Cheering For the Right Team

Although he was a fan of the dreaded San Francisco Giants, Mike Osbourne was a guy who warmed my heart. Mike was also a fan of CDF and we often spoke about how CDF was coming along and how CDF's sister ministry, Stadia was positioning itself to be the dynamic ministry that it is today.  Mike was a great, long-range thinker who wanted to be a part everything that was happening.

Then one day, in one of our regular phone calls, Mike told me that he had an aggressive form of brain cancer that could very well take his life. It did.

Mike and his wife Rita had jumped fully on board with Chris Hornbrook when Chris came west from Illinois to work with our sister ministry Stadia to launch Momentum Christian Church.  Momentum didn't have office space. The Osbournes carved out space at their business for Chris and his team to set up shop. Chris had a vision to start ten new churches in the greater San Diego area.  The Osbournes made a financial commitment to help make it happen. Mike was at Chris' side every step of the way, taking time away from the needs of his business to provide insight and become the sounding board that Chris knew he needed.

The first new church to rise from that vision was Rise City Church, just east of San Diego.  Brandon Grant had been on staff with Chris at Eastview Christian Church in Bloomington, Illinois, half a continent and a full cultural divide away from San Diego County. Brandon, his wife Jamie, their children and three other brave souls relocated to San Diego to start this new church.  When I asked Brandon to tell me the story of Rise City he couldn't do so without invoking the name of my friend, Mike Osbourne. Although Mike has graduated to be with Jesus, the work he did lives on at Rise City.

Mike was not just a fan of CDF (and those pesky Giants), he was a fan of the Provision Ministry Group concept and what it could do to help churches at all stages of life. He had experience with Stadia while starting Momentum, and he and Rita personally invested at CDF, but how could every part of the Provision Ministry Group have an impact on a three-year old church like Rise City?  Read on.

Six months ago Brandon received a phone call from a pastor of a small church who was interested in merging with Rise City and giving them their building -- a converted bowling alley. In stepped David Pace, President of Kairos Legacy Partners, to provide counsel on the merger and how a declining church can direct its assets to another church. The church needed further counsel on real estate issues, so John Cissel of Visioneering Studios, put on his real estate hat to help guide through the process. Making a donation can be tricky, so David Duncan of the Co:Mission Foundation came to the table.  Rise City is growing rapidly so they connected with the Slingshot Group to find staffing that was just the right fit for the church. When CDF provided financing for Rise City to upgrade the facility the circle was complete -- this three-year old Stadia church plant had availed itself of every ministry at Provision.

It wasn't just a matter of checking all the boxes, which they did, its a story of how a full complement of tools in the toolbox can fulfill CDF's tightly focused mission -- helping churches grow.

Above all, Mike Osbourne was a fan of seeing people get connected to Christ. He has to be cheering loudly alongside that "great cloud of witnesses" as he sees his home church and her daughters making a dent in the San Diego mission field -- something that wasn't happening just a few short years ago.

Mike's legacy lives on through Rise City. It is certainly a church on the rise.