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  • JACK THOMAS

    Milford Sound in New Zealand
  • My family and I are residents of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I am a father, husband, follower of Jesus Christ, teacher, pastor, church planter, blogger, thinker, reader, leader, servant, temple of God, sinner, child of God, friend, co-worker, prayer warrior and worshipper.
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Browsing Category Lifestone Church

6,000

March 8, 2009 · Jack Thomas

This weekend I have crossed over the barrier of 6,000 hits on my blog!  I just want to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who are frequent visitors and to those who might stop by every now and then.  I hope your visits have been beneficial and have been a blessing to you in your life and walk with the Lord.  This blog is not a place to make my name known, rather it is a ministry that is designed to reach people and benefit their lives in a positive way!  That’s right, this blog is all about YOU!  Surpassing the 6,000 hit count is a great thing, but what would bless me even more is to hear the stories of people who have been blessed by the Lord through this ministry!  It would be very encouraging for me to hear how God is using this blog for His glory!  Don’t hesitate to drop a line and share something that has helped you or maybe something that even made you laugh a bit!

As we embark on this new, exciting, and lifelong journey of pastoring in Pittsburgh, I am so excited to see what God is going to do and with the ministry of this blog, you can follow every step of the way.  There will be life and family updates, ministry updates, nuggets from God’s Word, application, humor, and much more!  Stay tuned!

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One More Step!

March 4, 2009 · Jack Thomas

Great news everyone!  If you have been following my blog for sometime, you obviously know that Jamie and I have been called to plant a church in Pittsburgh, PA next year!  We are super excited about this calling and direction the Lord has placed on our life!  One of the great parts about our fellowship, The Assemblies of God, is that they take church planting very seriously!  What I mean is, if you are a minister with the AG and want to plant a church, you can’t just move and start a church just because you feel like it.  There are several things that must happen first.  Since the Assemblies of God in America is broken down into districts, each district is ultimately responsible for the new churches that start up in their respective states or region.  These two things must happen if you desire to plant a church with the Assemblies of God:

  1. Connect with a network or church within our fellowship to be sent out from (Being mothered and sent out by another church is a huge deal in setting yourself up for success).
  2. Be assessed and approved by the leadership officials of that district as a person who is genuinely called by the Lord to plant a church.

Let me be the first to say that both of these are underway in our process!  We have just set a date for our district assessment to be church planters in the Pennsylvania-Delaware district with the Assemblies of God.  We will be traveling to the PennDel district office in April to start this great journey in influencing the city of Pittsburgh for Christ!  Once approved by our district, the door will be open for us to start building this church from the ground up!  How exciting!

If you are reading this blog, could you please pray for my wife and I as we prepare for and go through this process of assessment with the Assemblies of God?  We believe the Holy Spirit is going to make obvious the calling and direction He has on our life and ministry to everyone involved!  Please pray for:

  • Divine favor!
  • A very clear communication and understanding of our vision for this church, pastoral experience and calling, and many other things we will be asked about and will share!
  • A solid relational connection with the district leadership!
  • Safe travels as we will be on the road for several hours!
  • A “God” outcome and result!

This is but one more step to the reality of Lifestone Church!

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New launch team member

February 24, 2009 · Jack Thomas

I would like to share the fantastic news that very soon we will be welcoming a new member to our launch team!  Unfortunately I can’t exhaust the identity of this person quite yet until all the details are worked out, but I can say this, God is up to something HUGE!  I’ll talk more about this new team member in later posts!  Is your interest peaking???  Is the suspense building???  Don’t worry, It’s normal!!!

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Ladies and Gentlemen, we have begun our descent into….

February 12, 2009 · Jack Thomas

What an update this is!  Only four months to go until our big move to Pittsburgh actually becomes a reality. I feel like I am a airplane1passenger on an airplane and the pilot has just given us the update that we are about to start our descent into a specific city.  Usually when this announcement is made on a plane, people start to get very antsy.  I know I do!  People are ready to stand up and stretch their legs, get some fresh air, walk around a bit, and most importantly, get to their destination of choice.  This really is a perfect description of our current situation.  We are on the last leg of our season in DC and we have truly started to make the descent (not quite there, but getting very close) into Pittsburgh!

Some things we are starting to do:

  1. We are starting to look at housing possibilities and where we will live!
  2. We are connecting with key leaders in Pittsburgh that we will be joining forces with to impact Pittsburgh for Christ!
  3. We are selling things to make our eventual move easier (Thank you Craigslist)!
  4. We are praying for God’s vision for this church to go before us and prepare the way!
  5. We are considering schooling options for our daughter next year (I have talked with several schools already).

As you can see, we haven’t quite landed the plane yet, but we are making our descent.  We are more excited than ever about God leading us to Pittsburgh to create a life-giving culture in the community of SouthSide and all over the city!

If you think about it, please pray for the remainder of our descent into Pittsburgh.  Pray that the Lord will lead and guide us to a safe and smooth landing.  Pray that He will provide all of the necessary resources to make our descent, landing and then arrival a great success and victory for the Kingdom of God!

If you are interested in getting more information about our church and vision, you can go to our church blog at www.lifestonechurch.org.  If you would like to get involved in this work and be a part of what God is doing in Pittsburgh, shoot me an email or just comment below!

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My New Theme

February 1, 2009 · Jack Thomas

Ok, through much prayer and fasting, I have finally chosen the theme for my blog….ok, can you say, “Mr. Superspiritual”!  Maybe I didn’t pray about it, and maybe I didn’t spend time fasting for this decision, and maybe it’s not on the top of God’s priority list for my life, but you have to admit, a theme can really make or break a blog!  Am I right?  I know, I know, the true reality of a blog is it’s content (which is very true), but since people are extremely visiual, a good theme is important to draw people to that content.  I can’t say my new theme is the most enticing, but in my opinion, it’s not too shabby!  Again, I wish WordPress.com had more themes!!!!

So here it is.  I am excited about the future of this blog!  No really, I am truly excited about the ministry this blog possesses!  I am looking forward to connecting with many Pittsburghians through this blog!  I am looking forward to blessing people’s lives, families, and ministries through this blog.  I am looking forward to building a resource and information center that will advance the Kingdom of God throughout the SouthSide, the entire city of Pittsburgh, and throughout the world!

Here is my thought, if my ministry is not all about God’s Kingdom and His people, then why do I minister?  My ministry is not just pastoring, preaching, meetings, etc, but this blog is a part of my ministry.  Therefore, if my blog isn’t foundationaly built with a Kingdom minded vision and direction, then why does it exist?  A blog simply is a representation of the person who is writing for it.  I hope and pray that this blog will always represent the Kingdom minded vision that I have for ministry, church, Pittsburgh and the world.

A new theme????….yes….A new core????  No Way!

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global impact

January 18, 2009 · Jack Thomas

I was driving through the SouthSide of Pittsburgh this evening and I have to say, my passion and burden for this community is even more tl_map-worldreal and stronger than ever before.  It’s hard to believe that in roughly six months or so, Lifestone Church will be the 100% focus of our ministry.  Oh yeah, I have to admit something…..I can’t wait!  But as I was driving down East Carson Street in the SouthSide, I also began to think about the global impact that Lifestone Church is going to make.  As the lead pastor, I am committed to creating and building a community within Lifestone Church that will launch and propel the gospel into all the world. You know, to be a “nation shaking church”!  If we are only making a difference for Christ in Pittsburgh then we are not fulfilling the Great Commission.  I am praying that God would even now start to put nations or specific regions of the world on our hearts that we can “zero in” and really strive to make an impact in those areas!  I want God to put a severe, rock our church, kind of passion in the bloodline of Lifestone for the nations.  Here are some things that I have been challenged to make happen as we create a culture of “global impact” within Lifestone Church:

  1. We will be committed to building believers who are passionate for missions and desire to fulfill the Great Commission.
  2. We will be committed to annually send teams from Lifestone Church to certain regions and nations of the world.
  3. We will be committed to support financially as many individual missionaries as we possibly can (home and abroad).
  4. We will be committed to giving generously to “Speed the Light”, “Light for the Lost” and specific mission’s organizations.

If there are any others that I haven’t listed that you might think would be good for us to consider, please let me know!

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