Faith = RISK

We were talking about faith in our community group last night and it got me thinking about what I've learned through my journey in faith.

When I look back on my life, I see that my faith has grown through the little stepping stones of obedience that I've taken. The more that I learn to trust in God, it seems that it gets both easier and harder. Easier in the sense that I know He's never let me down so I don't really have a reason NOT to trust him. Harder in the sense that I've seen a progression, and as I've learned to put more of my trust and faith in God even greater faith has been expected of me.

I think back to our move to Madison.  It took a lot of faith for Steve and I to uproot ourselves, sell our house and move to a new city where we knew absolutely no one and had no jobs. Everyone knows our story. I moved here by myself to look for a job thinking it wouldn't be that difficult while Steve stayed back in St. Louis.  Almost 3 months passed before I finally found a job here and Steve was able to quit his job and join me. What a long few months those were, but my faith was tested in ways it never had been before. Fast forward to Steve joining me here in Madison, when it took him 9 long months to find work. Believe me when I say our trust was in God and God alone through that season. Days (literally) after Steve got hired we decided it was time to start a family.

Faith with that decision comes into play here - had we not had the previous year of testing as our faith was strengthened through having to really trust in God with our situation, I really don't think Asher would be in the picture today. It was growing in our faith and trust in God that brought us to the point of knowing that it was okay to start a family because we knew that we would be taken care of.

Just the other day Steve and I were talking about our old life. When I asked him if he thought we would have started a family yet if we were still living in St. Louis he said no.  Although we were making a whole lot more money there, we hadn't walked through some of the trials that had come about through uprooting our lives here to Madison and I really don't think we would have had the faith to step out and trust God to bring a baby into the picture. I'm just being real, no, I'm not a perfect Christian that always has "the faith to move mountains."

Now, I look back on our journey of faith. It started with trusting God with the little things and now has grown to the point where really I'm not that concerned about our lives because I really do trust God to take care of us. I see the journey from taking that giant leap of faith to uproot our lives and all that I've learned throughout the very detailed process and just how faithful God has been to us.  Quitting my job to stay home with Asher has been another huge leap of faith for us, but again, God has been faithful.

John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard churches, said it well when he said "faith" is spelled R-I-S-K. It really is - taking risks for God is what has strengthened my faith over the years.  I don't know what's in the future for us, but I can guarantee that there will be a lot of risk-taking. The kind that in 10 years will cause me to look back on this season of life, and all of the trusting and faith building that I've done in the last 2 years will seem like a breeze compared to the giant mountain that will be ahead of me.....and that's when grace comes into play. :)

I'm excited to be risk taker for Jesus - scared, but excited. I want my faith to increase, and I know that the only way that will happen is through walking through the challenges of life, and that's something that I'm learning to embrace.

We're Moving!

Yep, you heard me right! Technically Steve and I aren't moving, but the teeny tiny church that started out with 6 of us in our living room is moving again - this time into a 4,400 sq. ft space that we're leasing! So excited that our little church has grown so much! No more renting out the reception hall at the Raddison for us, we have our own space to decorate and grow in. This is all so exciting!

We'll have our first service in our new building in just two weeks. It all happened so quickly, so we have a lot to do in a small amount of time. Tables, chairs, couches and decor to purchase and new signs to be made. It will all come together, I'm just not sure how at this point and am excited to see how God works it all out!

Regardless of all the loose ends that still need to be taken care of, I am so excited! Through every stage of growth that our little church has gone through I have loved looking back and seeing how faithful God has been to us as a church. It's truly amazing and we feel so blessed to be a part of planting this church. It's been so, so hard, but so worth it! As we continue to grow I can't help but look back on our small beginning and be amazed at all that God has done for us in this past year. Both personally and as a church we have seen how faithful God has been to us and we're so grateful for all of His goodness to us.

The next few weeks should be pretty crazy, so blogging might just be on the back burner. Again.

Knocked Up and Joyful

Our little church has been growing, so now along with our Sunday services we will be adding three weekly community groups that meet during the week to share life together. Steve and I will be hosting and leading one of those community groups at our house starting up in a few weeks.

We love hosting groups and being hospitable, but this is the first time that we're actually leading a group as far as providing a teaching from the Bible is concerned. I'm a little nervous because I love learning, but don't feel like I'm a very adequate teacher. I have this fear that I'm going to steer people wrong, so it has caused me to pray a lot and know that I'm totally dependent on God.

Anyway, right now in church the sermon series has been called "Discovering Jesus". It's taking a more in depth look on the life of Jesus in the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that tell Jesus' story. They were all written by different disciples and although all the stories line up together, they're all told from the different perspectives of the particular author.

Our community groups will be studying more in-depth some of these books and Steve and I decided that we would like our group to study the book of Luke. Luke was an outsider and because of that loved reaching out to the outsiders and those who didn't necessarily fit in - such as common laborers, those who were racially different, the poor and those who were kind of just written off as weird.

Steve and I also really have a heart to reach those who would be considered common day outsiders, so we decided that Luke would be a good book for our group to study. I haven't even really started the in-depth study so much, but already feel like I'm learning a lot.

This morning I was reading in Luke 1 about Mary (Jesus' mother) and how the angel came to tell her that she was pregnant. I've always though about how overwhelming that must have been for her and how I would have reacted, but haven't really stopped to take the time to really think about how she actually handled the news.

What's crazy is that she had such a trust in God that she was joyful and willing to serve immediately after she got the news that she was pregnant. If I put myself in her shoes I know that I would most undoubtedly be freaking out and trying to figure how I was going to explain to everyone (especially my fiance) that even though I was pregnant I was still a virgin and haven't been messing around. Of course, I would be thinking about what everyone would be thinking about me, because for obvious reasons nobody would have believed my story. I would be afraid of becoming an outcast to my family and loved ones. Not Mary though, she just said, "I am the Lord's and I am here and ready to serve."

How crazy is that?!?! She didn't even take the time to stop and doubt and freak out because she trusted God that much, and not only did she trust Him, she trusted Him with a grateful heart! She was thankful that God had put her in this crazy situation.

What a lesson to me. This last year has been a year of having our faith tested and so many times being thankful was at the very bottom of my Spiritual "to-do" list. So many times I was too busy freaking out and asking God what he was going to do next, that many times I forgot to just be thankful for all the He was doing in me. I was so busy putting my trust in Him while trying to come up with a backup plan of my own in the meantime. I know realistically that's just not how trusting in God works, but fear and worry is often times a weakness of mine.

Mary's faith is such an example to me and when I look at all the obstacles that were in front of her as she had a blessing growing inside of her, I hope and pray that my life can resemble the attitude of faith, joy, gratefulness and a willingness to serve like she had.

Encouraged and Excited....

Hanging out with the guys at Dexter's on the 4th.
We had a great weekend with the guys here, but I am so worn out. The last 2 weeks have been crazy and I'm ready for some down time, which at this point it's looking I'm not going to get for another few weeks yet.

Yesterday was an exciting day. I went and bought a coffee machine for our church. After I got home I pulled out the new bean grinder that I had also purchased for the church last week and made myself a cup of coffee with our new equipment. I know it may seem silly, but it was so exciting for me to actually be putting together church supplies because it means we're growing! We've gone from just 6 of us meeting in our living room on Monday nights to buying church coffee supplies to welcome people to our first public (as in not meeting in a home) service next Sunday.
This has been such a crazy journey, but it's good to look back on each step we've taken along the way and see how God has put all of the details together. Last year at this time a church coffee machine was the last thing on our mind. We were still back in St. Louis packing up our belongings, waiting to sell our house and move up into the unknown. Now we have a new house and life here in Madison and are actually holding Sunday morning church services. How cool is that??

It is just so encouraging for me to look back on all that we've gone through in the last year and know that it wasn't all for nothing. I know that we still have a long ways to go, but I'm fine with trusting in the process and enjoying (or trying to) the ride - bumps along the road and all. God truly has been so good to us!

No easy buttons here..

It's one of those rare week days where it's after midnight and I just can't sleep, so I figured what better way to put me to sleep than to blog. :)
We have a community group that meets at our house on Wednesday nights and tonight a new couple stopped in that seem really great and it was very encouraging for me to have some fresh faces join us. It's so crazy because when we first decided to church plant we had no idea what we were getting into nor what to expect. We still are pretty much in the same boat, but it's been so funny for me to look back on the last few months and realize that this church planting business is so much harder and so much easier at the same time than I would have ever expected.
Without a doubt the hardest part for me was the season when I was living up here in Madison alone. On top of that it's been hard now that Steve's been here 2 months and is still having an impossible time finding a job. Also, it's been hard to get out of my comfort zone and make new friends because I miss my friends back home terribly, but most of the time I just feel that it's really hard but don't really know it is that makes it so hard if that makes sense.
As for the the easy part? The easy part has been depending on God. We have nothing else left to depend on and know that God is our only source and only hope and learning to rely on Him to provide our every need and give us the necessary grace to sustain us has really been our only option, which has really made our faith stronger. We really have nothing else to do but to hope in God and I have learned so much in the recent months about what it really means to put my trust in God and for that I am so grateful.
Because of all of that I have so much hope for the future and for what God has for this church that He would call 8 "nobodies" from St. Louis to sell their houses, pack up and move and start a church. We really are nothing without the grace of God, but we have everything because He is going before us.
Right now we're starting out small, but I'm encouraged with the great people that God has brought into our paths, not only for our church, but even apart from the church I feel equally blessed to have made some great friends to share life with here in Madison.
I find myself chuckling whenever I see that Staples commercial that has the "easy" button on it, because I find myself wishing that everything in life had an "easy" button to push. But then I have to stop and realize that if everything were easy I would never be challenged, never grow and never learn. As much as I absolutely hate hitting the rough patches in life I can't help but feel so grateful for all the obstacles I've had to overcome and all that I've learned through the overcoming. I know that this rough, starting out season will pass and instead of wishing it away or waiting for a better day I want to learn to embrace all that it has for me and learn as much as I can through the process. Thank God that He promises to never give me more than what I can handle!
And with that I think I'll try to get some sleep.....