Truly...simply...it's because His ways are NOT my ways.
And most of the time...at least on the front end...I don't like it one bit! Because to me, it's God telling me I'm wrong. And I really hate to be told I'm wrong.
Just ask My Man.
Usually it's on a smaller-midsized scale. But every now and then...it's on BIG scales. For instance...when He had us staying at our original church we had been at for a few years past when this chick was done. D. O. N. E! But God knew what He was up to and it was for my good and His glory.
We finally left and joined oneChurch. I loved everything about that place and people. I knew the pastor, Paul Hudson, before we went but immediately fell in love with the rest of the folks. It was exactly what we needed to heal after all that had happened. So we settled right on in there.
A few weeks in, we attended the Membership Matters class. In that class Paul said that one of the things that oneChurch is about is planting churches. Autonomous churches in surrounding areas that have a need for something like this. I pulled out my piece of paper and wrote to My Man "This is why we are here." He shook his head.
Fast forward a little over a year. We are sitting in another Membership Matters class to introduce ourselves to visitors/new members and let them know about the D-Group we were helping start for them. There was a couple in there that I had no idea how to pronounce their last name...I was just thankful they were plain first names like Matt & Julie. The girl was short (yeah!) and the dude...well...his eyes were funny and he was wearing a superman shirt and a hat.
So imagine my surprise when Paul introduced them as the couple oneChurch is helping plant in Vilonia.
Fast friends. Deep friends. Heart friends. HONEST friends. It was almost immediate. Unexplainable. But fabulous! They made no bones about the fact that they were going to be devastated if we didn't join them in planting the church in Vilonia. We walked along side them for months...helping with ideas and this, that and the other. But never were we going with them.
Until God made abundantly clear that we were.
Excuse me, God? Are you sure? Do you remember the hell that we went thru doing this before? Do you remember God? Do you remember the Saturday nights of sick feelings in our tummys knowing we had to get up and deal with the crap again? The pain? The hurt? The tears? How could you forget, God?
Thing was...He hadn't forgotten. I had forgotten. I had forgotten my own "life verse" that He gave me all those years ago. They applied here again.
"And I will restore unto you the years the locusts have eaten." ~Joel 2:25
Mcfly! Hello Mcfly!
So...I texted my soon to be pastor and his wife to let them know that we needed to talk to them. I had a plan. We planned for that Saturday night after kids went to bed. They showed up shortly after 9:00 pm looking tired and deflated as ever. We made small talk and then settled in for the show:
Well...guys...here's the thing. We have just recently began to plug in at oneChurch. We love it. Everything about it. Our kids love it! It's not a daily struggle to get up and go to church anymore. And the thought of doing that again scares us. Oh my...I can't look at ya'll...I'm going to look at the plant. So...y'all know we can't be at the 17th and 24th soft opening due to spring break. But...we can give you the 10th...be gone the 17th and 24th...and we'll be there for sure for the 31st. But after that...
...you're stuck with us!
At this point Matt proceeds to PUMMEL us both. Excellent!!!!!
So...here we are...part of The Valley launch team and couldn't be more excited about where The Lord is leading. I'm just happy/excited/scared/excited about the following.
Here is the first launch team meeting...
Excuse me, God? Are you sure?
Yes...and so am I!
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