This struck a chord deep within me… Many of us are tempted to believe that our fight is a fight against “sin.” This may be partially true, but not wholly. Our battle is not against the “flesh and blood” of this world, Ephesians 6:12 but rather, a battle for belief in the Gospel itself.

 I don’t know about you but I have spent much of my Christian life fighting the sin that flows from my idolatrous heart instead of fighting the factory it self. ( John Calvin, Institutes)

Our fight, our contender, in this life is not sin itself, but rather the production of sin in our hearts.  Our hearts begin to produce sin when we decide in our hearts to believe that the Gospel is not true.  We “exchange the truth of God for a lie” Romans 1:25, and every time we make this decision sin flows from our hearts. We as humanity, begininning with the Garden of Eden and extending to the end of time, are obsessed with our image, this is precisely why Adam and Eve hid in their nakedness, they were ashamed of their image. Genesis 3:6-7

The Fight is ultimately a Fight for Image

Our image is everything to us, so we spend a lifetime trying to make an image for ourselves, a perception, a deception, to those around us.

When we focus on our image and make it the focus of our lives we ultimately rob God of the glory due to him through our lives.

When we fight for the faith instead of the sin, we focus on our hearts and desire to give God the glory due to him through our lives.  Our lives will be consumed with actually believing the Gospel, meaning, that the death of Christ is also my death, and the resurrected life of Christ is also my resurrected life. (Romans 5)

The real issue is this: one day we can do this, and the next day, we won’t.  This particular issue is why Paul calls us to fight.  To contend, to agonize, to remain faithful, even in the tenth round.  So much of our Christian accountability is a platform for legalism and not a fountain of Grace.  I am by no way saying that sin is excusable.  However, if we’re not careful our accountability can easily fall into fighting against sin instead of fighting for the gospel in our hearts.  We’re called to be on the offense agains the enemy, because the “gates of hell shall not prevail” against the church. Matthew 16:18

Fighting Produces Repentance

Repentance is a clear indicator that you’re fighting the right fight.  Do you understand what actually happens when you repent?  When we repent we die to ourselves.  When we repent we are truly humble.  When we repent we refuse the opportunity to take the glory that belongs to God. When we repent, God in his kindness, shows his grace and we submit to His authority to forgive sins. (Romans 2:4)  Ultimately forgiven people will inherit the kingdom.  Forgiven people must repent.  Repentance is the biggest mark that you’re fighting the right fight.

I long for the day that age will not be the indicator of spiritual maturity, but rather godliness, produced through submission to the Lordship of Christ.  I’ll leave you with this:

You are not mature if you have a high esteem of yourself. He who boasts in himself is but a babe in Christ, if indeed he be in Christ at all. Young Christians may think much of themselves. Growing Christians think themselves nothing. Mature Christians know that they are less than nothing. The more holy we are, the more we mourn our infirmities, and the humbler is our estimate of ourselves.

C.H. Spurgeon

The above book has really started this conversation in my soul.  If you want to plunge deeper, click on it and order it.

This is a “season of preparation.”

That phrase has always seemed like a cop-out for people to actually “do” ministry to me.  That is, until I was placed in a situation where God has specifically called me to prepare.  It seems like church planting will change a lot of things about your life around.  I never thought that God would put the brakes on “doing ministry” so that I can be more faithful in ministry for the long haul.  My heart jumps from event to event and from experience to experience so much of the time, without even thinking about the bigger picture that god has placed us in.

I’m learning that following Jesus is more about be faithful day-by-day to what he’s entrusted you with, not building a kingdom of your own; but rather learning to die.  God is calling my family to a lifetime of ministry, and to be honest, my “approval idol” wants this whole thing to be about ME. For those of you that this may be new lingo to, an idol is anything you worship.  To be honest, I have a tendency to worship the approval of others.  With this in mind, if I don’t have this part of my life in check, I just like many of you, will do anything to receive that.

I think more than anything, God cares far too much about my family to allow me to go out and blow this thing up now, instead, he’s called a type “A” personality like myself, to soak in wisdom and leadership so that  I’ll me more faithful to the gospel instead of my ego.

I’m reminded of Moses who, prepared for 80 years before he ever led the Israelites out of slavery. 80 years.  That’s longer than most of us will live! I feel a lot like Moses, a pretty ordinary guy.  Vanilla…Why is it that my heart desires so often to “be somebody?”  For this call as Christ followers, let us trust the leadership of Christ no matter the lot we draw.  I’m so thankful that God carries his children on to completion as He knows us and sees fit. (Philippians 1:6)

Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

                                                                                                                          -Proverbs 6:6-8

Now that God had literally taken care of the housing situation we were still in need of finding a place to train.  I began interviewing with Perimeter Church in Atlanta.  Perimeter is a large Presbyterian church that has an absolutely phenomenal church planting strategy.  Honestly, I was blown away that I even got to interview with them.  After our first interview Bob told me that he liked me and my story but he wanted to be up front with me… He said there are a few things you’ve got against you: 1- your age. 2- you’d be the first white non-Presbyterian guy we’d ever have 3- you haven’t led adults before in a church setting.

Long story short, we continued the interview process and I was in a huge time crunch.  I had told the church in St. Louis that I would let them know by February 15^th and it was early February… In the middle of February, after a VERY rigorous interview process Perimeter asked us to come on a “Church Planter in Residence.”

This meant lots of things:

• I wouldn’t have to work 2 jobs while training. (Although I will still raise support once we get more of the details of the church plant nailed down.)
• I’d be in Atlanta (where we ultimately feel called)
• I’d get some of the best training available for church planting

This leads us to where we are now.  We’ve got two months to finish well in Greenwood.  God has provided for us in a tremendous way.  I know what you’re thinking; well you haven’t even planted yet. Right?

When that day comes, it will have enough worries and concern for itself.  What we know now is this: God has undoubtedly paved the way for what we’ve been praying about.  I didn’t deserve any of this, but God has been so kind to my family.  Our story is just now beginning; please pray that we would remain obedient!

While we were thinking and praying about the future, the reality of the fact that we had a home to sell was still on the table.  I had begun meeting with the realtor and crunching the numbers, in short, we were going to go in the hole to sell our place.  Debt and church planting don’t go well together because we weren’t really going to have any money to pay to pay for the debt on our old house and then also pay for our new house.  After the meeting, we agreed that we would put the house on the market the middle of January.

I’ll never forget January 8th, 2012 as long as I live.

On that Sunday night as I was doing the usual clean up after our evening service one of my great friends and fellow youth workers and I were talking.  I was sharing my deep concerns about God’s call and our current predicament that we were in with our house.  As were walking out he said, “You know, I might be interested in buying your house.”  My heart literally sank.  I went home told my wife and we prayed, for a long time….  Not that God would convince this person to buy our house, but that His will would be done.

The next day I went into sign the papers with my realtor and for some reason I put this guys name as an exception into the contract.  Sure enough later that week, he confirmed that he would indeed like to purchase the house!  This meant that we would not have to go in debt because we didn’t have to pay realtor fees, and if that wasn’t good enough, they agreed to let us rent the house from them till the day we moved!

This may seem small to you, but in our hearts this was confirmation of the story that God wanted to write through our lives.  So much emotional filled our hearts that week!

 

1. The Gospel
2. Our Marriage
3. Our Kids
4. Leaving Greenwood well (giving 110% all the time and preparing our students and leaders for when we would leave – so that they wouldn’t!)
5. Finding a great place to train (this was a huge conviction of mine, I know I have lots to learn)

During this time, I began interviewing with several churches that had a “Church Planting Residency” program, including Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA, Summit Church in St. Louis, MO, and some talk about going back to Las Vegas.  It seemed like things were progressing, but we still didn’t have clarity on where we would end up.

            Around Christmas time the church in St. Louis offered me a residency and it was a phenomenal setup.  The only issue with it was I would have to work another job and we were not called to St. Louis.  So, this would mean that we would have to move 2 times before landing somewhere.  In the midst of this time we took our family pilgrimage down to Atlanta to spend some time with Megan’s Family and take some student to the annual Passion Conference.  In our 10 days there, God confirmed that He was calling us to plant in Atlanta.  There are a myriad of things that he showed us, but I’ll spare you the details.

While in Atlanta we had an opportunity to spend some time at a great church plant in the grant Park area of Atlanta.  I had the opportunity to meet Pastor Leonce and set up a time that week to hear from him a bit more.  In that 2 hour window I had with Leonce I was so encouraged.  That man has an incredible amount of faith and courage!  During our conversation I asked him where he did his training to plant and he told me about a church in the metro Atlanta area called Perimeter.  He spoke very highly of them and encouraged me to check them out.

In August of 2011 Megan and I sat across the table from one of our dearest friends at a Steak N Shake in Louisville, Kentucky when we were asked “what would you do with your life if you could do anything?”  My immediate response was “plant a church.”   It had always been on the back burner, but now, all of a sudden, with a 7 month pregnant wife, I had verbalized the calling to someone else.  A few weeks after this my great friend and mentor, Ty, told me I needed to attend a church planting boot camp in Chicago, Il.  In which I responded, “Now is just not the right time.” And I proceeded to give him a list of reasons why including the financial piece.  Within one week of that conversation happening we had a check in our mailbox for the amount of the conference.  So, we packed up our stuff and headed to Chicago for a few challenging and inspiring days with other Acts 29 church planters.  Our time in Chicago was very enriching.  I can remember my wife looking over at me and saying, “Ryan, this is exactly what we’re called to do.”  Throughout our time there as we met others that were advising and challenging our motives for desiring to plant a church we got the same affirmation.  I literally remember leaving one of our round table sessions and weeping at the overt call of God on our lives; it was vivid and clear.

We returned from Chicago not really knowing our exact next step. Stones Crossing had been booming and we were loving the ministry, but we just couldn’t shake the call of God on our lives to plant a new work.

If you always spend you’re time “doing” without actually seeking, it’s quite possible that you may never be in the will of God.

¹ Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

Psalms 1:1-3

For 14 years now, I have been seeking God’s will for my life.  I’ve spent much of the time on the narrow path, some of it on the wide path.  What I’ve concluded is that most of what the Lord is calling me to is right under my nose.  Here I am looking for a sign, something miraculous to happen in my life, like I’ve mastered the Word of God, and here Jesus sits, asking me to listen.

There you have it.  Nothing to saucy or too hard to handle. As Peter writes, “You must live as God’s obedient Children.” 1 Peter 1:14 I want to kno wgod in such an intimate fashion that I move with His spirit, that I cash-in on opportunites for the kingdom.  After all, God defines unity, and He desperatly desires to bring us all into unity as He uses us for His purposes.  So will you join me in the search for obedience.  Will you ask yourselves what I now ask?  And that question is this:

I know you’re all around my God, how can I accomplish your purposes in this minute?  How can I make this a holy moment?

 

Let’s do this!

RJ

As I (Charlie) sit in the White’s kitchen recalling the day, I truly could not think of any words to describe what the Mission team went through today. First, let’s spend a sentence on what happened yesterday. We worked from eleven, until sundown at the White’s property.

Today, the team all somehow managed to stumble downstairs for an unbelievable breakfast made by Teresa. We filled our stomach’s up with egg burritos with salsa and cheese, and they best orange juice any of us had ever tested. A perfect start to a day that certainly changed our lives. We then piled into the “Vamos” van and headed to 27 waterfalls. Once at the waterfalls we made the 45 minute hike to take the hour long journey all the way up the falls, only to jump back down them. The trek up with falls was a beautiful and tiring one. Guides helped us climb ropes up slippery, steep rocks and climb wet ladders. We even climbed the falls with our bare hands. After a steep 10 minute hike we were ready to jump down our first fall (10 feet). We were all a little nervous, but loosened up for the 30 and 35 foot jumps. We slid down a couple of falls as well, but we mainly leaped down them. It was an experience that was both exhilarating and absolutely beautiful. After jumping, there was a buffet style lunch waiting for us. Don’t get me wrong, it was wonderful, but McDonald’s was on everyone’s mind. After we waddled back into the van, we set off for a Batay.

A Batay is a village full of Haitians that work the sugar cane fields for the Dominican farmers. These people make very, very little money. I must first let anyone who is reading this that a Batay cannot be described by words. In fact I feel like it is an insult to even try. Once our white van was seen, parents and children came out of their homes to stare at us. We got out and made small talk with them through Teresa and Jim (because none of us spoke Creole except for them). Then the children came out and the Holy Spirit filled us and we were able to break the language barrier. Children always speak Spanish the in Dominican, whether Haitian or Dominican. The poverty in this village is the worst in North America. Many children ran around naked, others wore whatever they could find (one little boy was wearing a skirt, and we eventually figured out he was in fact a boy). Housing was huts made of whatever the people could put together. In order for the Team to pass out our care packets and toys for the children, we had to lock ourselves in a barred house and let the children come in by twos so that we were not mobbed by the large group of children waiting for us to care for them. After we passed out the packages and toys, Jim made an announcement that we would be putting on a program for the children. All the children of the village started screaming and ran towards the basketball court and they packed the stand completely full. We performed our skit and Dalton delivered a small message translated in Spanish by our very own Brittany. A mother that watched this skit was later saved (praise God). The children clapped and screamed after our skit. These kids, 5 minutes later, screamed even louder when Danielle performed her jump rope routine. They scream MAS, MAS, MAS (More, more, more). he was hot and sweaty, but gave them what they needed. These kids, though poor, are not poor in spirit. They laughed and made the best of their milk carton soccer ball. All of the guys turned into horses or race cars as we carried and ran with the children on our backs. None of us had ever sweated that much.

We had so much fun, I cannot describe it. After about 2 hours of entertaining the children, we had to leave. The children asked “Cuando vienete?” (when will you come back to me?), we had to say we just didn’t know. We hugged them and held their hands all the way back to the van where they cried when we said our final good byes. It was emotional night for all involved as we all held back tears. God worked through everyone’s lives as we left the village and headed home. It was a day that none will forget, and a day that gave all of us joy. Thank you for following and we will see you between 7-9 at Stones Crossing Church tomorrow. Thank you and God Bless.

I’d like to apologize for the length of this in advance, but God made himself very clear to us today, and I’d like to share as much as I can with all of you.

Today was indescribable, but I (Abby) will try to put it into words as best as I can. We started off the day simply and humbly – with devotionals and just spending time with God. Then, after a breakfast of cereal, granola bars, and yogurt, we headed to International Christian Church. The service started out with total honesty as people shared their prayer requests with the congregation, all the while showing such complete faith in God’s promises. Then, we took up an offering, collected by our buddy Timmy, prayed for the offering, and greeted each other with hugs and lots of smiles.. The Motion band was welcomed up after that, and fit right in as Teresa sang with a passion unlike anything I have ever seen. The songs were half in Spanish and half in English, and though it was different trying to keep up with another language, it was still an incredibly humbling experience to come before God with our hearts completely exposed. The last song we sang was Arms Open Wide, which our group introduced to the congregation. Singing that song, everyone just emptied themselves of everything except God. His presence was so strong, so beautiful, and so powerful. I was covered in goosebumps as we poured our hearts out to Him, and surrendered to His perfect plan.

Jim then preached (it was translated into Spanish by Rosa) over an essay called The Room…This is one thing that I would advise you read. You can find it online, and it is called “The Room”, and is by Brian Moore. The whole sermon was beautiful, and God’s words were flowing in abundance from Jim’s mouth. God’s presence was so strong, and everyone could feel it. Jm also referenced Mark 7: 14-23 and Ephesians 4: 20-24, if you would like to look at those as well.

After church, we went to lunch at Dominican-style buffet. We had rice, salad, and lots of variety of meat; we also had some of the best smoothie-type-things that I have ever had in my life. Then, we went back to the White’s house for an hour of rest.

After that long, hot hour was finally over, we went to an orphanage on the west side of Santiago, and that was the part of the day that tugged on all of our hearts. Though we couldn’t speak much (except for Brittney who is fluent in Spanish), the little we could say and our interactions with the children just drew us all so close. As we were leaving, a girl I had been talking to, Mariela, said  to me “Te amo, por favor regresaré,” which translates into, “I love you, please come back.” Just being around the kids, playing whiffle ball with them, making bracelets with them, blowing up balloon animals with them, and just being around them was so encouraging, because they have more hope than many people in the U.S. even though they have much less than we do. There was a brother and sister there, and their story was sad. The boy had some type of mental disability, and would cry and hit himself, and the girl was blind. They were both abandoned at a young age, and the girl cared for her brother, and another brother who, from what I understood, had passed away. The hardest thing about their story is that they are both creations of God, and were wanted by no one, until Rosa, that is. Seeing their hope and their joy despite everything that had happened to them gave everyone a reality check, and I think I can speak for the whole team when I say that we were inspired by everything about them.

And Rosa, where to begin! First, I’ll tell you that she only speaks Spanish, so everything that she said was translated, but that didn’t make a bit of a difference. In her time, she has witnessed SO many miracles, and shared a few of those with us. I’m afraid that I can’t even do her stories justice in writing, but Aaron took a video of her testimony that will be posted shortly. One thing that I can tell you is that Rosa, though very blessed in faith and in love, is by far the most humble person I have ever met. She takes nothing for granted, and is so grateful for every prayer, every miracle, and every child she takes in. Her heart is so huge and open, and she has used that, and her faith in God to start this orphanage that changed these beautiful kids’ lives. She is truly remarkable, and I pray that God will lead me back to that house with all those beautiful kids at some point in my life.

So, after a sad, heart-wrenching goodbye to some of the most loving and humble people I have ever met, we drove back to the White’s house for dinner.

Before dinner, some of the girls (myself included) formed a massage chain while the boys watched the game. Then we had a cook-out dinner, with Joseph as a guest. Right now, most of the boys are playing basketball at the park with Joseph, and a couple of the boys and all of the girls are here either showering, swimming, or playing ridiculously intense games of euchre.

Again, I’d like to thank you on behalf of our entire team for your prayers, and your support throughout the past few months. Thanks to the various ways you all have invested in this trip, we are all being changed and challenged and humbled every day, and we are doing God’s best to share His love with everyone we encounter.

After a nice rest and a tasty breakfast at TIME Ministries we started yet another journey to the Haitian Church to put on a VBS that we had been planning for weeks.  Upon arrival, all plans were off.  The kids were so, so sweet and loving and kind and just about anything that is good.  Our mediocre Spanish held up very nicely during our VBS adventure and we were able to communicate with children that just melted our hearts.  We took pictures of and with the kids.  They had never really seen what they looked like in a camera and they loved to take pictures and look at them.  The church was hot, and we were all drenched in sweat.  We had them make picture frames for their photos that we printed for them on the spot.  We also helped them make bracelets, and they dominated us Americans in a pick-up game of whiffle ball.  The 100 Haitians kids almost killed many of our team’s members as we gave the girls little stuffed animals, the guys Hot-Wheel cars, and every one animal balloons that some of the team made.  The kids kept hugging us and it was hard to say good-bye, but we once again piled into the “Mystery Machine” in order to head to the Colonial City.

After a crazy bumpy drive that took about an hour, we visited one of the oldest churches in America; it was made in 1540 and it was beautiful! We didn’t stay for long because a delicious Dominican style lunch was waiting for us just around the corner. The meal was a traditional meal of rice and chicken that Dominicans eat for lunch. Soon after finishing our lunch, we headed off to tour the Colonial City. We were taken on a tour of two different museums; one was of Diego Columbus, Christopher Columbus’ son. The other museum was a renovated version of the governor’s house, similar to the White House for the U.S.. The third, but not final place we had the opportunity to experience was The Ozama Fortress which is the first, largest military complex in Spanish America. We climbed up many stairs to reach the top, and we were humbled by a breath-taking view of the Caribbean Sea as well as other things on the island. Lastly, we shopped for souvenirs and things of the like to cart home with us. However, this was not your typical shopping experience. Typically the vendors offered knifes, cigars, and machetes to the men of the group and purses, bracelets, and key chains to the women. We bargained with the vendors and many people got items for half or less than the original price… Shopping for about an hour was all we could handle, and the stores closed at six, so we all hopped back in the wonderful van and Jeep to endure the 3 hour car ride home. On the way home, we stopped at a small, but very nice bakery where we bought some delicious cinnamon rolls that we ate this morning for breakfast! This bakery also did not allow wife beaters to be worn inside. Finally we arrived home, got cleaned up, ate dinner, and got some shut eye!

Welcome to Day 5! A day of hard work and sunburns! Unless you’re of some Mexican descent, that is… Most of today was spent on the Property of Dreams (Field of Dreams reference there… “If you build it, they will come.”) I took a few pictures of the property, so hopefully I can show y’all on here at some point, because this place is literally too beautiful to explain. Forgive me if some of the pictures are shaky. While the scenery is breath-taking, the roads are body-shaking (In a hot van: not so much fun. In the back of a pickup truck: all kinds of fun)… Anyways, the property is a very large amount of land that the White’s have invested much time and thought into. Did I mention that this place is gorgeous??? In the future, the plans are large and exciting, and as Jim told us about some of God’s plan for this beautiful piece of His creation, I couldn’t help but get chills… Some of the many things to come include a fully functional building for discipleship training, a bonvo pit (bonfire devotionals), a house for Jim and Teresa, a quiet path by the water (it’s still a few machetes away from being cleared), as well as a spot for baptisms and a path all the way around the property! All of the plans for this place leads me to the next part of my post… the work. The whole group has been aching for a good day of hard work (seriously) and we got as much as we asked for today.

From cleaning out soppy, muddy water from the foundation for Jim and Teresa’s house to counter-weighting each other across the roof of the disciple training building, we did work! Along with the mudding and roof acrobatics, we also organized a large pile of cleared out wood with an assembly line, a pickup truck, and a large chainsaw (vroom vroom). We cleaned all of the roofing and joint-work on the roof, we dug 4×4 holes, and to end the day, we swept more dirt and debris out of the disciple training building than Mickey Mouse or the brooms of Fantasia could ever even imagine. The sun was hot, and many of us got sunburnt (“Not I,” said the horse =]) but the work was far more satisfying than the burn, and at the end of the day, I know we all feel like it was a great success. In my opinion, the only way this place could be more awesome is if I got to go horseback riding through the property… *sigh of longing*… If only!

Throughout this entire trip, God has and will continue to be very present, but I wanted to let y’all know that we, as a group, have grown together in amazing ways! God’s love is going out and coming in! We have church in the morning, so I think I’m gonna call this a wrap (speaking of which, the food we’ve been eating is quite delicious!)… I hope y’all find some Love of your own in this lengthy recap! Keep praying for us! Don’t miss out on the plans that God has for your own life either! We’re here… you are there… God is everywhere. Don’t. Miss. Out. On. His. Plan. Love you all!

Have a blessed week!!!

Charlie, Katelyn, and Dalton