CAMINO MERCED
(Monday) Four or five years ago I began to develop a plan for starting a new church in Merced, the community which is about 25 miles south of Turlock (where I live) -- another one of my "spare time" projects. I had some good contacts -- but none of them gelled and I let the idea rest for awhile -- not God's timing.

Over the pass few months I've once again had several opportunities to spend a little time in Merced. The place is just popping with new houses and the new University of California Merced campus is scheduled to open in 2005. This is a unique situation where a small under-churched ag-based city (pop. 70,000), with high unemployment (14%), an incredibly diverse ethnic mix (39% Hispanic, 21% Asian, 7% Black, 57% white) is converging with some of the brightest people in California. This would be a great chance to model multi-cultural socially-diverse ministry. I'm not sure that I'm the best person for that assignment but I'm just up the road and it seems like I need to pull that interest forward off the back burner -- one more thing to do in my spare time. (I'm the kind of person who needs to be going in dozens of different directions at the same time or I don't get anything done.)

Anyone else interested? Got some solid contacts I can follow-up?

I've updated the website I created when I was first working with the idea. It's less than complete but it should convey a little bit of the vision.