The Launch Team
It has been incredible watching God assemble the individuals that He desires be a part of DC Metro’s launch team. We have been praying for months, asking God for divine 
appointments with individuals who will be a part of the team that will help launch the church on September 9th. You never know when you are going to get that inner nudge from the Holy Spirit to share with someone about the vision of the church or to invite them to one of our vision nights - it has happened to me everywhere from standing in line at Best Buy to introducing myself to a family at the beach (yes, we found a quasi “beach” half an hour outside the city for fun family days with Taryn and Isaac). Matthew 28 reminds us to go into the world and make followers of Christ. A cool thing about this passage is that in the Greek the word for “go” is literally translated as “as you are going.” I believe this means as we are going about our normal daily activities (like going to Best Buy- There is not a man alive that does not like this store!), God will strategically place divine appointments in your path. All we have to do is stay in communication with Him, and He will show us the people He wants us talk to and will give us the words to say.
It has been encouraging to see how the Lord has placed the newly recruited members of the launch team in our path “as we have been going.” A tremendous praise report is that we now have 65 incredible members of the launch team! We are well on our way to our goal of 100 people to be on the launch team before our first service. Please join us in our prayers for the remaining 35 people who will be just the right fit for the DC Metro launch team. We count it an amazing privilege to be a part of this move of God in this DC metro area, and we want to invite as many people as possible to be a part of this high calling.
Vision Night
One of the most significant tools that the Lord has used to draw people to the launch 
team is our Vision Night. We have had three Vision Nights -one at the Stine House (that’s us!), one at the Mobley’s (Thanks Ray and Summer), and one at Regent University (Thanks again to Cheryl Gould). This is an opportunity for everyone on the launch team to invite anyone that might be interested in finding out more information about the church. After dessert and coffee are served and people have had a chance to visit, I typically share for twenty to thirty minutes about the vision that the Lord has given us to start a church that would be a significant force in “building a God-first culture in the DC metro area” (something I am very passionate about because it is a vision that Taryn and I have been carrying in our hearts for the past nine years!) I also share from the book of Nehemiah because just as Nehemiah was called by God to rebuild the a physical wall in the capitol city, DC Metro Church has been called by God to be a part of rebuilding the spiritual wall of a God-first culture to surround our capitol city. The most recent Vision Night Reception in the solarium at Regent was such a big success that we have decided to have another one in the same location (Diagonal Road right off King Street in Old Town Alexandria) Friday, August 24th at 6:30pm. If you know anyone in the DC area that might be interested in coming to this, please contact Summer at smobley@dcmetrochurch.org.
The Outreaches
We had a great outreach last Monday night at the Screen on the Green Event on the National Mall. Every summer they show old movies on the lawn in front of the Capitol building (D.C. is a cool place to live). We tried to think of the most creative way to reach the 10,000 plus people who attend the event and came up with the idea of passing out trivia cards with random facts about the movie Casa Blanca such as “the difference in height changes between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman throughout the film.” Overall, we handed out all 600 cards to various individuals and had a great response as we met what, at the time, was many people’s “felt need” (to be entertained and find out some fun interesting facts about the oldie but goodie movie they were about to watch). As DC Metro desires to reach out to the surrounding community with the amazing love of Christ, I have been prompted to be continually asking myself, “What are the felt needs of the unbelievers around me?”
The idea behind meeting the “felt need” has been a theme in all of our outreaches. The simple thought is that by meeting a person’s felt need, it will help them become more open to having their real need met. We all know what that real need is, and His name is Jesus! Jesus modeled this type of ministry when He would meet people’s physical needs (such as for healing or for food) to help open their hearts to be receptive to acknowledging their deepest need. Sometimes when we are meeting someone’s felt need, God has opened the opportunity to invite the person to the first DC Metro service (where many will meet Him!) or to have a good conversation with them, but even when it does not, we believe that every single time we can meet a person’s felt need, it is an act of worship to God because we are serving the person in His name. Matthew 10:42 says that the Lord will remember and reward every single cup of cold water handed out in His name.
Speaking of handing out cold water, we had a very successful water bottle outreach on Thursday August 2nd. We spoke to hundreds of people about the new church, and I think it is fair to say that we officially won over the children in this nighttime outreach. In order to do this, we gave away “Glow Bracelets” and let's just say, “It was a huge hit.”
On the following Saturday, we also handed out over 1100 water bottles at the Friendship Firehouse Festival Event. Handing out free cold bottled water 
on a hot day was definitely meeting a felt need in the community. People are shocked when you offer them something for free, and it often opens up an opportunity to talk with them. We successfully won over kids and parents with “Face Painting.” We painted over a hundred little faces with some pretty cool "face art." You can check out some of our face painting masterpieces at our new DC Metro Church Myspace Page. We felt that this was our most successful outreach yet. In fact, we got into the Alexandria Gazette Newspaper from our Friendship Firehouse Festival Outreach! The photo and information announced our service times as well as our location and our first Sunday, September 9th!!!
We are very thankful for each one who is reading this newsletter. God has given us an amazing support team across the country to stand with us in this mission of building a God-first culture in the DC metro area. Your prayers are an incredible gift that we appreciate tremendously!
Please Pray For...
- God to lead us in the mission of building a God-first culture in the DC metro area
- Protection, provision, and guidance for each member of the DC Metro Launch Team
- 100 people on the Launch Team
- 400 people to attend first Sunday (including many non-believers) – September 9th @ 9am and 10:15!
- That DC Metro Church would become financially independent before we even start. (Thank You Jesus!)
- That God would continue to give us favor in the city and with the community
- That each member of the Launch Team would keep a vibrant personal relationship with the Lord and grow closer to Him in the midst of launching the church
- That DC Metro Church would continue to glorify Him in all that we do!
Thank you again for believing in what God has called us to do!
We love you guys,
David & Taryn Stine
Lead Pastors of DC Metro Church
Nehemiah 2:20 “The God of Heaven will give us success.”
PS – If you know of individuals in the DC Metro Area who would like to be a part of our launch team, please email us and let us know the best way to get in touch with them…
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