In 1978 I had an encounter with the Lord and started a great adventure.  The Holy Spirit convicted my heart I repented and experienced a new birth that resulted in a great change in my life.  Truly I could say old things had passed away and behold all things had become new.  Things I had once seen as important faded away and things I once desired no longer had the same pull on my life.  Temptations were still there but there was a greater power that was at work.  My life had changed forever.

I had a passionate desire to know God in a new and intimate way that drove me into His word and into prayer.  The more I read and studied the more I wanted to know.  I wanted to know the Lord in a knowledgeable way but also to know Him in His presence.  As all this took place I began to have a passion for others to know what I had experienced. 

I realized from the scripture that God had given us a command to "Go into all the world and make disciples"

Matthew 28:18 - 20 (NKJV)

¹⁸And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.¹⁹Go ^£therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,²⁰teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." ^£Amen.

All I knew was that the word of God had hit me right in the face and I realized I did not know the God of the Bible.  My heart was torn and I cried out for Him to change me and to help me with the spiritual poverty I found myself in. God rescued me.  I thought, "How can I, who knows so little, tell others about this great God who had changed my life?"  God through the Holy Spirit gave me power to witness the gospel to the nations and that was what I was going to do.  I began to see people come to the Lord. God had me discipling them and working with others in their own relationships.  Life was exciting and God was moving in an awesome way.  The desire to share the Lord has taken my family and I to many different places, including several different countries to be a part of exporting the Kingdom of God tothe earth.  I used to say that I would have liked to have been alive in a different period of time, Jesus day or the early church era.  But as I have matured I have realized that we are living in one of the most exciting times ever.  Now, more than ever, we need to press into the kingdom of God and be violent about our faith and possess the kingdom.  When I look at the New Testament church, I see people who were directed by the Holy Spirit and moved by His power.  You do not see a people who were afraid of the Holy Spirit moving or apologizing for God showing up in a meeting.  They were not always trying to come up with some new strategy or scheme to effect people for God.  We have used everything we can imagine from water giveaways, hot chocolate give aways, mass mailings to servant and mercy ministries, which I am not opposed to, but at the end of the day, we have seen little, if any results. We continue to                               ask ourselves what more could we have done?  We keep praying God give us more new ideas. 

I believe God does have an idea. I believe that there needs to be a return to what has always worked and that is walking and operating in the presence of the Most-High God. There needs to be a fresh emphasis on making disciples through fathering and mentoring.  None of the things we have attempted can or will be able to replace the moving of the Spirit of God.  Nothing replaces prayer and fasting and seeking the direction of the Holy Spirit.  We have tried a lot of things in our own strength that have only proven to be dead works because they have produced little, if any fruit.  I believe a return to Holy Spirit driven ministry will produce lasting fruit.

            We must continue to go into the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ that transforms lives into the image of Christ.  We need to hear the same criticism that the early church was hearing that those "who turned the world upside down has come here also".

 Acts 17:6

The gathering is currently a group of men from various networks and churches that gather together for a common purpose which is to extend the Kingdom of God through the launching of new churches as well as strengthening existing churches. We had our first meeting in April 2007, where a company of 25 men gathered together for a time of relational building through prayer, worship and dialogue. Numerous hours given to discussion of what the church should be, seemed to be fruitful and profitable to all as many ideas and strategies were exchanged. Although, our time together was fruitful we felt we should trim back our next meeting to a core gathering with a more focused agenda.

 Our second meeting in August 2007 consisted of a core group of men geared more toward apostolic/prophetic ministry and church planting. Many of these men have participated in church planting and/or are currently working with a church plant. However, there are those that do not yet sense the Spirit's release to extra local work but are looking to be equipped and discipled in the apostolic and prophetic functions. Let me say, by no means are we trying to single out certain ministry gifts while depreciating others. We recognize that every God-given gift is needed for the body of Christ to "come unto a perfect man." At the same time, we also recognize that there is a divine order as to the planting and building of Father's House (1 Cor. 12: 28; Eph. 2:20).

If our purpose as "The Core Gathering" is to launch new churches, then there needs to be a consensus among us as to the theological guidelines and principles set in God's Word. We seriously take to heart Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 3:10 that we need to be careful as to HOW we build!! We are living in a time where "Father" is shaking everything that can be shaken, that is everything that has been constructed by the hand of flesh and it starts with LEADERSHIP!! I believe "today's" style of church leadership has been trying to lead the church from a pastoral perspective rather than from an apostolic perspective, which has caused the church to come under a curse of immaturity. Today's style of leadership has done well at providing "services" and performing for the saints rather than equipping the saints to "perform the work of the ministry". No doubt, we need the ministry gift of the "Pastor", however the pastoral gifting alone will never be able to bring the church into maturity.  Many leaders are tired and frustrated and are leaving the ministry because they have taken on a "position" rather than operating in their God-given "function". As divine order is restored once again, I believe we will truly get the revelation of what Jesus said in Matthew 11:30; "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Church must become SIMPLE once again! Therefore, as the core gathering, we feel our mandate to teach, train, and build properly the body of Christ as we continue steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine (Acts 2:42).

After our first meeting in April of 2007, we have already begun to see fruit. We are currently doing a church launch in Newark, OH. The apostolic team that is overseeing this launch consists of : Pete Rehner, Jason King, Randy Kutz, Matt Kutz and Matt King. We have four monthly meetings already scheduled, starting in September 2007, leading up to the church launch in January of 2008 with weekly meetings being held. We have also been seeking the Lord about a possible church launch in Mt. Vernon, OH in the future.

Even though "The Core Gathering" is in it's beginning phase, we eagerly and patiently await to see what God will do in us and through on this path of discovery. We ask , as the Spirit leads, that you would keep "The Core Gathering" in your prayers that the Lord would guide us every step of the way as it becomes and takes on it's own identity!