An•tic•i•pa•tion

When thinking about the possible future that awaits us as we plan for the church plant, the best word that describes it is anticipation. The definition is perfect for what I’m feeling; visualization of a future event or state. I can’t help put visualize all the possibilities for the church plant in Suffolk.

I stop every so often and check with God to make sure I’m not just day dreaming of the ways we can reach the Obici Hospital area of Suffolk. I ask Him if this is what you are showing me or am I just fantasizing? You see the best way to reach the lost is to let them know you truly care about their needs (physical as well as Spiritual). A recent Barna Report states:
“George Barna, who directed the research study, commented that the low awareness of the Christian leaders evaluated coincides with other recent studies showing that Christianity is losing its grip on American culture. ‘You cannot make a difference in someone’s life if you do not have entrée in that life. In our society, even clergy compete for people’s attention and acceptance. One of the reasons that the Christian faith is struggling to retain a toehold in people’s lives is because even the highest-profile leaders of the faith community have limited resonance with the population.’
‘The survey statistics suggest that perhaps Christian individuals are more attuned to matters of culture and entertainment than to matters of faith,’ the researcher continued. ‘People pay attention to what they deem important. These figures may be another indicator that millions of Christians invest more of their mental energy in cultural literacy than in biblical literacy.’”

People around us need to know that we are only people as they are. Since we are living in a world where few people grew up attending church, we, as Christ-followers, need to show them we are like them with a twist. The twist is that we are God’s children, and we have a gift to share with them. We are called to love not to judge. We are called to show people what Christ is all about. The only time Christ condemned anyone in the New Testament was the “religious” leaders who thought that they were something they were not; holy. The word holy means to be complete. And only Christ can me us complete. The moment we ask Christ to save us, He makes us complete in Him. Thus we are holy.
I can’t want to see how God will use us to reach this community for Him. As we learn from the SBCV and those who have planted churches before us, I can see that the future is great! I know that Satan has his scoop zeroed into me and my family. He is doing his best to discourage us, but I know the One who calmed the wind and rain will protect me and my family. Satan can only hurt us if God allows it. And if God allows, then He has a purpose for it.

The next chapter in this adventure of church planting may take place in February of 2007. The second week of February, I would like to start a cell group in the target area. My desire is to take the year I’m in the SBCV Church Plant Apprentice program to form a group of Christians that will be equipped to help with the start-up of the church plant and to reach out to the community with the love of Christ.

My anticipation is on what God will do through me. I’m only a working glove and He is the hand in the glove moving the fingers to hold on to things and moving from one side to the other. He will be doing it all, and I’m only riding along.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. God bless.

Time

To God, time is nothing. He has always been, and will always be. Our concept of time as humans is very limited. If we are lucky, a human can live up to 100 years and some a little beyond. This is a drop in the bucket to time itself.

The Bible tells us that as Christ-followers, we should be good stewards of the time we have on earth. God knows how long He has for us to live in this flesh. He created us for all eternity (our soul, not our flesh). We are to manage our time with the thought of “How would God want me to spend His time?” You should notice I put “His time” and not “our time.” Since God is our Lord, He bought us with the blood of His Son Jesus, we are His servants (or slaves) and we have nothing without Him.

Take a moment and think about the fact that we are His. The time we have been allotted on earth is His time. We should ask Him how He wants us to use it. The Bible is clear on how we should use our time. We should spend some in walking with Him through reading His word and talking with Him. We should use some of His time to talk with others about His love and sacrifice. We should use some of His time in encouraging one another.

If you are a child of the living God, your time is actually His time. Ask Him, how He wants you to spend it. Think about it.

What’s In A Name?

It maybe premature for me to be thinking about the name for the future church God would have me plant, but I’ve been thinking about it even while going through the process of being accepted into the SBCV Church Plant Apprentice Program.

The idea that we are all equal in the eyes of Christ, and that God is not a respecter of man (in that He views us all equal) has put the name “Level Ground” in my head. The saying that Billy Graham has used, “the ground at the cross is level,” has fueled the idea for “Level Ground” to be the name of the future church. My desire to plant a multi-cultural church has caused the name of “Level Ground” to stay the number one name I desire to use when the church has been planted.

An article I’ve read by Ed Stetzer talked about the process of coming up with a church for a new church. There are several factors to consider before settling on a name. One of the factors is that the name should reflect the target people. With my target being multiple races, the Level Ground name would reflect the target group. Another factor is that the name should tell people what you are about. With that in mind and my desire to “Go” to the lost and tell the good news of Christ’s sin payment, I’m leaning toward having the last half of the name to be Outreach Center. I want the church to be a place where the truth is taught through love. My desire is for the church God have me plant to be a place for spiritually hurting people can come to be healed through the love of Christ. To be a spiritual medical center of sorts. With this in mind, the full name that I’m leaning toward is Level Ground Outreach Center.

I am a Baptist and don’t apologize for it; however, in this world today people have stereotyped how Baptists act. They either think we all handle snakes or are judgmental. To avoid people not coming because of the name, I feel it is needed to not have Baptist in the name of the church. The SBCV will be in our website and sign, but the church will not be Level Ground Baptist Outreach Center. I do feel in some places having Baptist on your name will not hurt, but with my research not having it on the name will help in the Hampton Roads area. Like I said in the beginning, I’m in the early stages of church planting so my mind may change.

My desire for the name is to be a snap shot of what people can expect to see and be treated when they visit the church. I want people to know (through the name) that they will find love, acceptance, friends, and a family. I want to capture that in a name.

Global Positioning System for Purpose

The below was taken from an article on http://www.breakthroughchurch.com/greatest.htm by C. Michael Johnson. Please read and see what God is doing in your community.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had a Global Positioning System for purpose? Knowing we can't redeem purpose unless we find it, we need to know where spiritual and community intelligence is found and what leads to purpose. Here are two foundational principles of spiritual intelligence: The first locating principle to get firmly fixed in our mind is that the Spirit of God is already there. He is already more active in your city than you could ever know. Our posture is to ask Him what he is already doing and come along side to co-labor in what He is doing. For all the obvious (and not so obvious) reasons, it's the smart thing to do. It's hard to remember this because, for the most part, the Holy Spirit's activity is invisible to us. Without going into detail here there are three basic ways we can find out what God is doing and what he wants done: 1) ask him, 2) ask others, and 3) nose around. But the starting point is to humbly ask God and ask him to lead you to the purposes he wants to redeem. The second thing to understand is that purpose is located in the human heart. It is the place where the Spirit works. We go to the Bible to see God's overarching principles, but we have to ask the Holy Spirit in the context of a person's heart to find His purposes there. But obviously we can also ask the person, which in effect opens up a whole new world of possibilities as we develop skills to go there. It's facinating when you see how God has planted and interwoven His dreams for an individual within their own spirit and identity. Purpose is revealed in how God designed them: their gifts and abilities, what gives them purest joy, the kind of goals they pursue, lifelong dreams and aspirations, even traumatic events and key life experiences all work together to paint the composite picture. Clearly, it is presumptuous to attempt to reach, guide, parent, counsel, pastor, recruit, or lead people in any way without placing this spiritual intelligence in its rightful place at the center of spiritual formation. The heart contains much more than we know. It's a mystery but both scripture and experience seem to indicate that like a kind of spiritual DNA, a person is born with the seeds of purpose encoded within. From conception and early childhood the Holy Spirit nurtures this purpose in deep conversations and life experiences. And when we meet a person mid-journey, it should be with a certain amount of awe that we treasure what has gone before and lock arms with the Spirit who has some very definite plans for where He wants to go. It's like following a guide to lost treasure, we have the honor and pleasure of helping another child of God mine the rich purposes and high calling of God in their heart. Whether it's a casual encounter, an online conversation, a new visitor, a lifelong friend, or even your own child, the heart is more open to a dream conversation than we imagine.