God is On the Move...Still
Five years ago, March 2010, God showed me that we should plant churches in North Carolina. Not knowing anyone there, I posted an ad on Craigslist which remained unanswered for 16 months. No one responded, not even a bad candidate. Not even a response trying to sell me something. Nothing at all.
I had one person as my prayer partner on this. Then I reposted it in July 2011. That time I began to get responses immediately. I often think about, what if I had not posted it again? What if I had just let the idea go? No one responded and only a couple of people knew I had even thought about this so it would have been easy to think of it as just one idea that didn't work. Sometimes it takes time and I am so thankful I didn't let it go.
By September of that year, 2011, several of us went to Raleigh and began to meet and interview possible church planters. Meanwhile I kept working as Worship Pastor in Dover, Pennsylvania at Friendship Community Church. At that point I started taking some of my days off and holidays and vacation days to travel to North Carolina about once a month. I also developed my Prayer Team, to whom I am so grateful. There prayers are invaluable.
We started churches in North Carolina in 2012 and the need was seen throughout that year to have someone oversee/manage those projects in the Southeast, especially because of the distance involved. After a few people living in the south were considered, but not seeming to be quite the right match, I expressed interest since it was on my heart to see the work continue there. I enjoyed my job at Friendship as Worship Pastor, frankly it was a great gig, but I believed that God was leading me to continue on with what had started in the southeast. Since I had done so much there already and knew the planters (and despite my sense of humor ;) I was hired and worked for both church planting and for the church in February and March and then the day after Easter, April 1, I 2013 began full-time as ERC Church Planting Field Director.
So it was a process of working for free with a passion and then seeing it develop. It was about reaching people for Jesus. So I have been at it full-time for two years. I travel about half the time, sometimes more, sometimes less, and work the other time in Pennsylvania. It makes it nice because I like to travel but I also value being at home, which so far is in Pennsylvania. It's a good mix for me.
Meanwhile there is recent expansion from Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, Asheville, and Greensboro/Thomasville into Warsaw, North Carolina, the Charlotte area and Columbia, South Carolina, with work underway for a church in Rock Hill, South Carolina and one by a church planting couple who has just moved to the Daytona Beach, Florida area. Along the way there have been new churches starting and plans being made for Pennsylvania church planting as well.
There are so many good stories of what has and is happening since this began five years ago. Mine is one of those. Stepping out in faith with a crazy idea to find church planters with a Craigslist ad. Guess being a little crazy qualifies me to be a church planter in my own way as I help plant in these various areas. It has been such a growing time for me and also a time of great testing. I think those go hand in hand. I continue to need prayers on my behalf and on behalf of those who step out to plant churches either in their own towns or move to a new place. It's been quite a ride and God is on the move...still.
I had one person as my prayer partner on this. Then I reposted it in July 2011. That time I began to get responses immediately. I often think about, what if I had not posted it again? What if I had just let the idea go? No one responded and only a couple of people knew I had even thought about this so it would have been easy to think of it as just one idea that didn't work. Sometimes it takes time and I am so thankful I didn't let it go.
By September of that year, 2011, several of us went to Raleigh and began to meet and interview possible church planters. Meanwhile I kept working as Worship Pastor in Dover, Pennsylvania at Friendship Community Church. At that point I started taking some of my days off and holidays and vacation days to travel to North Carolina about once a month. I also developed my Prayer Team, to whom I am so grateful. There prayers are invaluable. We started churches in North Carolina in 2012 and the need was seen throughout that year to have someone oversee/manage those projects in the Southeast, especially because of the distance involved. After a few people living in the south were considered, but not seeming to be quite the right match, I expressed interest since it was on my heart to see the work continue there. I enjoyed my job at Friendship as Worship Pastor, frankly it was a great gig, but I believed that God was leading me to continue on with what had started in the southeast. Since I had done so much there already and knew the planters (and despite my sense of humor ;) I was hired and worked for both church planting and for the church in February and March and then the day after Easter, April 1, I 2013 began full-time as ERC Church Planting Field Director.
So it was a process of working for free with a passion and then seeing it develop. It was about reaching people for Jesus. So I have been at it full-time for two years. I travel about half the time, sometimes more, sometimes less, and work the other time in Pennsylvania. It makes it nice because I like to travel but I also value being at home, which so far is in Pennsylvania. It's a good mix for me.
Meanwhile there is recent expansion from Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, Asheville, and Greensboro/Thomasville into Warsaw, North Carolina, the Charlotte area and Columbia, South Carolina, with work underway for a church in Rock Hill, South Carolina and one by a church planting couple who has just moved to the Daytona Beach, Florida area. Along the way there have been new churches starting and plans being made for Pennsylvania church planting as well.
There are so many good stories of what has and is happening since this began five years ago. Mine is one of those. Stepping out in faith with a crazy idea to find church planters with a Craigslist ad. Guess being a little crazy qualifies me to be a church planter in my own way as I help plant in these various areas. It has been such a growing time for me and also a time of great testing. I think those go hand in hand. I continue to need prayers on my behalf and on behalf of those who step out to plant churches either in their own towns or move to a new place. It's been quite a ride and God is on the move...still.
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