Sunday was my last day at Genesis Metro. In two weeks, I’ll be moving to Hutto to officially begin Resonate Community Church. I had the opportunity to speak one last time, and I shared about the simplicity of Kingdom Pursuits. Feel free to leave any of your thoughts or reactions in the comments.
UPDATE: I know, I know. I sound like a chipmunk. I’m working on it (any Audacity users out there?). In the meantime, enjoy a full-length sermon in half the time!
It has been a long time since I have felt overwhelmed. I like to have a lot going on at one time otherwise I tend to get a little bit bored. I like the challenge of keeping everything in order and keeping up…I guess I put some kind of silly value on myself for that ability. But, all of a sudden I have to admit that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed and fearful of all the activity going on in my life! I think sometimes when we take a little step of faith in trusting God, he expects our steps to get bigger with each new step. I’m content with taking the baby steps, but I think God has decided to have me leap over puddles the past few months. Let me just share some of the things that have me closing my eyes and jumping, but knowing God is going to catch me!
I have a wonderful husband, Brandon, and a precious little girl named Peyton who will be one in 2 short weeks. We made the decision a few months ago to join another family in coming to Hutto, TX to start a new church. We have known Kyle, Erika, and Kylie Sears for 2 years now, and were very excited when they invited us to join them in the adventure of church planting. Brandon and I prayed about it for several weeks and we are both certain that God has planned this opportunity for us at this specific time in our lives. So, we started the process of getting everything in place to make this move. If you have been reading Brandon’s blog, you have read about how his job with Texas Instruments worked out. I am still amazed at how understanding and supportive his boss was in our decision. I thought Brandon would definitely have to find a new job and I thought that would be one of the scariest parts of this transition. Since that fell into place so quickly, I thought everything else would to. I say I thought they would….I know better than that, I really just hoped everything would be as easy. Who would ever struggle with their faith if God just magically opened all the doors?
I didn’t expect to run into an issue with selling our house. We have a great house that we love that is only 2 years old. The neighborhood is something you see in magazines and I couldn’t imagine anyone not wanting to jump on our house. Especially since we went over the top with our upgrades…we planned on living here for at least 20 years. But, the builders are still building in our community and there are way too many other homes for sale as well. The realtor who came and visited with us wouldn’t even take us as clients because we would end up loosing between 20 and 30K from what we owe on the house for the market price in our area right now. I didn’t see that coming! So, we made the scary decision to rent our home. I’ve rented homes before when I was in college and I know the mindset that can happen when “it’s not really my house anyways”. I have family members who think we are going to be so sorry to let someone rent this home. They think people are going to just destroy it. I’m choosing to believe that God already has someone in mind for this home who will respect it and love it like their own. Apparently they just aren’t ready to move yet since we havn’t had any calls or anyone visit our home since the “for lease” sign went up 2 weeks ago. Does that make me a little uncomfortable and anxious? Of course….especially since we will be closing on our new home in Hutto in 3 weeks. Patience is definitely not a virtue of mine. I learned a long time ago not to pray for patience because God takes me very seriously and is always quick to answer that request with a long waiting period for whatever I’m wanting at that moment. Seriously though, that is something I struggle with all the time. I’m leaning on Philippians 4:6-7 even more and more this month because it says:
6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
I need that peace from God right now! We are told not to be anxious about anything. I have a hundred things I can be anxious about right now, but what a waste of my time that would be. God is in control and I need to move out of the way. I know that things will work out with this house in God’s timing.
His timing can be quite surprising as I discovered last week when I took two pregnancy test and they both came out positive! But, you will hear all about that added adventure in another blog!
I love comfort- having next door neighbors that you have known for years, living in a place that has all that you could ever want for your children, being two hours away from family, worshiping in a church full of friends, and the list could go on and on. This has been my life for a while now. Being a part of the Frisco community and our church here has been wonderful. Who in their right mind would ever want to leave?!
I remember this question coming to up for me four years ago when Kyle and I moved to Frisco, Texas with another pastor to start the church we now call Genesis Metro. Although we were leaving less than ideal circumstances, it seemed like a crazy thing to do. I had heard the statistic- less than 30% of new church starts succeed. We had no jobs, no home, and no real idea what we were getting into. What would people think? Kyle and I were sensible people who always made logical, rational decisions. With my tiny mustard seed of faith, which seemed even more minute when compared to my husband’s, we moved.
Those next years were hard and full of change, which I despise. I had to learn to be flexible. I had to learn that I must to take the initiative and connect with people in an authentic way. I had to learn to work on a team. And most importantly, I had to learn about how God could work out what seemed to be very bleak circumstances for my good, and to further His kingdom.
When I look back, and see all of the difficult things that we went through, I see how He has used each of those instances to prepare me for this.
Our family is again going to leave a very familiar situation to go into the unknown. Funny how you just know sometimes that the conviction that you are feeling is God, and undoubtedly nothing else. As we prepare to embark on this new chapter of our lives, I can’t help but to think about what He has in store for us this time. My faith that God can use me is much bigger than before, and I will take comfort in that.
I’ve never blogged before and don’t really know where to start. In fact, I just deleted a couple of rough drafts and am starting over. Covering history just seems impossible, so let me start more recently.
My wife (Cindy) and I have decided to move to Hutto, Texas with our daughter Peyton. We’re moving for one reason and one reason only. We’re looking to live a life of passion. We believe that we have found that passion by sharing a vision with Kyle and Erika Sears (and their daughter Kylie) on what Church should really be about. It’s about community. It’s about connecting. It’s about going through life together. And Cindy and I have decided to take the biggest steps of faith (outside of accepting Christ and what He did) that either of us have ever taken.
Hutto is about 3 to 3.5 hours away from where we currently live. For us, that means two main things. 1) I have to find a new job and 2) we have to buy a new home and sell our current home. But, before I jump into those I want to cover how we came to this decision in the first place. The next couple of entries will cover the job and house…maybe the next several entries!
Crap, I just re-read what I’ve written. I just don’t know how to do this. I guess some are natural bloggers…I guess I’m not one of the “some.” I had written about how I came to Christ, how Kyle and I started talking about starting a Church…and it just didn’t feel right so I deleted it. Now I’m reading this and that delete button is blinking in red! But, you know what, the whole goal of what we’re targeting with Resonate Community is to be honest and real. If I keep deleting what I’m writing and editing, will that be real? I think not! So, here goes nothing!
I’m not a great Christian. I believe in Christ. No questions about that. I give financially to the Church, but not as much as I know I need to. I serve by setting up Church on weekends, but I miss a lot of the weekends I’m supposed to be there. I’ve worked in the nursery, but no one counts on me in that area. I’ve led Bible studies, and some of those have been unsuccessful. And, I’m about to help start a Church. Are you kidding? It’s me, my wife and baby and one other couple. I’m half of this Church and it’s supposed to succeed? How in the heck is this going to happen?
You know, when Kyle spoke to me about starting a Church I knew almost immediately I HAD to go with him. I didn’t want to admit it, but there was something in me that knew. But, I prayed. I told my wife and she prayed. And, you know what…the more we prayed, the more we knew. I can’t say that I have a freakin clue why God put me on the Earth or why he would save me. But, I do KNOW that He did. And, I also KNOW that he wants me to go start this Church. How do I know? I don’t know how to really explain it. It’s like there is a this bridge. Below it is all this water and rocks. But, I know the bridge will hold me. And, I know I have to cross it. And, that is what we’re going to do. We’re crossing it. I know the bridge will hold me, but I still have to take that first step onto the bridge trusting it’s the right thing to do. We’re going to do whatever it takes to build this church because I believe it is what we are supposed to do. I believe that this is exactly what, at this time and moment, what God wants me to do. It doesn’t mean we’ll be successful. It doesn’t mean we won’t have struggles. But, I am totally convinced that he wants me to take this step of faith at this moment. Be willing to leave my job. Sell my home and buy a new one. Move to a new community. For once to live for Him instead of for me. I just know it…I may not be a “Super Christian”, but I am a willing and available Christian. And you know what, just maybe God wants someone who is just willing and available. In fact, that’s what he usually does isn’t it? But me? Yikes!
I’ve spent the past four years of my life invested in a church called Genesis Metro. I’ve made lifelong friends and have grown more in my faith than I thought I could (or needed to at times). And now I’m preparing to leave all of that behind for a new beginning. I must be crazy. Planting another church seems to be quite reckless of me, especially since I’m risk-averse. But there’s a call that can’t be denied screaming in my head that this is the right thing to do.
Others are joining me on this journey in hearing God’s call. They’re taking big steps of faith. You’ll probably be reading some posts of theirs soon. For now, we’re calling ourselves Resonate Community Church, because that’s really what we want to do. We resonate community. You know when you listen to some really big speakers how it seems that your heart is keeping rhythm with the music? That’s our desire. We’re making God’s heartbeat our heartbeat. And he has a heart for people, even those that can’t hear him yet.
