You Don’t Expect It…

…to Happen this Way

A MIGHTY MOVE OF GOD

Last night was one of the most powerful in my entire ministry.  We saw a Mighty move of God, and it was pretty much, unplanned.  This amazing night was ushered in on the heels of humility, audacious surrender, and church discipline.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it.  I’m glad my God can still surprise / delight / change my world.

Last week I preached on Colossians 2.  I brought a message entitled GO (in)Courage.  We looked at the struggle that Paul was willing to face in order to give a corrective word of exhortation.  We saw that sometimes it takes real courage to encourage.  I was convicted by my own message.  I have a friend named Chris that I have been investing in.  He is a charismatic guy who thought that God might have been calling him to ministry.  I gave him a leadership role in EngageMinistry’s 7to9, and a public platform.  Each week, Chris called me and told me that he’d been sleeping with his girlfriend, and he was afraid that she was pregnant.  Chris manned up, and though the pregnancy turned out to be a false-positive, I was really impressed at how well Chris responded.  I was convicted over my lack of response.

After my message, I knew I had to talk to Chris.  After I finished preaching Tuesday night, I made lunch plans with Chris.  We met the following day.  I told Chris that I had been convicted that if he wanted to be restored to his public ministry, then he had to make a public confession of his sin.  This was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in ministry, but I knew that before the Lord, I didn’t have much choice.  I was amazed at how Chris responded.  Without any struggle, he agreed.  We made a plan that he would speak the following week - last night.

I had a guest speaker already set to preach - Kesh, and he brought a great Word   from Colossians 2:6-7.  During the invitation, Chris and I took the stage.  I told the audience that as a family, sometimes you get to have good and fun conversations.  Likewise, sometimes you have to have difficult conversations. After a bit more preface, I turned the mic over to Chris.  With boldness, Chris began to share.  He said that after our conversation on Wednesday morning, he went to another church service that evening.  During that service, he took communion and the Holy Spirit overwhelming convicted him that he was an unrepentant sinner.  He realized that the basis for his hope to that point was habit and religion.  That night, Chris surrendered everything to Jesus.  He said he had originally taken the platform to confess his, but that now he was confessing all his sin to and his need for a Savior.  He said he had been tired of placing his hope in a prayer he “hoped he had prayed,” when he was a kid.  

As he shared this testimony, I could sense God’s presence in the room.  After Chris finished, I gave an invitation.  Long story short - 8 people gave their lives to God.  

To God be the Glory!

Permalink

Wrong Rest VS Right Restlessness

Be restless for the right things.  Then you can get the right rest.


Last night my pastor spoke on a familiar and much needed topic:  the need for rest.  This is a resonant message in a society that brags about how busy we are.  However, for many of us, we are busy with the wrong things.  Therefore, the need for rest resonates.  We feel tired, spent, and drained.  However, we haven’t really gotten anything done in the first place.

There is a difference between rest and leisure.  We are a society that is so filled with leisure opportunities.  This reality is playfully spoofed by HULU:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnP1gkdFUqc&feature=related.  The reason that we feel more drained than ever has less to do with increased productivity, and more to do with stupid forms of rest.  Crashing on the couch in front of the TV isn’t going to recharge anyone’s batteries.  In fact, when you get up, you are likely to be even more drained than before.  Spending time with and meditating on Jesus, then getting up and being a do-er of the Word - that’s real life.

The book of Ecclesiastes makes a great statement on this issue.  When the Bible sets a standard and command for rest, it is talking to people who are used to working from sun up to sun down, 6 days a week.  It’s not talking to people who sneak around on facebook/youtube/googlenews throughout a 4 1/2 hour work day.  The Bible says in Ecc 10:18 that, “Laziness leads to a sagging roof; idleness leads to a leaky house.”  Nothing is more draining that trying to watch TV in a “leaky house.”

Ecclesiastes has another great word of wisdom in 11:4 - “Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.”  This is a great word.

From my devotion - March 5, 2012

Permalink

Spring of Life Logo When I was finishing my Master’s in Evangelism and Church Planting, I had to launch a hypothetical church.  God lead me to name it “spring of life” after the amazing encounter Jesus has with a woman who is far from God (found in John 4).  Today, I designed the hypothetical logo.  Here’s to praying (audaciously) that one day, things won’t be so hypothetical.

Spring of Life Logo

When I was finishing my Master’s in Evangelism and Church Planting, I had to launch a hypothetical church.  God lead me to name it “spring of life” after the amazing encounter Jesus has with a woman who is far from God (found in John 4).  Today, I designed the hypothetical logo.  Here’s to praying (audaciously) that one day, things won’t be so hypothetical.

Permalink

God, I trust you with my heart

Something weird happened this weekend.  It seems like things regarding PORTLAND just got real.  I’m not really praying “if,” anymore.  In fact, I’m not even praying that it happens.  I’m praying for God to give me Spring of Life, Portland.  I’m praying for God to give me thousands of souls saved through the ministry of Spring of Life, Portland.  However, as it get more real, it starts to get tremendously scary.  I had real moments of freak-out this week.  My world is so comfortable.

However, my wonderful miracle working God is using this to remind me this is not my calling, alone.  It is the calling of everyone whom He uses for His glory at the church.  My beautiful wife’s heart has been so amazing over the past couple of days.  How do you take  a girl of privilege and ask her to give it all up to be a church planter’s wife.  THEN, how do you give her a big, beautiful, comfortable life…and ask her to give it up again to move to the scary unknown.  And yet…she is amazing.  Her heart is such a picture of love, trust, and faithfulness.  We spoke yesterday, and we are both so open and ready for what Jesus wants to do.

We sat in an Arby’s after church.  That’s when I realized the Lord had pulled us together, and that’s how He’s going to lead us.  We’re not over-emotionally jumping into something.  We are slowly and carefully surrendering.  Jesus here we are.  We our yours.  Lead us.

I also want to share a private text I got from my dearest brother in ministry.  God is stirring in people’s hearts.  To HIS name be the glory.  If He starts a work, He will finish it.

 

Permalink

I Met with Brother Scott

When I found out that a team from BPBC was going to visit Portland as a possible site for our church plant, I sensed the Lord calling me to a fast.  I fasted from food for three days and I began praying that God would place me on the hearts of our senior leadership as a church planter.  If there is one thing that God has taught me lately, it is to be bold in what I am asking from Him.

I have been experiencing a lot of anxiety, and I needed some mentoring.  I texted Bro Scott and asked him to sit down with me.  This past Thursday, I had one of the most refreshing conversations.

Pastor Scott sat and listened as I unloaded what God was doing in my heart.  I told him that if I was following preferences, I would never leave BPBC.  I love my house, my ministry, my family, my office, my budget, my salary…. the list goes on.  Despite all of that, I told him, I have an irresistible urge to leave it all and launch a world-changing ministry.  I told Brother Scott that I returned from DC this past summer, that while I loved the trip and the ministry, I was convinced that is not where God wanted me and Andrea. 

One day, God randomly began to place Oregon on my heart.  I didn’t really say anything about it.  I just began to consider it.  A couple of days later, Andrea piped up and said, “Hey babe, what about Oregon?”  I was pretty blown away.  We told a few of our close friends in the same tone that we’ve always talked about church planting:  kinda-joking-kinda-dreaming-kind-deadserious.  Sarah Rigdon was one of those people.  

Sarah was in my office discussing student ministry one afternoon when Sterling Lynn walked in.  He said that he heard inside info about where BPBC was looking to church plant.  He said I was going to be disappointed - it wasn’t DC.  I bated the hook.  I probed…”ok, where is it?”

“Oregon.”  I’m so thankful Sarah was there as a witness, or I think I would start to believe that I made that part up.  The next couple of days, Portland kept coming up.  Andrea’s parents returned from a cruise saying that “everyone we met was from Oregon.”  I had lunch with a fellow youth pastor.  I mentioned I wanted to be a church planter.  He said that once he met with some friends and after doing some research, he made a determination.  If he ever planted a church, he wanted to do it in Oregon.  Shut up.  (I had never mentioned Oregon to him).

Pastor Scott took all this in stride.  He affirmed that God was doing something in my life, and he committed to pray for me.  It feels so good to have someone that I admire on my side.  It feels like such a relief to have a mentor and a champion who will bring my case before the Lord

I’m never quite sure what God is up to.  Here’s what I know:  I want to stay desperate for Him.  I don’t want to plant Aaron’s Baptist Church.  I want to go where my MARVELOUS JESUS calls and beg Him for a world-changing, Gospel-spewing, Holy-Ghost Anointed Miracle.

Then I wanna die and move into my big fat mansion…and stand before Jesus for the rest of eternity.  Talk about adventure.

Permalink