SHOCK & AWEsome

When you officially launch a new church, all the church planting experts will tell you that hitting a certain attendance number is crucial.  

And that's cool, I definitely believe in stewardship, which includes counting/keeping track of what is most precious... people!  However, after the 18 month journey our family has been on to get to where we are today, I'm less focused on numbers at the moment.  

I don't want quantifying a miracle to eclipse celebrating the miracle!

The ancient Hebrews carefully recorded all that the Lord did in the midst: rescue from Egypt, parting waters, providing miraculous food.  Over and over again, Moses and Joshua would say, "Remember."

As we begin seeing God do shock and awesome in our midst, I want to always remember.  Remembering keeps one humble and dependent on Christ.  As I said during my message yesterday, I want to be part of something so big and crazy that it is destined to FAIL unless God shows up!!   (click any pic below to see larger image)

        

        

18 months ago, three leaders spoke godly advice and vision and life into me.  They believed in Amber and I, loving on our family when we needed love the most.  Like Jesus, they walked toward us, not away.  I am forever grateful for these men: Perry Noble, Chris Elrod, and Scott Harris.  Without them, there would be no Life Church.

16 months ago, two pastors in Michigan began walking alongside our family, pouring healing and hope and radical grace into our lives.  I am so thankful to have Norm Byers and Jeff Forester in my life and serving on Life Church's Board.

When we began talking about starting a fresh new church completely from scratch, there were five of us: me, my wife, and the Trinity.

Yesterday we held our first weekly worship service at Saginaw Valley State University... and there were 145 of us!   Even more incredible?  ELEVEN people became Christ followers!!

        

I am so thankful today.  It blows my mind that Adam Downer, one of the BEST worship leaders on the planet, would step out in faith by taking a pay-cut and moving his family from Florida to central Michigan to join our staff.  Unbelievable.

I am thrilled to be surrounded by our Lifers: grace-addicted men, women, and students who believe in the vision, own the vision, and serve out the vision.  By doing whatever it takes, we will see in the coming years hundreds thousands of people far from God experience new life in Christ!

Seeing stuff like this on our Facebook Page absolutely pumps me up!  
THIS is why we do what we do:

These next several weeks will be a BLAST with our Easter Egg Helicopter Drop, two weeks of rado spots airing on 102.5 WIOG, and our I Love the 80's message series kicking off on Easter!  I seriously cannot wait.  But as we become kites in God's hurricane, I want to always remember and cultivate gratefulness to the Lord and friends we've made along the way.

For what its worth, here's a couple videos from yesterday:

 

If you'd like to connect with all the exciting things happening at Life Church,
here's our contact info and here's where you can help fuel the vision!