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I’m giving up sweets. This is the first year that we as a family have observed the Lent season. And we’re now a week in, and all is well. Kinda.
A couple of weeks ago, I pre-ordered some Girl Scout cookies from a lady at work. I love Samoas, I don’t know if it’s the coconut or the carmel, but something about them taste like they were baked in heaven. But I haven’t had one…yet.
I’m trying to stay the course, but I may need some encouragement. So what are you giving up for Lent?
—D’Art
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I’m quickly learning how vital good networking is. I admit, I’m not a great networker. In fact, I’m not much of a people person either. I’m pretty introverted…until I get to know you, then, I tend to be a real embarrassment. But the beauty of networking, is that you don’t have to be a great networker, you just need to know someone who is. This guy is the best networker I know. He’s a networking genius and anyone would want him in their corner. Now if I can just convince him that it’s God’s will for him to move to Boston, then we’d be golden.
—D’Art
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When I felt God leading me to start a church, there was a lot of push-back on my end. Not because I didn’t want to, but because, I didn’t like church planters.
In my dealings with church planters, the majority of the ones that I came in contact with were arrogant and prideful. They would talk about how their church plant was going to be the special sauce. And then drop names of big-time successful pastors. After a while of hanging out with these guys, I got sick of it. One, because I didn’t know any big-name or even any medium-name pastors to drop, and two, the special sauce makes me nauseous.
Over the past couple of years I have watched some of these guys fail miserably and some of them grow exponentially. I can’t explain it.
I thought about why it bothered me, because it seemed silly to me to not like my own tribe. And this is what I came up with. It has nothing to do with them, it had everything to do with me. To break it down, I am jealous. I am jealous of the growth and also jealous of the journey. Either way they, had the guts to actually do what I had only been talking about doing.
A message to my church planting people: Give me some time, I’ll work through my issues, and end up loving you. But it’s going to take a while. Thanks for understanding.
—D’Art
The number two question I get about starting a new church is, “How do you know you’re supposed to start a church?” My answer is pretty simple, God told me to….I think.
“Pray that God would lead people to plant churches in Boston.” That was the prayer request I read in 2007 while at a gathering for college students, for which I was a leader. I had no clue that God would change the trajectory of my entire life that weekend. When I read that prayer, I knew that Jesus was daring me to trust Him, to follow Him to places that I’ve never been before, to do things I’ve never done before. If I had ever heard God speak, this was it. I decided that I was going to go for it. Whatever the cost.
Fast forward 10 months. I developed a 5 year plan of getting to Boston and had already talked to some key people about what God was calling me to. Everything was trucking along just fine, until the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in 2007. I was called into my boss’ office and let go. Fired. Boom. My 5 year plan was just bulldozed by the Divinity of the Almighty. His timeline didn’t match mine. Holy Spirit wins.
I didn’t know what to do. We couldn’t afford to move straight to Boston, plus we didn’t know the first thing about planting a church. So, we prayed about it. Fought about it. Cried about it. Then we moved to Charlotte to catch a glimpse of what God can do with willing servants and a desire to see His name be made famous.
I say all of that to say this: God speaks. Listen. If you are 100% sure you know what God is saying, think again. You just might need to spend some more time with Him. God is probably calling you to something bigger and scarier. When God speaks, faith and obedience are usually a requirement to do what He says.
So to answer the initial question, “How do you know?” I don’t really, but if the city of Boston doesn’t hear the Gospel, it won’t be because of my disobedience.
—D’Art
“So that people who don’t know Jesus, can.”
We moved to Charlotte for the sole purpose of learning from the guys at Elevation Church. And boy, have we learned. When we moved here, almost 2 years ago, the church was pushing 2000 in attendance, now it’s at about 6000. We’ve been able to sit down with some of the key staff and pick their brains. We were also able to serve as volunteer leaders. We really learned a lot about volunteers and leadership.
Here are 3 things we’ll take with us when we leave Charlotte and plant in Boston.
Later I’ll post the 3 things we’ll leave in Charlotte.