Miracles.
Now that’s a word that makes us in the Baptist world uncomfortable.
Because we don’t believe in them?
Because we don’t want to come off as mystical?
Because we don’t want to sound…weird?
I’ll take the risk. Because I have a story to tell you about how God made our new journey happen!
As soon as I felt the call to plant a church, I told a couple friends that would end up walking with me throughout the process. In fact, I talked to five different people that week (mostly from different states). Each and every one of them pointed me to the same person: Dean Fulks.
Dean is the Lead Pastor of LifePoint Church and also serves as the City Coordinator in Columbus for the North American Mission Board’s Send Movement. I connected with Dean and actually got to meet him for lunch in Memphis, where he encouraged me to apply for a church planting residency with a highly reputable organization. When I found out that I wasn’t accepted, I got super discouraged (I came to found out that they receive around 100 applications and are only able to accept 10; this made me feel a lot better). When I talked with Dean, he offered a couple alternatives.
And then I had lunch with Dave McClung. Dave is the Innovative Church Planting Strategist at the Arkansas Baptist State Convention (and just a really cool guy). As we were talking about next steps, he told me that he had been working with some brilliant thinkers in the “missional” conversation (Forge) about starting a cohort in the Little Rock area. I jumped in and it has turned my understanding of the mission of God upside down! God truly had a plan in all of it, even if the original idea wasn’t the final one.
I’ve kept a loose connection with the guys I know in Ohio; knowing that I was going to be moving, but not sure of the timing. Remember: at this point, I wasn’t sure how all of this was going to happen.
Until October 2013.
I had been walking through a season of intense prayer and fasting, asking God to clarify His call on our lives. I won’t go into great detail, but there was a lot going on in that season. I was uncertain of God’s timing and financial provision of his call on our lives, and I was generally discouraged. I studied the story of Abraham and Isaac that morning (Gen 22).
When I say that God’s timing is perfect, I mean it’s perfect.
I was reading about a man who trusted the Lord with everything. I was reading about the joy of experiencing a divine solution (the ram caught in the thicket), when I got a phone call.
[If you’re still reading this, I have chills as I’m typing.]
I answered the phone. It was Dave McClung.
He asked, “How much do you love me?”
(If you know Dave, you know that I didn’t know how to answer this).
He told me about how he received a phone call that morning from a church in Arkansas that had a heart to support a church planter.
But not just any church planter; a church planter in a send city.
But not just any send city, Columbus, Ohio.
A church in Arkansas that has a heart for a church in Columbus, Ohio! What?!
They asked what next steps were for something like this. I imagine that Dave probably just laughed on the other end of the line, knowing that God was up to something.
We got connected pretty soon after that, and since then, we have agreed to partner in God’s work for a church plant in Columbus, Ohio!
How big is our God?!
As if that wasn’t enough clarification, I got two more phone calls that day. First, I was able to get a side job that would transfer up to Columbus. I have joined the team at Ink Custom Tees and will be selling t-shirts to help cover costs for our family (if you need t-shirts, I’d love to be your guy!).
I also got a phone call from a friend asking me to come speak at his DNow. His church would end up being way more than generous in thanking me for coming!
If it isn’t explicitly clear yet, let me help.
GOD IS ON THE MOVE.
Since then, every single month, I’ve experienced what I would clarify as a miracle (and I really don’t use that term very often). I have seen God move in extraordinary ways! Unfortunately, we’d be here forever if I told you every story! I’m leaving out a story about a partner in Ohio who will potentially be helping us financially in a really big way. I’m leaving out a story about people walking up to us and telling us that they want to be involved financially! I had an experience yesterday with a friend at church that still has my head spinning!
I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you that I have always been a stubborn, selfish individual that pursues nothing but comfort and self-gain. So when I had moments of doubt, God came through big time! It’s almost as if He is saying, “what more can I do to help you realize that I am the One that is making this happen?”
I feel like David. A shepherd on the battlefield, surrounded by experienced warriors. They brought swords and shields. I brought bread and cheese. But when David asked what was holding Israel up, he stepped up!
“The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”
The battle is the Lord’s! We have nothing to fear! If it’s the Lord’s plan and purpose, then He will ensure that it happens. And I certainly won’t stand by like one of the soldiers who lacked faith in their great God!
I want to leave you with something that I’ll be talking about the next couple posts. It’s a gut-check question for me, but it is absolutely transferrable to you.
What happens if we don’t go?
I don’t know what you do with that theologically. Some of you would respond that God will still have His way. Others might respond that there are some who may not hear the Gospel. There are disciples that won’t be made. There are families who will end up in disarray. There are men, women, and children who will stay on the streets.
I don’t know where you land, but my burden is that God has called us into the fight and we are gladly joining!
One last miracle to share: There’s actually a family who will be joining us in Columbus. I’ll be telling you about them soon (to be clear, they don’t live in Arkansas or Ohio). I was on the phone with my friend, and we were talking about the burden that is pressing us forward. He asked me a simple question: “What is the thing that WON’T happen if we don’t go?”
My response: “Captives won’t be set free. They will remain in chains unless someone goes to proclaim freedom to them.”
He paused and said, “That is the exact same wording I used last night with my wife.”
Cue the chills again.
God has been knitting this story together for years. I don’t take it lightly that we are in the days that He is bringing this to pass! I am ultimately humbled and thankful that He would choose to call me into this fight! His miracles have shown me that He’s serious and we aren’t turning back!
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound…”
Isaiah 61:1