In the spring of 2008 Will and I got the following email from a guy we had never met:

Bob, Will,

The reason for my writing to you is due to God’s call on my life to plant a church in Lincoln.  This is a calling that has been brewing in my soul for almost 2 years now (from obscure to clarity).  I’m currently going to school part time at Covenant Theological Seminary here in town and am plugged-in with a non-denominational church near our home out in the burbs.

I see there is an Acts 29 regional event in St. Louis this month… if you guys are coming, I was wondering if it would be possible to meet up to chat over coffee or something.

I get at least one email inquiry like this every week. Generally I file them in the “call me back when you have moved out of your mom’s house” file. But we were going to be in St. Louis for the regional. And this email had a number of factors that made it stand apart:

• This guy had a real (non-church) job that probably paid well; he wouldn’t be looking to leave that unless he sensed a strong calling from God.
• Additionally, the fact that he had a career as an engineer meant that he could succeed at something besides planting a church – one of my primary criteria for church planters. If planting a church is the only thing you can do vocationally… you probably shouldn’t.
• He was looking to relocate to NE from a cool city (i.e. one with professional sports teams) where he’d put down roots; again, not the easy road.
• He was investing in a seminary education in addition to a full-time job, so he was probably a hard worker who managed time wisely.
• He was a husband and a daddy who was involved in a local church, not a sarcastic church-basher or a starry-eyed idealist.
• Covenant Seminary is a good school in the Reformation tradition, so he was probably theologically grounded – or at least working on it.

So I agreed to meet him for coffee in STL, and I dragged Kendal along just to get another opinion. That conversation at a coffeehouse across from Wash U began an 18-month journey that is reaching its apex this month with the official beginnings of Two Pillars Church in Lincoln, NE. Along the way, Todd Bumgarner has progressed through Acts 29′s church planter assessment, done a church-planting internship at The Summit Church in St. Louis, quit his lucrative job at Boeing, sold the only house he’s ever owned, and relocated his family to a city he last knew as a pagan frat boy.

It’s exciting for us to see this journey come to fruition with the beginning of The Whiteboard Sessions this month. These are a series of vision meetings at “The 815″ – a building in downtown Lincoln’s Haymarket that God providentially provided before Todd even moved to town.

If you’re part of Coram Deo, I hope you’ll read some of Todd’s personal journey – especially the faith step of his resignation at Boeing – and celebrate with us the joy of seeing God raise up church planters. This is why we do what we do. This is why we blog, speak, and write – because through those mediums, God puts us in touch with men like Todd and helps us fulfill our objectives of raising up, equipping, and supporting church planters.

If you’re a blog reader in Lincoln, I hope you’ll either check out The Whiteboard Sessions or at least pray for the success of Two Pillars. Church planting, after all, is good for God’s kingdom and good for the city.

If you’re a person of means who likes to invest your resources to help people come to know Jesus, I hope you’ll send Todd a check or write him into your will!