not arriving until August so we have time

We are very disappointed but think we made the wise decision.

Thanks everyone - we really appreciate your prayers

Reid S. Monaghan 

Over the last few weeks I gave my last message to the Inversion Fellowship - a community we founded in the fall of 2004.  I have to admit it was a wonderful evening - but I ended up getting all blubbery and teary eyed at the end of the message. My friends at Inversion were so kind to me as they announced they were doing a secret fundraiser by running the Music City Marathon to help raise money for Jacob's Well.  A few of the running team is pictured here in nice Carolina/Jacob's Well blue. 

I don't know how to put into words how at home I feel with the people of Inversion - in a real way they feel like family.  Their words, fellowship, laughs, notes, gifts and cake from that night will not be forgotten.  We also rolled out the Inversion booklet series that night which was a blessing to see. The greatest highlight of that evening was my family making it out to Inversion - the kids stayed up late with Mom to be with me on that Thursday night.  Kasey - a precious gift my dear friend.

Additionally, we had a great evening with many of you as we prayed together for the launching of Jacob's Well here on April 27^th.  It was so good to see so many of you together and see all that God is doing to send this little seedling northward here soon.  Many thanks for our out of town friends who left little notes on our eVite page; your words and affirmation were treasures for us. 

We officially move on May 26 - and by God's grace, and by his timing - we have finally found a place to lay our heads in this next season...and that is a little story in and of itself.

A New Home for a New Season

Kasey and I have recently been reflecting on this past year and the path God has placed us upon in these days.  His works to bring things together for Jacob's Well to begin have been evident and constant at each step of the journey.  Yet some paths seem to wind to and fro a bit more than others and I have to confess that our search for a home in Jersey has had so hairpin turns.  After an unsuccessful house hunting trip in early April we spent another few days May 1-4 wandering North Brunswick township in search of a house with room for family and church starting and which would fit within our budget.  We had been haggling for one home with little love coming back on the other end...yet at the end of last weekend it still seemed the best option.  Yet the deal still seemed elusive.  After working on Plan B Sunday morning - which would involve storage units, moving family two times - we received a phone call from our realtor.  There was a house to see at 1pm that wasn't supposed to be shown until the next day.  To make a long story shorter, we walked it over for a good half hour we placed an offer on the home.  We received a counter as we were driving to the airport to which we adjusted and presented our own counter.  Standing in the security line at the airport we learned that we had a deal. 

Kasey and I spent over two months researching, looking and making the two trips up to look for a house.  We worked hard, wrestled with one another about locations, house sizes, neighborhoods etc.  Our only guess is that we really needed to walk through that season together for God's purposes.  Yet when our hopetank was approaching "Empty" it was as if God just unfolded things in less than three hours.  It was surreal moment thinking about how all of this happened and all we could do is thank God.  Thank him for the difficulty in the search, for the stretching on the journey and for his provision in his timing and for his glory.  

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

The house is older, smaller and much more expensive than our home here in Tennessee.  It also has spooky high property taxes as an extra special bonus!  All joking aside, it looks like a great house in a good location and a wonderful blessing to the Monaghan home team.  Please pray for appraisals, inspections, etc.  We close on May 28th!

Dwelling 

On April 28th four of us from Jacob's Well traveled up to Manhattan to receive equipping and training at the Dwell Conference for church planters.  It was a great couple of days of teaching and traveling from Jersey to NYC on the trains.  I really enjoyed hanging with some of the guys moving up with us this summer.  The venue for the event was a large cathedral - a great atmosphere indeed.  You can see a pictures below.  After DWELL I spent time with some other pastors in Philadelphia before picking up Kasey for the house hunt (see above - smile).  A great week in the city indeed.  

Funding Update

Just a quick update on our funding goals for all of us watching the well fill up.  This month we report that we have about 92% of our Phase 1 funding goals committed.  If you have pledged financial support you can begin your giving online here.  Thank you!

Finally, our team will be moving up throughout the summer and it looks like we will all be together in New Jersey by August.  Then the real fun begins - launching out as a community to live for the glory of God, the good of the city by extending hope through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Many thanks to each of you for being on board with us on this. Your prayers and support is a pillar and buttress to this work.  The next update we'll send will be written from northern lands.  Until then.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Reid S. Monaghan

Prayer Requests

• For all of our team and their coming relocations to New Jersey.  Finding jobs, housing, basic services etc
• For us to adapt to the Northeast and connect with local culture
• For God to prepare hearts and minds for the gospel in the communities where we will live, work and socialize
• For God to give us unity as a team and protection from the enemy
• For financial provision, frugality and diligence as we plant in a very expensive part of the country
• For protection, wisdom and vision for our family
• For God to raise up multiethnic leadership for our launch team in New Jersey

The number of days we have left here in Tennessee are starting to feel very finite; we are looking to move at the end of May.  Schools are wrapping up, we are working on the final stretch of funding and researching moving truck options.  It is tough to even know how to say goodbye to everyone here as so many have become close to the heart.  Yet in the mission of God, goodbyes are both necessary and temporary.  There is always another day which will come to see each other again and without goodbyes mission cannot move forward in other lands.  We embrace this, but it doesn't make it any easier. 

I have nine mini books I have written over the years with Inversion which we are printing and will soon find their way onto the great invention called the Internet (please, no political thoughts here).  It is a gift I leave with Inversion that I pray they may use for many years to come.  I preach one last time at Inversion on April 24^th - please pray for this evening and all of my upside down friends.

I am guessing many of you have already seen the invitation (eVite) for our April 27^th evening of prayer, vision and fellowship.  We are gathering together to honor Christ and send off this little project called Jacob's Well. You are all invited to attend with your families.  The evening will run from 6:30-8:00 PM and dessert will be provided.  There will be a very low key offering at the conclusion of the evening but it is by no means necessary.  We did want to tell everyone so as to be up front.  We'll have some time with Jacob's Well, I'll introduce some folks that are moving with us, we'll seek the Father and hear a little music from some friends.  I do hope you can come.  RSVP at the eVite page or to me at partners@JacobsWellNJ.org.

Funding Update

The little well graphic we have been watching together continues to fill.  This month I am thankful to report that we are at about 83% of our Phase 1 funding goals.  Things keep moving along and we thank each of you for your part.  Please pray for us to labor together to fill the well before we move - we mainly need monthly and annual partners for 3-5 years.  God is gracious to his people to provide so faithfully.

Overall, our family seems united in both spirit and purpose.  Kasey has worked so hard and with such excellence on our housing situation.  I am so thankful for my friend and partner - she reads these too you know.  Kasey, hats off my lady - you are one incredible woman.  After an arduous time praying and talking things over we made the decision to have our two oldest girls in a classical Christian school next year in NJ.  We will likely have them back in public at some point, but in these very young years in Jersey, we felt it best to seek something academically excellent and faithful to an integrated Christian worldview.  We also received a generous financial aid package from the school and then a few angels offered to cover the rest.  Yes, I did cry when this all happened.

We serve a faithful God along roads that are not always lined with roses.  We know that thorns abound in us and around us, but the sweet aroma of Christ inhabits our souls.  We are grateful to each of you for your friendship, prayers and partnership - a trinity of comfort to us sent from Father, Son and Spirit.  We look forward to seeing many of you very soon, perhaps on April 27^th, certainly in eternity. 

In Grace for the Struggle ahead,

Reid S. Monaghan

Prayer Requests

• For some guys from Jacob's Well attending the DWELL conference on church planting in NYC
• For the sale to go through on the house - the next two days are important
• Kasey and I have a house search trip April 3-6 - pray for us to find a new home
• For the right people in New Jersey to join our core group to launch Jacob's Well
• For the last segment of our support

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing one or more extra days (or, in the case of lunisolar calendars, an extra month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year. For example, in the Gregorian calendar, February would have 29 days in a leap year instead of the usual 28. Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of full days, a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would, over time, drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year which is not a leap year is called a common year.

Enough of that nonsense...What I really wanted to do was say hello and give everyone an update on the progress of things with Jacob's Well and our family. 

Houses, Showings, and a little Drummer Boy

It is official.  The homestead for the Monaghan Home Team is on the market for sale.  We are doing the for sale by owner attempt for a couple of weeks before going with a real professional.  If you happen to know anyone who wants to live in Franklin, TN - we have a pretty cool web site for the house.  My wife Kasey is running point on the house project and doing a fantastic job.  It is quite an effort with three little ones to keep a house always ready to show.  We are working as a family to keep things tidy though 18 month Tommy Reid doesn't seem to care so much.  Boys like to strike objects with other objects; his favorite instrument is a black drum stick.  Problem is that he thinks everything is a drum.  Putting the house for sale makes the move seem much more imminent and real.  We are for the buyer to show up in God's timing.

More Movers and More Shakers

We just received official word that another young married couple is moving north with us to diggeth the Well.  That gives us four single men, 2 young married couples and the 5 Monaghans as part of the mustard seed called Jacob's Well.  I am in conversation with another couple currently in California and a few young single women that are considering moving as well.   Pray for all the folks involved in this effort that they would trust God with their fears and for provision in a new place.  We are moving, we just don't want to be shaking in fear.  We are mindful of the challenges ahead but confident that God has already gone before us in the new mission of Jesus in the northeast.  Please also pray for the people in New Jersey that God will place on the team to begin the church.  We are praying that God would provide multi-ethnic leadership in the early days of Jacob's Well.

April Trip - Dwell and Extreme Makeover: Our Home Edition.

The last week of April and the first part of April will have us traveling to NYC/NJ for some exciting things.  First, me and three of the young men moving with us to Jersey (I have named them the Well Diggers) are attending a church planting conference called Dwell.  Dwell will be a gathering of church planters who desire to influence the urban centers of America in our days.  We are hoping to have a good time together doing some male bonding and dreaming of what God might do in and through us in the coming months and years.  

Additionally, Kasey will join me at weeks end for three days of fury in shopping the overpriced, overtaxed New Jersey housing market.  We will be looking for a house that will fit our family, the church plant and upon which we might have to do a little makeover work.  Personally, I'm not too motivated at fixer uppers.

Financial Update

We are thankful to say that we are now 78% towards our initial funding goals.  If you know anyone who may want to join us in this work, do let us know.   Please pray for a couple young guys who are raising support to do seminary and serve as pastoral assistants to me in the early days of the church plant.

You should have received a receipt from Fellowship for 2007 donations so please let me know if you did not receive one.   We are encouraged that almost all of our monthly or annual partners are giving through our online facility which provides great efficiency to the process and saves us time and money.   For those of you who are preparing to begin giving, the process is simple and can be found here at the Jacob's Well web site.

Maybe by the next time I write to you we will be homeless - or at least have sold our home here in Tennessee.  We know the future of our lives, our souls and our destinies lay in hands much greater than our own.  We thank each of you for your prayers and friendship.  Until next time.

Much love from all of the Monaghan Home Team

Reid S. Monaghan

Prayer Requests

• For Reid, Kasey, Kayla, Kylene and Tommy Monaghan, Worth and Amy Lumry, Ross and Laura Priddy, Tim Dees, Ben Schellack, Shaun Dean and Paul Helms (making decision)...to be knit together to live as the church in New Jersey.  And others who will join us in digging the well.
• For our home to sell - preferably by owner.
• Pray for our house hunt in late April/Early May.
• For the remaining 22% of our initial support goals to be provided in the next 3 months.
• Cultural adjustments to living in the northeast.
• Fruitfulness in the gospel, people to meet Jesus.

I write to you at the crossroads of an ending and a beginning. We are kicking off the final season with Inversion and my heart aches a bit as I think of leaving. We have taken care in preparing the transition giving it much thought, prayer and attention. Yet it does not make leaving easy. At the same time I have a growing passion and expectation to move out in the mission to which God has called. In reflecting the last few weeks on what is going on in me surrounding the “transition” I have realized that loving going and hating leaving are emotions that rightfully go together in the mission of God. Going means furthering the kingdom and pushing out into the darkness with the light of the world. Yet leaving leaves an empty feeling of relationships and friends who I will not be doing life with in the coming years. Yet it gives great encouragement to see this reality on full display when the apostle Paul departs from the Ephesian elders in Acts 20. There are both tears and focus, aching at separation and a clear intensity to follow God’s call. I have actually pictured in my mind walking to my car after Inversion on a Thursday night someday soon. The image in my mind of not coming back here brings a sadness which hard to describe. So I resonated with much of what is recorded in Paul’s hour of departure recorded in Acts 20:17-38. His final words show the beauty of embrace and departure as we follow Jesus to where he leads:

36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, 38 being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.

Preparations

Kasey and I are in the midst of a flurry of preparations – many of which make the list of things that get people really stressed out…especially when they all come at one time. We are working to prep our house for sale, preparing to change jobs, looking for a new home in New Jersey, transitioning 3 kids under 6, new schools, new friends and walking with others who will be heading to Jersey with us to dig Jacob’s Well. Additionally, Kasey has been struggling with some intense headaches and we are seeking wisdom as to what might be causing them. She is doing better this week but it has been exhausting for all of us. We have been feeling some tension so we ask for your prayers for our marriage in this season as we are feeling some strain. We thank God for my cousin who kept our kids this past weekend so we could get away just the two of us – a wonderful gift.

Ministry Update

I hope you do not mind me sharing a bit of fun news regarding things that are developing with Jacob’s Well. This is fun stuff.

We're pregnant! Well, not exactly in that way. A couple of weeks back we had another young man (26) commit to move to NJ with us for the purpose of continuing seminary studies at Southern Seminary (there is an extension in NYC) and training with me to learn to plant churches. He is a current leader in our ministry here in Nashville. Another guy (24) is feeling called he is going to do the same. Another guy (23), is praying through it as well with similar life calling. Finally, another young man (24) who already moved up in July is now considering ministry at some point. He is working for a large insurance firm in NJ and doing well, but is praying about ministry. So, we have two and potentially as many as four guys who will be pastoral assistant guys and possible future planters. One of our passions is to be a church that births new churches; it is exciting to think that the guys who may lead those future works are already with us. I am looking forward to getting together with these young men at a church planting conference in New York City in late April.

OK, this is spooky providential.  Several years back at Virginia Tech I started a ministry there with Athletes in Action. I led this soccer guy to Christ and we became good friends. He left VT very green in the faith and I just reconnected with him last week via Facebook. He had read about our current plans and we had a fun exchange. Then this note came from him - an encouragement to his young faith and a real blessing to me as well:

Reid,

It's amazing how God works. I just got back in contact with an old friend who is moving to New Jersey to start a new ministry and I just found out that I will be moving to New Jersey as well to work for the Federal Air Marshals. I just got the call this morning. I will be working out of Newark Airport. I applied with them over a year ago. Things don't happen by chance...God really does have a plan for everyone. At least I will know someone else in New Jersey .

That's the newest thing in my life. I have been praying on this for a long time and finally God answered. I am going to go pray and thank Him for all this. Just thought I would send you a message. Looks like I"ll be back on my feet sooner than I thought.

He could live close to us and hit an easy train to Newark. Another wrestler who came to Christ at VT is also in NJ and close by. Anyway, I thought these were all fun developments that needed to be shared. I'm really a bit fired up today at what Jesus is doing...

Financial Update

We are thankful to say that we are now 70% towards our initial funding goals. It has been such an encouragement to lock arms with you in this and see God work. We still have a ways to go, but the momentum has been fresh wind to our souls. Things are slowing a bit after the New Year, but we still have many partners to follow up with that seem eager to discuss this work. If you know anyone who may want to join us in this work, do let us know. I wanted to give a quick description of the financial goals we have so you can pray for us and get us on the same page logistically etc.

The funds we are raising today we are calling “Phase 1” of our process towards New Jersey. The support we are working on today will allow our family to work full time in mission for 3-5 years without requiring a salary directly from the little church which will be born. Additionally, the funds are going to provide for the early operational expenses of planting the church, operating an office, connecting people to the mission of Jesus in New Jersey. One of the challenges in this area of the country is staying power in a new work. It is quite expensive and we want to have time to sow the gospel well and build a good foundation with the church. Much of the funds in the early days are coming from the outside of Jacob’s Well and Fellowship Bible Church is processing all of these donations on our behalf. You should be receiving a receipt from Fellowship for 2007 donations and please let me know if you do not receive one in the next few weeks. We are encouraged that almost all of our monthly or annual partners are giving through our online facility which provides great efficiency to the process and saves us time and money. For those of you who are preparing to begin giving the process, Jacob’s Well web site is the place to begin. 

In our close to 12 years of ministry we have always enjoyed the partnership in Kingdom work with friends and family. The gospel going forth, people coming to faith in Jesus, changed lives and multiplying ministry is always the cooperative work of God’s people. Thank you for standing with us, praying for us, helping us and believing in God’s call upon our lives. We are passionate that God be glorified in our efforts, that communities will be blessed by new churches and hope will rise in the rugged Northeast through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Much love from all of the Monaghan Home Team

Reid S. Monaghan

Prayer Requests

• Pray for us as we trust God amidst a myriad of life changes.
• Pray for our home to sell this spring in a timely fashion.
• Pray for a new base of operations for home and ministry in New Jersey.
• For the remaining 30% of our initial support goals to be provided in the next 5 months.
• Wisdom for school decisions and our children’s hearts in the move.
• Cultural adjustments to living in the northeast.

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If memory serves, I moved to New Jersey on August 1, 2007, and I started my job in mid-October. I live in New Brunswick, a close-packed college town notable for its bustling diversity. Because of this diversity, New Brunswick has no coherent identity. Your impression of the town comes largely from what block of the city you're standing on; a six block walk can take you from Johnson and Johnson's international headquarters to a block mostly occupied by New Brunswick's sizeable homeless population. Six blocks in the other direction will place you firmly in the middle of Rutgers's campus. My house lies on a street that terminates at two major roads. If you exit on one of the roads, you will have trouble finding an English speaker, and if you exit on the other, you will be standing on the border between Rutgers housing and a part of town that is almost entirely African-American. Getting to know New Brunswick starts with realizing that you know nothing.

I remember my first arrival to New Brunswick, in the dead of night. I had no knowledge of New Brunswick outside of my small apartment, which was the bottom half of a subdivided house that some parishioners of a local Catholic church had found. The next day my roommate and I returned our U-Haul to a parking lot on Commercial Avenue. We watched as hastily-built rental homes ticked by, eventually yielding to a string of car-repair shops. An aloof man with yellow malarial eyes told us to leave the U-Haul around back. Those yellow eyes were my first introduction to a resident of New Brunswick, and I will never forget them.

Driving back, we were snarled in rush-hour New Brunswick traffic. New Brunswick has tiny, thread-like streets that weave through its downtown, so even the slightest volume slows traffic to a crawl. Not knowing where we were going, the three-mile drive back from the U-Haul drop-off took a solid hour. This hour gave us time to interrogate our new surroundings. Downtown New Brunswick feels like a small part of a much bigger city. The narrow streets make the tall buildings seem taller, and the combination means that the sun hardly ever shines directly on the New Brunswick streets. This gives the impression that Downtown is in a state of perpetual twilight, as if everything is always closing down for the day. The city seems to be in a constant sigh.

Two blocks from downtown, Rutgers takes over, with green grass, stately old buildings, and huge crowds of students. Restaurants sell greasy food and cheap beer, and shops peddle t-shirts and bric-a-brac. The occasional frat house stands out for its acute dilapidation, and a barbershop stands like a citadel on every corner. An enormous park passes on the right, a greenspace full of baseball fields and walking trails, presided over by a single condominium building. Eventually, this area peters out into Franklin, a wealthy suburb with no downtown and no comprehensible culture.

Approximately 25% of New Brunswick lives below the poverty line. If you adjust the poverty line for New Jersey's extravagant cost of living, that number rises to almost half. This means that many, if not most New Brunswick residents are engaged in a titanic struggle to get by. I moved to New Brunswick from Nashville, where it would be possible to raise a family on a meager income. New Jersey affords no such reprieve. Even middle-class residents of the state struggle to get ahead against the conspiring forces of expensive home prices and absurd property taxes. This means that it is out of the question to buy a house for under $300,000, and even shoddy condos rarely sell for under $250,000. If you can afford those prices, you will be slammed with property taxes that can easily run into $25,000 a year. These costs drive rent up, and leave everyone worse off. It is true that New York City is a reasonable commute away and that exorbitant Manhattan salaries funnel money into the area, but that effect is mostly confined to the upper-middle and upper classes.

Which brings us to commuting. New Jersey is a commuting state. No one works where they live, and most people wouldn't want to. I commute into Newark, just five miles from Manhattan. Newark is a decaying city of a quarter-million people that has been ground into rubble by the crest and break of industrialization and the pernicious realities of racism. It wasn't always that way, however. Newark was one of the first cities to feel the prosperity that greeted the Belle Epoque in America. It was a leading manufacturing center through the 19th century and into the 20th.

In 1927 it was said: "Great is Newark's vitality. It is the red blood in its veins – this basic strength that is going to carry it over whatever hurdles it may encounter, enable it to recover from whatever losses it may suffer and battle its way to still higher achievement industrially and financially, making it eventually perhaps the greatest industrial center in the world." Prior to World War II, Newark was a beacon of commerce, and the city's future was bright. The tale still circulates that Robert Rauschenberg once accidentally got off his bus in Newark and stayed a week before he realized that he wasn't in New York.

After World War II, a number of African-Americans from the South moved to Newark in search of better opportunities. This coincided with the building of a number of major roads (including the infamous Turnpike) that made commuting feasible. Most white residents of the city left, and most of the major companies were soon to follow (my company, Prudential, is a notable exception). The city of Newark was confronted with an enormous poor African-American population who were typically denied loans from the Federal Housing Administration (those loans were handed out more liberally in white areas), and they chose to put most of them in public housing. This created a huge expense for the city, and a near-permanent underclass. With deteriorating job prospects and institutionalized racism, Newark's African-American community seethed and boiled over in the 1967 riots. The result of the upheaval was that everyone who could move out of Newark, including middle-class African-Americans, did. The only middle-class hold-outs in Newark are the large Portuguese community in the Ironbound District, and their stay in Newark has been marked by racial strife. I've heard more than a few stories about the teams of vigilante Portuguese who would patrol the Ironbound at night to keep African-Americans out.

What all this means is that today's Newark is a city occupied almost entirely by those who cannot leave. There are signs of renewal on the horizon, however: the city's dynamic young mayor, Cory Booker, is a person that I have infinite respect for, and he has taken steps to clean up Newark's corrupt politics and to work towards making the city hospitable once again. Regardless, the look from the ground hasn't changed much, and most people doubt that it will.

If New Brunswick is in a constant sigh, Newark has spent most of the 2000s in a wheeze. It has seen little of the drop in crime that has affected most of America's big cities in the new millennium, and, despite a few Wall Street firms moving back-office jobs to Newark, there is still little hope for Newark's lower classes, as unemployment looms around 12%.

These problems, however, seem incidental to the commuter. If I always stayed close to the office for lunch, I could very well never leave a hundred-yard long stretch of Newark, and many of my co-workers do just that. That is the peculiar predicament of the train commuter. You arrive at the office like a boat arrives at a dock, and everything that you passed might as well be sea. Buildings, neighborhoods, and parks become little more than mile-markers on a journey. The car commuter does little better, but at least he can understand that these things are three-dimensional. He can drive through them, take back-roads, see faces, schools, and children at play. For the train commuter all of these things pass like a great scroll unrolling out the window. At times, Newark feels like a great extension off a train platform.

Train-riders do, however, have consolations that mitigate the abstractness of rail travel. For instance, there is the luxury of time-tables. Going to work isn't a decision you make, it's an appointment. Every day, I am at the train by 8:17 - I have only missed my train once - which puts me in Newark at 8:45. Two stops on the Newark Subway, a 50-yard walk, and I arrive at my desk no later than 9:00. After a while, you convince yourself that it's self-discipline that gets you there on time, but it's really just fear of being left.

This fear channels from the central tension present in every train commuter, a sense of familiarity that may or may not be returned. Every day, I take the same train. I stand on the platform with the same people, many of whom I have assigned nicknames (examples: Beardy, Dapper Dan, Rich Guy, Tired Man, Crazy Eyes), but with one exception, a dyspeptic kidney doctor, I have never spoken to any of them. There is a group of three of us who ride the Subway together every day, and usually take the same elevator. It's myself, a man and a woman; the three of us see each other every day, but we've never exchanged words. When one of them arrives at the Subway platform, however, I still feel comforted, as if everything is in its place.

This sense of community, however false it is, is one of the great rewards of train travel. When I walk into the train in the morning, almost half of the people are usually asleep. Sleeping around strangers isn't something that adults generally do, but it's hardly noticed on the train. Everyday on my ride home I take a fifteen-minute nap, and I sleep as easily as if I were in the womb. I ride past housing projects, burned-out factories, and wealthy suburbs, until I finally arrive at home.