The beginning of a dream

12:45 am
Friday, September 28, 2012

When Leona finds out I am still awake she is not going to be happy. But I am going to see if I can write what is heavy on my heart before she wakes up and finds out I am still on the living room floor typing frantically away.

God has called me to church planting.

There. I finally said it.

Well, I technically “finally,” said it this past Monday at our church business meeting. But this is the new reality for Leona and me, and I am more filled with faith and excitement than I have ever been in my life. I am also more humbled than I have ever been in my life.

Let me back up a second.

I just came back from a preaching conference in Chicago. Yes…I did just drive 8 hours and got back a little over an hour ago. I am dead tired, but I thought that before I went to bed I would just read the intro to the book received before we left. I read the intro. And then I read the first chapter. Then something inside me began to well up in what felt like a cry and a yell all at the same time.

Andy Stanley’s book “Deep and Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend” was the book. I don’t really want to go into all the detail of that first chapter – that’s what the book is for. Go buy it =)

What I will say is this. Please pray for Leona and I. I know some of you who read my blog may have more questions since I have purposely left many answers uncovered. But what I have to say is this:

God called me to ministry a long time ago. That call to ministry was never rooted in a “How” or defined by a “Role.” I was no perfect person. You can ask that of my childhood friends from Newport News, VA. But I met Jesus. He changed my life. He called me to live my life with the sole purpose of helping people understand the same. And what was that?

To create a clear picture of Christ that changes everything.

This is still the call of God in my life. Nothing in this world would give me greater honor than being someone God uses to accomplish His will of spreading the whole Gospel in a way that changes everything. Pray that I am found faithful in being submitted and available for God to do whatever he wants.

12:59 am 
Time for bed