I spent the rest of our vacation contemplating what our dear friends had just spoken into us. How is it that I missed God’s voice? When did God tell me this? Have I really been that insensitive to the Holy Spirit that I’ve neglected what He wanted to do? All of these feelings of guilt weighed heavily on me. Then, a still small voice reminded me, that I never missed it at all. He simply had to use a voice that I would be submissive to hearing and not be so quick to dismiss. You know, so often the voice of God will sound like my own voice, at least to me, so that I recognize it quickly. This time, God must have known that I would push past such a ridiculous idea. Start a church… I mean who does that? With all the risk involved, the potential for people to not show up? No way. I would rather stay comfortable and wait for a church to open up than to start something from scratch. The only thing I could talk about for the entire rest of the vacation was the church plant. I would ask Amanda, “Why would they want to start a church with us?”….
Our church in N. Ga (Northside Church) had planned for us along with the rest of the staff to attend a conference at Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, AL called GROW. This was a conference for pastors and leaders that taught how to implement certain processes into your church that would strengthen your systems. You know, close the back door kind of stuff (that’s church lingo for ‘keep people from leaving’). It was super intense and I felt like I was drinking from a fire hydrant. This stuff was right up my ally. When it comes to church methods and process, I love learning new systems. I’m all for integration of fresh ideas. Let’s face it, if I thought I had the best ideas people would be coming to me…but they weren’t (haha). My objective for that trip was to learn everything there was to know about small groups. So that’s exactly what I did. I absorbed everything I could, took pages and pages of notes, scoped out leaders that I could connect with, and then some. I collected so much information that I nearly overwhelmed myself trying to figure out how to put this new system into practice. At the beginning of one of the large group sessions, an organization called ARC (the Association of Related Churches) was introduced. This was a church planting organization that was birthed from Church of the Highlands. It was as if God was trying to connect the dots for me. As I’m sure you can imagine, I really didn’t give it much thought. I just wasn't sure about this whole church planting thing. “Ugh! This was not in my plans Lord. I don’t want to do this. Pick someone else.” These were just a few of the thoughts that I wrestled with daily.
We returned from the conference and hit the ground running. I had lots of work to do before the launch of our small groups. Talking with leaders, gathering info, building a data base, planning the execution of the event. On top of all of that I cracked open Sun Stand Still (this was the book I mentioned in the previous post). Once this book was opened it brought life to my spirit. I know what you’re probably thinking…no this was not becoming the Bible to me. BUT…The words and experience Steven Furtick talked about were directly in line with our situation. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no “Steven Furtick”, but what a reality check. I love hearing the back stories of success. The trials. The struggles. They were all too real for us. As I combed through the book, the truth of God’s calling became more and more clear. Every chapter brought to light something new that God was forming in my heart. I got up early and stayed up late just to read more chapters. I cried huge tears all over the book. I wept through my prayers. I told God “no” and then “yes” again. I wrestled and fought back thoughts of failure and insecurity. This book was literally changing my life.
August came and we continued to do exactly what we were supposed to do. We launched small groups with a huge turn out. We had 34 small groups our very first time. What a success. This was a true test of leadership growth in my life. We trained them, led them, and heard amazing stories that were birthed from these groups. Relationships were being built and lives were being changed. People were coming to Christ and finding purpose in their day to day. I was incredibly grateful. What an incredible group of leaders. They stepped up! In case you don’t know, small groups are my life. I love them with everything that I am. I believe in them. I am a product of small groups. So, I poured everything I had into those groups and into those leaders. I tell you all of that to say that God was using those moments to mold me and direct me into a passion that I had not yet discovered. A new calling was being birthed in my spirit and there was no denying it.
Upon accepting God’s calling, we started gathering people for our team and exploring what to do with this new adventure. We reached out to friends, family, and student leaders that we once led. On a hot, and I mean HOT, September day we had our first interest gathering. Ten people showed up! What now? I knew that God had called us to do this, but it was going to be a long road. We literally dove in with both feet having no clue about how to do this. We had planned to meet on the back porch of our friends Stacy and Cindy. It was so incredibly hot that day that we literally moved under the deck. I was sweating. Everyone was sweating. A box fan hummed beside us while I used a large card board box for my “podium” to talk from. Wow…the first meeting and I already felt like a failure!