Work Where God Is Working...

One of the challenging, faith-testing, areas of church planting is that we are dependent upon God for results.  We're doing everything we can do with the wisdom that God has given us to this point to move forward in launching a church from scratch.  But, when it comes down to it... it is God who gives success and He is the only One that can really bring results and create the momentum we need to move forward.

As I process this... I look at our work and I see God moving very dramatically in some areas and very slowly in others.  It was Henry Blackaby, in his book Experiencing God, that articulated well what we need to do: Discern where God is moving and then make sure you are a part of that (my paraphrase).  The faith-stretching part for me is that (quite honestly) God is not moving right now in the area of bringing us teammates.  Despite our contact making efforts and the many people that we have invited to our meeting or asked to pray about joining our team...movement has been desperately slow.  BUT, what God clearly IS doing is opening up great doors for us to serve people in our community.

I'm quite excited about this... because, after all, ClearView's mission is to love people to a clear view of Jesus and His mission.  God has opened up doors for us to serve at New Albany's Oktoberfest (10/6), brought 412 Commission to us this past week to hand out thousands of fliers, and provided a NEW OPPORTUNITY I'm very excited about: serving coffee to hundreds (and possibly a few thousand) voters this coming Tuesday at Gahanna's YMCA.  This just opened up!

An exciting story... A light finally went on in my head a few weeks ago when I was at the YMCA and I noticed it was listed as a polling location.  I approached one of the directors that I (and some of our team members) have been building a relationship with.  He said he would check with his supervisor about us providing coffee to voters.  A week later, he called saying we have the green light.  The next day, I went to a local coffee/bagel place and asked to see the manager.  On two different occasions that afternoon I waited and waited... and the guy never came out of his office.  So, I went down the street to Caribou Coffee.  The manager was at the counter and said "Hello" immediately.  So, I proceeded to ask her to donate enough coffee for hundreds of voters.  I was amazed as she quickly calculated how much we would need and offered the coffee and cups all throughout the day.  I estimate this is probably about $500 worth of coffee at retail costs!  God truly opened a door for us to partner with the YMCA and provided the resources (despite our tight budget) through this generous Caribou manager!

So, I'm learning:  go where God is working and trust Him for His perfect plan and perfect timing in the areas where He seems to be moving very slow (providing teammates).  In this case that means taking full advantage of Tuesday and all the people we will get to serve and meet AND patronizing Caribou Coffee as often as possible!  :)

Please pray with us that God will lead us to spiritually seeking people we can love and even pioneer-type people we could partner with as we serve coffee on Tuesday.  Please continue to beg God to lead us to the people He has already appointed for us to work with to begin a new church.  I do believe they are out there...we just need to find them.  Perhaps that is why God is moving slow in revealing our team...it forces us to work harder and go deeper into the community to find those we need to launch well.  That is one of the blessings I'm seeing of our situation.  It would be nice to have a team that is growing... but while we wait and beg God for provision in this area... He is opening up GREAT doors to be out among people Jesus loves- where they are.  That really is what the Church is to be any way.

So...we'll go where God is working.  That is exciting!