Thanks for your patience with me as Ive fallen off updating this blog. As you can tell, moving, having a baby, and starting a new church have kept me totally occupied! We are thrilled to have a healthy, happy 8 week old, Maelle Kate Pensak, born on 10/10/11! Many in our community have helped us during this time of little sleep and long nights and for that we are grateful. Our two older girls, Nadine and Lucie, love being big sisters and helping take care of Maelle. Its been a lot happening at once, but we are happy to be parents of three girls.

UPDATE ON REDEEMER BURLINGTON

We are now in our fourth month of monthly gatherings at our downtown space and we are amazed at how God has grown this community. There are now eight families involved with us, not including singles and grad students. We have also begun a weekly Foundations community group at our house on Wednesday nights where we pray for each other, for Burlington, and for God’s leading for the church. We call this the foundations community group because our vision is to eventually see this group replicated so everyone has a group in their respective neighborhood. Please continue to pray for this little sapling of a community, that Christ would build his church in beautiful but broken Burlington!

In the next post, Ill explain more of the story behind the name, but our church will be called Redeemer Burlington. You’ll see some changes coming soon to this website which will reflect our new name. The Vermont Project name and website will remain in place, because it includes the much larger project of planting churches throughout the state, of which the church in Burlington is, Lord willing, the first. But the main site will be moving to www.redeemerburlington.org soon. The new site will bring all the current content here into an easier to use and more functional site. Thanks for your patience as we make this transition!

UPDATE ON OUR SPACE DOWNTOWN: NEW CITY GALERIE

If youve been receiving our email newsletters, you know about the space on historic Church Street in downtown Burlington that God has graciously provided us. Central to our vision from the beginning of the plant has been to grow a community that will bless the city of Burlington in word and deed. To reach that goal, we are working to build a network of hospitality that weaves through every area of our daily lives–work, home and third places like school, coffee houses, music and art venues, etc. Its these third places where it is easiest to encounter and get to know our neighbors, and so we couldnt be happier to see this space downtown become one of these–a place where as a new church we can both show hospitality to and serve our neighbors. You can read our vision for the space below; over the course of the next year (2012) our plan is to have a series of preview events (were shooting for one a month) where we can begin to invite, love and serve folks in the city. We were thrilled to see a standing room only crowd of close to 50 folks at our first event, a concert with Burlingtons own William Lee Ellis, a folk singer/songwriter who also teaches music at St. Michaels College here.

Here’s our stated vision for the arts space: NEW CITY GALERIE is the beginnings of a new hospitable space for community supported art at 132 Church Street in downtown Burlington. To see the arts community thrive in Burlington, we want to create a gallery space with high artist commissions and a low gallery “take,” connecting the many emerging artists in the city with emerging patrons of the arts. We’d also like to see the gallery space become a hospitable venue for concerts, lectures, and readings that not only support artists’ work but connect them with a community that will care for them as individuals, getting to know them and providing generous support through encouragement and meeting practical needs. And lastly, we want to work toward just and sustainable communities in Burlington by opening doors to the arts which often remain shut for the poor and marginalized, focusing particularly on the large refugee population in the city. New City Galerie is an initiative of Redeemer Presbyterian of Burlington, renewing the rich and ancient Christian tradition of church patronage of the arts. For more information or to get involved, please visit www.newcitygalerie.org.

Peace to you,

Joseph

Photo: Sailboat at the Burlington dock on Lake Champlain 

It’s been a great first two weeks here in Burlington.  We’re almost past the living out of boxes phase (though moving a box to the basement doesn’t really count, I guess), and we’ve had a good chance to get our girls a little more settled in. I will be attending a training conference in Memphis, TN this coming week, so please pray that Katie’s health continues to hold steady while I’m gone. I’m thankful my inlaws will be visiting for the week to take care of her and the girls. Regular gatherings will begin soon, and we’ll have a calendar of events up soon once we’ve worked out the best times/places. We are thankful for many things, most of all for the gospel, which tells us we are not our own, and this is not our story to tell. God is at work here already in many ways, and we are humbled that He is allowing us to be a part of that good work. Those in the Burlington area who have expressed interest in the plant: feel free to call (802-355-5440) or email (joseph(at)thevermontproject.org) with questions. Can’t wait to get started!

Joseph for Katie, Nadine, Lucie (and girl #3, due in early October)

We love our neighborhood and I can ride into center-city Burlington on my bike in five minutes.  I will be traveling to Memphis for some training and fund raising (and to visit family) the last week of July.  Thank you to all who have prayed for our transition up to Burlington. Our girls are loving having a sidewalk and meeting all the neighborhood cats–we’ve counted ten!

Cheers for now,

Joseph

{L to R: Katie, Lucie (3), Joseph and Nadine (6)}

I will be leading a pastor/worship leader forum at the Bifrost Arts conference March 29-31st.  Read details about the conference and sign up to attend at http://www.bifrostarts.com.

Please continue to pray for our upcoming move this summer to Burlington.  Pray that God will provide a place for our family to live that will be in close proximity to those who drive the creative/economic/cultural engine of the city–we want to learn from them what makes Burlington tick, and what needs this new church can help meet. Pray that God will lead us from the beginning to those He wants us to minister to and that He would help us connect with and support what He is already doing in this great city. Continue to pray also for the future RUF work at the University of Vermont.

God is certainly at work bringing people and churches together to support this work!  I recently gave a report on the Vermont Project at a large church in Memphis, TN and was amazed at those who were stirred to pray for and support this venture!  I also had a great day of meetings with potential ministry partners throughout Vermont a few weeks ago. CCEF in White River Junction (www.ccef.org/newengland) is doing some amazing work to bring gospel-centered biblical counseling to a place that really needs it, and Alasdair Groves and I had a wonderful breakfast chatting about partnering to meet the many counseling needs in Burlington.  What an incredible resource this ministry is, and I would highly suggest you check out their website and read some of the books that CCEF has produced.  Some of the books I’ve most consistently used in my own counseling ministry are Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, When People are Big and God is Small, How People Change, and War of Words.

I have updated the links to the social networking buttons on the main blog page, so go check out The Vermont Project on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, etc., as you like.  And keep praying, God is at work!

Joseph Pensak

{Street performers on Church Street this past summer}

I subscribe wholeheartedly to Martin Luther’s famous quote on music: “I have no pleasure in any man who despises music. It is no invention of ours: it is a gift of God. I place it next to theology. Satan hates music: he knows how it drives the evil spirit out of us.” In 2007 I co-founded a music organization called Bifrost Arts with my friend Isaac Wardell. The mission of Bifrost is to “enrich the church and engage the world with beauty and truth in song.” These are sacred hymns, liturgies, and praise songs meant for congregational singing–in fact, there’s a free songbook you can download from the Great Comfort site to use in small groups or church services. Lots of wonderful musicians have participated in the records so far: Sufjan Stevens, Dave Bazan, Damien Jurado, Rosie Thomas, and Denison Witmer are some of my favorites. Lenny and Daniel Smith at Great Comfort Records have put out two of our records called “Come, O Spirit!” and “Salvation Is Created (A Christmas album).” You can hear more about Bifrost’s vision for restoring singing (imagine that!) to the church community at www.bifrostarts.org. Isaac is the creative director of Bifrost and I’ve remained on as co-songwriter. You can find Bifrost Arts music online at Amazon or iTunes or at fine independent record stores.

Joseph Pensak