A New Chapter in our Life and Ministry

We are excited to announce, as many of you probably already know, that the Lord is taking us on a new journey. After 5 amazing years teaching the Bible at North County Christian School, the Lord is leading us away. It's a very bitter sweet things for us right now. The Lord has been so faithful and allowed us to be a part of some amazing kingdom things there. We are truly blessed for the ministry the Lord allowed us to have at NCCS.

The Next Step
For almost 3 years now, we have been a part of a new church plant in St. Louis called North Church. You can check it out at www.northchurchstl.com. Within the last year or two, I have moved into the position of an elder at the church and now am coming on as a co-pastor with the guy who planted the church, Rik Maxedon. I am working part time for my parents at Subway to help pay the bills and insurance as well as raising financial support to pastor and continue the planting process at North Church.

How you can support us
Some of you may be interested in knowing how you can specifically pray for us or ever support us financially. You can contact me at dave.kuntz@sbcglobal.net if you want more information. We are also in the process of setting up online options for fundraising and will post them when they are available. We plan to use this blog to keep you up to date with what's going on. We are not consistent bloggers so I would recommend setting up the "follow" this blog option or signing up to receive an email when we update it (you can do that on the right side of the blog as you scroll down to the bottom.) Also follow me on twitter @davekuntz or on facebook and I will post when we have updated our blog.

We covet much prayer in this process. Thanks for all your support!

In Him,
Dave

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Content from a sermon I preached at North Church a few months back:

:: Seeing the Gospel through North Church ::

My journey from our first day at North Church until now has been one filled with many ups and downs. The joys and excitements of being a part of a new church came with its share of incredible personal and spiritual warfare, so much was new, so much was different. I knew one church model for 26 years of my life. I knew nothing of what it meant to live a missional life.

The past 2 ½ years have been nothing short of life changing. Although it’s included many difficulties, coming to North Church has brought so much freedom and clarity to the Christian life. Raised in aspects of legalism, so much of my pursuit of Jesus was a pursuit of my own self-righteous standing before God. I understood very little of my acceptance before a Holy God as based on the finished work of Christ alone. I obviously didn’t know it at the time, but I placed a ton of stock on how much of a good boy I was and in sin judged others for how bad they were. I hadn’t fully come to grips with all that the gospel meant for my life. And I am still trying to come to grips with

Is. 64:6 (NIV)

⁶ All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.

Col. 1:22 (NIV)

²² He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

I knew the gospel message really well, but only as a means of justification. I viewed it as the ABC’s of Christianity, not the central reality and hope of all that we are in Him, through Him and for Him. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin is the beginning and end of all things.

Romans 11:36 (ESV)

³⁶ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Not just a means to justification, but also sanctification and glorification.

Colossians 2:6 (ESV)

⁶ Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.

And this will be central to all that we are and all that we do as a church.

:: Pastor’s Heart ::

Having graduated with a Biblical studies degree, I always knew that I would serve the Lord in vocation ministry. I just never fully knew the context in which it would happen. For the past 5 years, the context has been teaching the Bible and directing spiritual development at a Christian school. However, for the past several years the Lord has given me a special passion for the Church, and that passion has continually increased.

I always thought the idea of being a pastor sounded cool (as if that matters at all!), but there were aspects of it I wanted nothing to do with. Growing up under the senior pastor/youth pastor model, I was always at a loss – I wanted, in part, to be used by the Lord in pastoral ministry, but I wanted nothing to do with either one of those positions. I watched incredible men lead out in those positions, but never desired the responsibilities they carried.

Well part of what led us away from Chatham was a pursuit of colligate ministry at UMSL. Little did we know that this wasn’t at all what the Lord had for us. On April 26, 2008, the Lord revealed himself in a powerful way! Late at night, in my office at NCCS, He revealed to me the depth of the pastor’s heart he had given me. Since that night, his work in my life has been profound. I’ve begun to eagerly desire the gift of pastor and the very aspects of it that I wanted to run from. Since that night, my view of this place (North Church) has never been the same. I can’t deny what the Lord is doing in my heart for this place. The potential and vision of what this place we call North Church can be through the gospel and for the gospel is incredibly exciting. For me it’s more of a matter of obedience than anything else. As Rik mentioned last week, he and I have had many long and difficult conversations. But what’s been incredibly clarifying in the discussion of this transition has been Danielle. Her support and willingness to follow in this is huge. She challenges me in every way. We do not think alike at all. And every step of the way, when I would bring these discussion to here about us pastoring at North Church, she continually said, “It makes so much sense.”