Reflections - Humility

"Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up." (James 4:10)

There could not have been a more perfect verse for me this week.  Or this past month really.  When I saw that this was the chosen topic for this week's Reflections post, I knew that I needed this verse this week.  James is probably my favorite book of the Bible and I've read it several times, but I think I've just skimmed over these particular words in the past.  Thankfully because of this post, I had to sit and chew on it for awhile this week.

This verse comes at an appropriate time because we are approaching the one year anniversary of our move here.  We did not have a Lexington address until August, but in June of 2011 we packed our car with suitcases and moved in with my sister and her family for awhile.  It was official- we were embarking on our church planting adventure.  And over the course of this past year we have done just that... planted. The phrase "church planting" makes it sound so simple.  I mean, how hard is it to plant something?  I guess that all depends on how successful and healthy you want it to be.

Take the parable of the sower for example, found in Matthew chapter 13.  In this story, a farmer plants seeds and the ones that fall on the dirt path get eaten by birds.  The ones that fall on rocky ground grow up quickly but dry out because their roots cannot find the soil.  Any seeds that are planted too close to the weeds are eventually choked out.  But thankfully some of the seeds fall on fertile soil and these are the plants that thrive and can be harvested.

In order for our church plant to thrive, we knew that we would have to have good soil.  In the church planting world that means the right people, the right vision, the right drive, and a whole heck of a lot of work!  It takes huge sacrifices, both on your time and resources, and we poured our hearts and souls into seeing this happen.  And then launch day rolled around and we had 280 people show up!  Amazing!  But guess what?  Our work wasn't done!  Our plant was now just a tiny seedling and it still needed lots of love.  It still needs love everyday, and more sacrifice, and more time and effort.  If we are truly the church, then our work is not just limited to Sundays but to everyday!  We can't stop!  There are too many birds out there waiting to eat those seeds, too many weeds waiting to choke out the new life, and too much rocky ground trying to uproot us.  It takes work every. single. day. to keep this plant healthy and thriving, and that work comes in so many forms.  As a church planting family we wear every hat... my husband is the pastor, the CEO, the accountant, the janitor, the maintenance director, the vision caster, and tries to keep this in balance with being a husband and a father first.  He's done everything from install air conditioning to setting up bank accounts, to running payroll, to designing a website, to making multimedia videos, to auditioning a worship team, to paying bills, to leading meetings, and still spends about 30 hours a week working on his message for the next Sunday.  Meanwhile I am mostly at home working a full-time job, taking care of our two little ones, running the kids' ministry, starting a community moms' group, keeping our house clean, trying to put dinner on the table, and still trying to be a loving wife first.  I'm not going to lie... it's exhausting.  Worth it?  Absolutely.  But exhausting nonetheless.

So what's this got to do with humility?  A LOT.  We live in an "I can do it all myself" society.  Asking for help is a sign of weakness in many people's opinions.  But you know what?  That idea is not from God!  Nope!  It's right there in black and white: HUMBLE yourself before the Lord and HE will lift you up.  It doesn't say juggle a million balls in the air and you'll somehow reach superstar status.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that you have to do it all alone!  Right there in print it blatantly tells us that we cannot do it alone.  Nor should we.  And over these past few months I have tried.  I am juggling more balls than I can handle, and I felt that if I admitted that to myself or to anyone else, that would mean that I was failing.  But the truth is, by asking for help I am being more responsible and taking better care of these balls that I am juggling!  Surrounding myself with people who can help gives me more hands to keep them from falling... what a wonderful concept!  I am thankful that I could read this and be reminded that God created me to be many things and to be capable of doing many things, but that He did not create me to do it all.  As a woman, I am constantly comparing myself to others.  Through Facebook, blogs, Pinterest, and other mediums we are bombarded with examples of other women who "have and do it all."  The sad part is that we forget that it's all a facade and behind every one of them is a woman who feels like she's teetering on the edge of disappointing someone or letting someone down.  If we all just slowed down for a moment and asked for help- from God and from each other- just imagine how much less pressure we would have on ourselves!

So this is me officially saying that enough is enough... I have taken on a little more than I can handle and I am in the process of getting help.  If that makes me a failure in someone's eyes then so be it... because I've already been promised that HE will lift me up.  I am perfect in His eyes and those are the only ones that matter.

I hope that this is a verse that you will commit to memory for those times that you feel like your world is spinning out of control.  As my husband would say, "don't forget the Lord of the work when you're doing the work of the Lord."  In other words, do things for a purpose and drop the things that are just weighing you down.  And ask for help if you're overwhelmed, okay?  I promise it will be okay.

If you shared your view on this topic, please link up with us.  You can also check out the fabulous Brittany's thoughts over on her blog "Daughter... Wife... Mom... Sis" (found here).

To piggy-back on this week's topic for next week, we're going to talk about prayer.  I think humility and prayer go hand-in-hand since it's through prayer that we often ask for help.  I really don't have a specific verse or reading for the topic but instead I want you to spend this week reflecting on your prayer life.  How is it?  Do you even have one?  Do you pray only when you need something or do you rejoice and sing praises to the Lord in the good times, too?  What helps you remember to pray?  Do you do it daily or just when you think about it?  My hope is that through this process we can really evaluate and explore where we are at when it comes to prayer.  And if we find that we need to learn more about it to really get to where we want to be, at least we'll have a starting point.  And if you have any references that you can recommend on the topic, please feel free to share them in your post.  Can't wait to hear how God speaks to you this week!

As always, thanks for sharing and for allowing me to share.  I hope this verse blessed you as much as it has blessed me.

Biggest Loser and A Heavy Dose of Sarcasm...

I'm not even going to lie... I should not even be allowed to call myself a competitor in this Biggest Loser contest!  I'm not sure why it has been so difficult, but this time around I have not really taken the steps to eat better or work out more.  In fact, I think I've gotten worse!  I could list a million excuses (sick kiddos, Mother's Day, our MomSource event, etc.) which have kept us incredibly busy and offered opportunities to gorge myself on sweets, but it really comes down to a lack of commitment.  I set a goal weight to hit before our beach trip this July and now realize that with five pounds (and some major toning) to go, I'm never going to get there if I don't focus and start today.  So after I get rid of this last piece of cake that has been lingering at our house (because obviously it would be wasteful to just throw it away!) I'm back to reaching for a piece of fruit instead of chocolate and getting my rear end back to the gym (or at least out the front door for a little jog).  Somehow the scale numbers continue to drop little by little (probably due to stress more than anything else!), but I know it's going to catch up to me if I don't make some changes.  So, hopefully I won't be as embarrassed to report my progress next week.  If you see me eating a cookie this week, please slap it out of my hand and then show me a picture of Heidi Klum on the runway four weeks after giving birth to her fourth child.  And I'm suuuuuurrrrrrrrre that there was no tummy tuck involved.

As for this weekend, I should be able to squeeze in a workout because we finally have next-to-nothing on the agenda!  The movers were at my parents' house this week so I'm sure we'll be over there to lend a hand (or make it more difficult by adding two kids into the mix!) at some point.  We also have family photos tomorrow with my uber-talented friend, Cory, from Wilkes Photography and this time I'm setting my expectations very low as to how the kids (and by kids I mean Jake) will do.  Here lately he seems to suddenly become shy (which he is NOT) at the sight of a camera, so hopefully he'll at least look in the general direction at least once.  

As a parent, I've learned not to have some idealistic image of how something is going to go because more than likely I'll end up disappointed.  If you want proof, I should post a copy of the baby dedications at our church last weekend.  In my mind, we would stand there and everyone would "ooh" and "ahh" over my babies as Josh blessed them and presented them to the Lord.  Instead, Lilly screamed every time I tried to hand her to anyone but me and Jake rolled around on the stage because I wouldn't pick him up.  Oh it was a sight!  Thank goodness for my sister who saw my "get up here NOW!" look that I shot her because she swooped in to the rescue... meaning she grabbed Jake and ran out of the auditorium while we wrapped up!  Yes, sweet, peaceful moment indeed!  The good news is that at least we'll color coordinate!  I think I have finally mastered the art of coordinating outfits for family photos, which is really based around finding < BRIGHT! > colors that match and using them in different ways.  You can even use clashing patterns as long as there are some solids to balance it out.  Here is our color scheme:

Now if I can just figure out how to accessorize, I'll be all set.  I for one was not born with that gene.  If anyone has a suggestion or two please throw it my way!  And Josh may end up in a yellow shirt if he chooses.  I give my man options.  Only two, yes, but options nonetheless.  :)

I also plan to hit up the neighborhood yard sale tomorrow in hopes to find some treasures for our house.  We recently rearranged the upstairs and I basically have three new rooms to decorate.  We're really trying to stay on a tight budget, so my plan is to find some goodies and also recycle some of the stuff we own and make it new.  All blogs make it look easy, so I'm sure it will be a piece of cake.  Especially since I'm so darn crafty.  {to be read with a heavy dose of sarcasm}

Other than that it's another Sunday at TurningPoint... and I've lost count at what number this one is, which means that we're not quite so new anymore!  I love Sundays because it's a weekly reminder of why we do what we do.  Each week since launch we've seen new faces, people who swore they'd never step foot in a church, and several salvations.  When our weeks get jam-packed, when my days with the kids seem long, when it feels like we have something scheduled for every night of the week, and when it seems like there is never time to just rest, God makes sure to remind me every single weekend that it's all more than worth it.  What I also know is that when I cry out to Him and beg for rest, He gently whispers, "soon."  I don't know if "soon" means tomorrow or if "soon" means three years from now (which in comparison to a life span, would be soon!), but that's the answer I get every time.  Soon I will find rest, but not today.  Today there is still much work to be done for His kingdom.  I guess I'd better get to it.

Have a great weekend, blog land!  Any fun weekend plans on your horizon?

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Lately I feel like I have a million blog ideas... and they are all over the place.  So since I may not get to do a full post on everything, I thought I'd participate in "What I'm Loving Wednesday" again and share a few.  So lately, here is what I'm loving...

1.  My parents are moving into their new home this week and guess what?  It's fifteen minutes away from me!  They've been in Florida for the past 12 years, so this is huge.  I also love that we've only been there once so far and Jake already knows that it's "Gramma's House."

2.  I'm loving everything that is happening with our church plant!  We launched TurningPoint Church in February and have already seen our numbers grow and (more importantly) lives changed.  Right after Easter we had a service with a spontaneous baptism and 27 people took the plunge!  Check out this awesome video (http://vimeo.com/41261638) ... the first guy in the water is actually Josh's dad and oneof the couples is my sister and brother-in-law.  It was an unbelievable day and God wows us every single week.

3.  With the anniversary of my blog coming up this summer, I'm looking into a blog redesign and even a new name that I have in the works.  I'm a geek, so this is super-thrilling for me.  I'm also loving that my blogger friends have been linking up and sharing during my Mama's Month series.  Yesterday's topic was favorite baby gear items... you should link up, too!

4.  Last week we rearranged our entire upstairs to give Jake and Lilly their own rooms.  Lil has been in her own crib in her own room for one full week.  Lil has finally slept through the night for one full week.  Coincidence?  I think not.  Our little diva just needed her own space!

5.  Last night a couple of friends and I put together an event to bring together moms in our neighborhood and community.  We had no idea what to expect but promoted it with Facebook and post cards that were handed out all over town.  There must have been about 30 women there and everyone hung out, chatted, and connected, which was our hope.  It was so awesome and I cannot wait until our next gathering at the end of the month!

6.  I was only going to do five, but I just have to add that I love how much my husband has spoiled me lately.  I know some of it had to do with mother's day, but all in all he's really just gone above and beyond to help me out at home.  Yep, I'm a lucky woman.

Told you these were all over the place.  Hopefully I'll find time to elaborate on some of it soon and stay tuned for a blog facelift coming this summer!  What are you loving this week?

The Quick Facts

Somewhat like a birth story, it is going to take me a few days to really get it all into writing about how yesterday went.  But in a word... it was an INCREDIBLE day!  To see people pouring into the place and the auditorium filled to capacity was certainly something to celebrate.  So I promise a longer post later, but  to tie you over, here are the quick facts:

• 285 people total... a stark contrast of our very first launch meeting which resulted in FOUR people showing up!
• 42 of those people were in our kids' services (5th grade and under)
• At least 9 people committed their lives to Christ
• Many many connection cards filled out with names of people who are excited and want to get involved!

Man it was a great day!  Although it's not up yet, Josh's sermon will be posted online soon, so when it goes live I will let you know.  I'd like to say the hard part is over, but now we have to make sure they want to come back!  It's really just the beginning...

The time has come...

It's a big day for our family, but even more so for the Kingdom tomorrow.  Tomorrow (Sunday) at 10am is the very first service of our church plant, TurningPoint Church.  From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who have been praying for us, helped us financially, gave us your time, resources, and support.  Our hearts are full and we're going into tomorrow more excited than ever.  We know that it's not about us though... and we are humbled and ecstatic to have been used in this way by God, but even more so, about what we will witness tomorrow.  When God moves, He moves big, and I cannot wait to see who he decides to send our way tomorrow.  I think there's going to be some partying going on in heaven tomorrow when people come face to face with the Creator of the universe for the first time.  

And check our our little shout out we got on the Association of Related Churches (ARC)'s blog today.  We are so blessed to be a part of that family.

Busy

I've had this post floating around in my head for awhile now, and the ironic part is that I have literally just been too busy to sit down and write it all down.  And it all revolves around that word... "busy." 

Think back to the last phone conversation you've had with someone you haven't talked to in awhile.  It probably started out with a, "hey, how have you been?" and if the answer wasn't "fine" then it was probably the other four-letter standard answer of "busy."  Or when we don't get around to doing something that we were supposed to do or said we would, our answer is, "sorry, things have been so busy."  All that to say that it just makes me wonder, when did life get so "busy" for absolutely everyone?

As I reflect back on my life and compare it to the season that we're living in now, I almost feel silly that I ever really used that word to describe my current situation.  High school?  Well, yeah, I went from school to dance team practice to soccer practice and twice a week had additional dance lessons.  Plus I of course wanted to hang out with my friends on the weekends.  So I guess you could say it was busy.  Then college?  Well, there was class, which I was actually good about going to, with the exception of freshman biology, but really, who could blame me for that?  For a few years I worked as a resident assistant, which really just meant a weekly meeting and being friends with all of the girls on my floor (tough job, right?) and in the latter years I was a lifeguard at the YMCA, which honestly, was just hours spent in a chair watching a few very capable people swim laps.  I juggled that with weekly sorority meetings, which eventually led me to being a part of the board (which meant another weekly meeting) and then there were various social activities and probably too many parties.  And at that point, yes, I thought I was busy.  After college I moved to Florida and worked at a country club for awhile, which meant giving up a lot of weekends when I'd rather be doing something else.  When that job came to an end, I worked for the FedEx Orange Bowl, which meant working ALL. THE. TIME. (not even kidding there), and while I would say I was "busy," my time at work was really just filling a chair half the time.  The company culture lent itself to having us work all hours around the clock, when our jobs were really done for the day at regular business ending hours.  But becuase I worked so much I was, yep, you guessed it... "busy."  Then from there I started my career with Marriott, and while my hours got more regular, my social calendar filled back up with weekends at Disney with the girls, which I generally planned, bridal showers, weddings, and all the fun stuff that goes along with being in your twenties.  And then of course there was the planning of my own wedding, which filled up many weekends and was probably the most fun I've ever had being "busy" in my life.  As soon as we were married we packed up (immediately) and moved to Illinois to plant a church campus and while Josh worked some crazy hours, I worked from home and basically sulked that my husband wasn't always there to keep me company.  And instead of jumping on board and really lightening his load, I thought that I was "too busy" with my own full-time job and housekeeping to really be of any significance.  Plus, I was pregnant, so I liked to point out that I was constantly busy "building a human."  Yeah, try to top that!

So what's my point you might wonder?  Well, it's just that the word is... well... overused I think.  It's like the word "love."  I can love my husband and my children, but I can also love my new purse?  That makes no sense at all, but it's the only word we have for it.  And right here right now, in this season of my life, I am beginning to understand the absurdity of "busy" as well.  When Josh and I moved here this summer to plant a church, I knew things would be a bit crazy at times.  I was six months pregnant with our second child and we were starting at square one, with just a calling that we were supposed to be in this are, but no real direction beyond that.  The first couple of months of figuring it all out weren't truly all that busy, but Josh was on the go a lot as he built contacts and tried to flesh out this dream he had in his heart.  And then Lilly came along and I had three months of maternity leave, and while there was down time here and there, learning to adjust to two children can have a person "busy" around the clock.  Things started to ramp up for our church during these months as we partnered with the Kinchen family and their existing church, and suddenly the calendar started filling up.  Josh was meeting with anyone and everyone who would listen to him, casting vision and letting them know that they could help change the world.  I took over the childrens' ministry and began spending any free time I had searching for curriculum, pestering the childrens' pastor from our previous church, and putting together policies and procedures.  Our facility went under major renovations and we were often there painting, dry-walling, or whatever else we could find to do, all the while trying to keep an eye on a toddler who has more energy than anyone we know.  And then... I went back to work two months before our church was scheduled to launch.  Basically the two busiest months that a church plant will have.  At the beginning of January I remember literally thinking to myself, "I am going to hate January."  I knew at the start of it that Josh would be gone a lot and I would be juggling my job, the house, the bills, and two kids, both of which are at needy ages, and I just wasn't sure that I could do it.  And then I blinked and it was February.

We are now T-minus five days to the launch of TurningPoint Church.  To say that I am proud of my husband and what he has put in place would be the understatement of the year.  Over the past few months he has worked non-stop to pour into people, build them up, encourage them, and truly help them know and believe that they were created by God on purpose and for a purpose.  He helped individuals become leaders that they didn't realize they could be, and he helped those leaders build teams that will serve this community every Sunday starting next week.  He got up early to read not just the Bible, but manuals about speaker systems, accounting programs, and membership tracking applications.  And the whole time, I know that he beat himself up about not being home.  And then I look at my past few months and, well, I'm a bit proud of myself, too.  While I would not say that I want this pace to be the norm for our family, I have managed to keep our home pretty clean (if not always tidy), kept our kids happy, well-fed, well-groomed, and entertained, built the framework for what I hope will be a successful kids' ministry, and have even made it back to the gym about three times every week, which was more than I was going before all of this was going on.  Sure, my kids are with me 24 hours a day and come with me everywhere I go, which can be a major hassle at times (and a deterrent from leaving the house to be quite honest) but even when I didn't want to, I sucked it up and made it happen.  And I realized that for the first time in quite possibly my entire life, the difference has been discipline.  Because I so deeply believe to the very core of who I am in what we are doing, and  because I so very much believe that this church we are planting is something that we were created to do, I made the time work, even when there never seemed to be enough.  Sometimes with my kids I get frustrated that "my time is not my own," meaning I can't necessarily do things or get things done on my schedule, but then I remind myself that with or without kids, the time never was mine to begin with.  God gives us all 24 hours in a day, and I think it's important to Him how we use it.  We learn about tithing and giving our first 10% of our earnings to God, because it belongs to Him anyway, and I don't think we ever stop and think that it's the same with our time.  He has promised us eternal life in Heaven with Him if we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, but I think with that acceptance comes a responsibility to take care of this gift of time he's given us.  And the more responsible we are with it, the more responsibility He will give us... just like the tithe.  In these past few months I have learned so much about what it means to work hard.  I have learned how to utilize my time so that no single part of my day goes to waste.  When I walk up the stairs I have a basket of laundry in my hand and when I come back down I'm carrying cups that have accumulated.  I tirelessly pick up toys, load and unload the dishwasher, and change more diapers than I can count.  I write business proposals and contracts, return phone calls and send emails.  I try to pour into my kids' ministry team, send schedules and outlines of how Sunday should look.  I now know what the word "busy" really looks like.  It is my life in this time right now.

This post is in no way to try and say that we are truly busier than anyone else right now.  I think in many ways, those times in my past when I thought I was busy, I actually was for the capacity of what I could handle right then.  I think God saw how I handled my time, probably tried to hand me more responsibility at times, and I wasn't at a place where I was willing to take it on right then.  And now, well, we've been more than willing and He sure has handed us quite a bit.  And even though it's been tough and exhausting, and believe me, I have a mini-nervous breakdown about once a week (which my husband can confirm), and as much as I would love an entire day just to myself, I really can't complain.  This journey has stretched me in more ways than I have ever been stretched.  I have been challenged beyond any measure that I have ever had in the past.  And at the end of each day, I go to bed so satisfied with what we're doing with the time we've been given.  And I am proud.  And I hope God is proud of us.

So in finally putting all of this out there my challenge to you is this:

If you feel like there is something that you really want to go after, or you're hearing a small voice in your head pushing you in a certain direction, maybe it's time that you go for it!  Has your excuse been that you're already too busy or just don't have time?  We're all given the same amount of it... maybe it's "time" to start rearranging some things and make more time out of your 24 hours.  It won't be easy, and at times you'll be so tired that you think you might fall asleep standing up, but if you accomplish what you set out to do, it will be worth it.

I know that this Sunday is the first of many for TurningPoint Church and I know that our pace will still be a little crazy for awhile, even after we're up and running.  But this weekend, on February 12th, when they play that last song and our first service ends I know it will be worth it.  And whether fifty people or five hundred show up, I think that God will be smiling down on us, proud that we stopped being "too busy" to find the time to make this happen.  And deep within me, I will be filled with peace because I know that this "busy" season won't last forever and the pace will slow down eventually, and sometime in the near future my "busy" will look a lot less busy than it is right now. 

"Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath" 

(Psalm 39:4-5)

Progress on the Plant

To say I've been consumed with Lillian over the past couple of weeks would be an understatement.  To be honest, I think I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession over this little girl.  I was quite possessive of Jake, too, when he was a newborn, and I think it's due to the fact that I could literally just sit, hold, and stare at my little ones all day long.  And Lilly is such a cuddlebug and such an easy-going baby that it makes it even easier.  So between caring for the both of them and spending my "free time" completely captivated by my new daughter, not much else has gotten done.  And then I realized that she has also taken over the blog, too... not that anyone minds I'm sure.

So today I am sitting down and finally updating you all on what we really moved here for... our church plant!  I know many folks are wondering how it's going, what's happening, etc. so hopefully I can find a way to put it all into words without writing a novel... hitting the big points if you will.  And the scary part is  that our story starts back in March...

Well, to be technical about it, our story starts so very long before that as Josh told me when we first met that he wanted to be a church planter, but as you know, our journey first took us to Small Town, Illinois. But last winter/spring, we felt like the time was drawing near and Lexington continued to pop up on our radar.  Every time we came to Lexington to visit my sister and her family, we just felt something special, like it was home.  We took a couple of trips just to explore the area and stumbled upon the area that we felt had the greatest need, and therefore offered the biggest opportunity to make an impact and lead folks to Jesus.  Essentially, it's a neighborhood that has thousands of homes, most of which are owned or rented by young families.  Between there and the town north of it, there are 100,000 people and only five churches.  Yes... five!  And they aren't five large churches either, so needless to say, there are thousands of families in this area without a church home.  And perhaps they just stopped looking for one if they ever were in the first place.  Something had to be done.  It was during these trips and our conversations at home that the vision and details for TurningPoint Church, our future church plant, began to really take shape.

On that same trip we also drove by those five churches, just to get a feel for what was in the area.  The closest one to the neighborhood was a little bit off of the main road leading in and the building was in a very industrial area.  Josh was actually able to go in and meet the receptionist even though it was after office hours.  The receptionist took him for a quick tour of the building, assuming that he was interested in coming to church there, and I stayed in the car with Jake.  He was very impressed with the building, especially considering that it looks pretty small from the outside, and was disappointed that the pastor was not there.  Little did we know that we had really stumbled upon our future that day.

During subsequent visits, we again visited area churches.  Our friend, Zach (whose family will be joining us here eventually), came with us on one trip and we decided to drive by this same church again to show him what was in the area.  Again, we didn't go in, and in fact if I remember correctly, Jake got sick in the car... on me.  And in my purse.  Oh the joys of motherhood!  But despite that, there was something about the place that kept drawing us in.  I can't explain it, but there was a strange level of curiosity about the place, even though we had never been to a service or met the pastor.  We were still moving forward with our plans to plant our church based on the vision and big picture that we felt God had given us.  So as you know, in August, we moved to Kentucky full-time.

Being a church planter has its busy and slow seasons, just like any other job.  While my job ramped up (mainly because I was working extra hours to make sure my office was set up and prepared for my maternity leave), Josh's days slowed down a bit.  He went about the business of setting up appointments with local organizations and trying to meet as many people as he possibly could, but it's tough when you don't know many people in the area.  He made sure to meet with local pastors as well, making sure that they understood that we were coming here to join them in serving the kingdom, reaching people who did not already have a church home.  One of these meetings was with Alex, the pastor of the church right down the road, and to say it went well would be an understatement.  I don't think either one of them expected to hit it off the way that they did, but Josh came home that day and told me that he felt that they would be friends for a long time.  It was a little weird, but I could tell that he was excited.  Josh gets along with everyone, but there was certainly something different going on.  He also told me that he wanted to start going to church there until we were up and running, and that we should do what we can to help serve his church and help them grow in the meantime.  Apparently the church was about seven years old, but had stayed pretty small since its doors opened.  After going to my first Sunday service there, I told Josh that it certainly wasn't small because of Alex's preaching, which was awesome by the way, and I could kind of see what Josh meant about us being able to help.  With our experience and training with the Association of Related Churches, the changes they needed to make to grow were pretty minor, but would make a big difference.

About a week after their first meeting, they met again, and this time Alex asked Josh what he thought about maybe doing this church plant together... as in, we would take our vision for TurningPoint Church and launch it with Alex's help, in his building, utilizing his congregation as our launch team.  Now let me just go on a tangent here and say that this just does not happen to church planters!  Church planting is generally a pretty lone-wolf endeavor, and finding a launch team is one of the biggest challenges.  The launch team is essentially a group of people who learn about the vision and become invested to the point that they volunteer wherever necessary to make the vision come to life.  They plug in everywhere, being greeters, working in kids ministry, and doing a lot of the behind the scenes and administrative stuff to make the machine go, as there is really no paid staff at a church plant.  Josh and I always said that if we could put together a launch team of thirty people (or preferably families) then we'd be in good shape, so imagine our surprise when Alex proposed this to us!  He was basically talking about us having a team of at least one hundred folks if not more and a building on top of that!  We had planned on meeting in an elementary school or gym, or anywhere that would take us really!  It was a lot to think about.

In the weeks that followed, Josh and I talked a lot about the possibility.  He sought council from other church planters and pastor friends, most of which told him that co-pastorship really just doesn't happen.  We met Alex's family for dinner one night, still uncertain about what the future held for our churches, and everything continued to click.  We all got along famously, and the possibility continued to get more and more realistic everyday.  It wasn't long before both families went with intuition and we decided that we were meant to do this ministry together.  As Josh and Alex continued to meet and plan, we continued to attend on Sundays, getting to know the families in their congregation, and joined their small group to continue to grow our relationship with their family.  Small group by the way is now the highlight of my week... God has really put some wonderful people around us during this time of transition and He continues to confirm our decision to move here over and over again.  As you can see from all that I've written already, this entire process has been perfectly orchestrated by Him and it gets more and more exciting everyday as His plans come to fruition.  I am in awe.

Three weekends ago, Josh preached as a "guest" at Alex's church.  His message was about whether we were servicing the kingdom or servicing the machine, or more simply put, our church home.  Are we making decisions to keep the people that are already in the church happy or are we doing things to find those who are lost and bring them in?  Jesus' entire message was to seek and save those who are lost, but churches can so easily become inwardly focused that they make newcomers feel unwelcome sometimes. He did a great job and I think a lot of people left thinking about things in a new way.  The following week Alex preached a message on taking ownership for actually living out that mission that Jesus put before us.  What are we doing as individuals to make this happen?  He then talked about what they were doing as a church to make this happen.  He did not reveal too much, but he did announce that Josh and I would be coming on-board and some changes would be taking place.  There would be a follow-up meeting on the next Wednesday night and he encouraged everyone to attend.

The Wednesday night meeting would be what I would consider our very first "launch team" meeting for TurningPoint Church.  Josh and I had been thinking about this day for months, and once again, God blew our socks off.  We had about 60 adults attend and Alex and Josh did a phenomenal job of laying out the vision of what could be if we made some changes to really reach out to those families who are not in church.  They reminded us all that it is not about getting more people in the seats, but about teaching those "more people" about God's love and helping them find their purpose.  It's about restoring relationships, seeing families grow stronger, spouses growing closer, parents teaching their children how to love better, and serving those around us.  Jesus simply told us to love one another and to share the good news with others... it's that simple.  And I think we forget that as we sit in our pews week after week.  It was nice to be reminded.  This past Sunday Josh preached the message again, but not as a guest, and it was very well received.  We also had our first "Next Steps" class, which is essentially a series of membership classes, and we had about forty people in attendance, several of which signed their membership agreement for TurningPoint.  What was once just a vision and a dream is now becoming a reality, and I am humbled and amazed to be even a small part of it.  I've said it before, but God is so very good and we are so incredibly blessed.

Phew... I knew I wouldn't get away with a short post on this!  But with all this being said, we are still planning our official launch of TurningPoint Church in February 2012.  It's a work in progress, but you can check out our website here.  You can also like us on Facebook.  We still have a lot of work to do (and that only picks up after we launch) but seeing the momentum build and putting some of our plans in place gets more and more exciting everyday.  Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us since this whole thing started.  We've had our ups and downs, but it has been such a great journey thus far.  The way everything is unfolding is definitely making this the most unconventional way to plant a church, but it just reminds me that it truly is God's plan and not ours that takes precedent.  If we just get out of our own way, He can do wondrous works all around us.  We will keep you all posted on what is to come in these next few months, but in the meantime, I have to get back to cuddling that sweet baby girl of mine.

We're sending all our love from Mauneyland.

xoxo

Our Other BIG Announcement...

There has been so much going on within our family lately that I have steered clear of the blog just to make sure I kept some necessary things to myself until the time was right to share.  But since we made our announcement to church this morning and later on to the rest of the staff, I have been given the green light to share with all of our dear friends who peek in on us from time to time here.  But let me start at the beginning... this goes way back!

Before we were even married, Josh looked at me one night and told me that he felt like God had put it on his heart to plant a church.  I know I've shared bits of this story on here before, but I feel like it's truly the start of this journey.  At the time, I looked at him like he had three heads.  I didn't even know what that meant, had never heard the term "church plant," and could only relate it to some sort of cult.  Clearly I was not ready for that.  It was only a matter of months that he stumbled across the Crossroads campus pastor job, applied, and we came up to Small Town, Illinois to interview.  I can't say that I fell in love with Small Town, Illinois right away, but I did fall in love with the organization and the people.  When we met some of the folks that were trying to put a campus in their town (the town we would be moving to), I could see the pleading looks on their face.  They knew that they needed a life-giving church in their town, for themselves, their families, and for future generations.  There was a hunger and a burning for Jesus that I had never seen before, and I was moved.  I told Josh that we needed to do whatever it took to be a part of putting that campus in their town.

Over the past two years, we have ministered in Small Town, Illinois, seen hundreds (literally) of people commit their lives to Christ, marriages become restored, addictions overcome, and filled the seats with folks who had not stepped foot in a church for years, if not ever.  Between this Easter and last Easter, over 150 people publicly stepped into the waters of baptism to celebrate their commitment to Christ.  These past two years have been nothing short of amazing.

With that being said, similar conversations about the desires of my husband's heart and his visions of planting a church would sometimes come up over these past two years.  In true Kim fashion, they usually continued to be met with a panicked look that would fall across my face.  In my mind, this dream of his would definitely happen and be something that I would be supportive of, but it would probably happen five or ten years down the road.  That sounded comfortable enough.  That worked for me.  So imagine my surprise when I didn't balk at the idea when he brought it up to me this spring.  There was a tug in my spirit that I couldn't explain and for the first time, I actually had an inkling that the time was near.  Fast forward to just a week later when at the end of one of our messages, a pastor that we have looked up to for a long time was featured in a video because he had given his last message the week before at the church that he pastored.  He had been battling cancer and knew his time was incredibly near.  The message moved me to tears and struck a major chord with me.  He had definitely lived a life of significance, pastoring people and founding an organization that has seen and funded hundreds of new church plants across the country.  This man was making sure Jesus was being introduced to these hungry communities.  And he reminded us that when there is a call on your life, you really need to listen.  There will never be a good time, so what are we waiting for?  Obedience truly is a learned behavior.  Later that night I told Josh that the time was near... God was definitely calling him to do this, I knew he had the gifts and talents, and I was ready to go wherever He was leading us.  It was truly a turning point in this adventure.

Over the next month, we thought and prayed about what this would look like and where this might be.  We knew God had big plans and it was only a matter of time before He revealed them to us.  Josh started feeling like Kentucky was our next move, and although I had similar feelings of my own, I was hesitant to consider them too closely.  My sister and her family lives in Kentucky and I did not want to feel like maybe I was feeling like that was the right place because I would love to be closer to them.  I wanted to make sure I was listening to Him and not to my own selfish desires.  I think I mentioned every place around Kentucky without mentioning Kentucky itself.  Josh continued to feel strongly about it, however, so we decided to go visit and just get our eyes on the place.  We spent three days there, met some people from my sister's school, and drove around Lexington, Georgetown, and Paris.  We spent the majority of our time on the north fringes of the city and found that there was definitely a void.  Hundreds of new homes were everywhere, but very few churches.  Hundreds of families, but not many places to go.  When we met my sister's teachers friends and just mentioned that we were considering a church plant in that area, I saw that same desperate look- those same pleading eyes.  It brought me back to the moment when I knew our move to Illinois was what God was calling us to do.  I had the same tug on my spirit, like a hand gently pushing me in that direction.  Well, it was more like a shove, which is probably what a stubborn gal like me needs from time to time.  

As for my other doubts based around whether or not we were choosing this area for the right reasons, my sister cleared that up because of one sentence out of my sister's mouth.  When we told her about the potential of us moving there to start a church she said, "Oooh!  We're going to have a church!"  I had expected something to the effect of "You're going to live so close!" or "I get to see Jake all the time!" or something like that, but instead it was excitement that their search would be over.  Her family had given up on trying to find a church that worked for their family because they just couldn't find the right fit.  My heart broke.  The Bible tells us that our mission begins at home, but my sister and her husband had been unable to find the tools in their area to help their family grow spiritually and live that out.  By the time we packed up the car and headed back home, we knew this was the right place.  We had found our next ministry and our next home.

Over the couple of weeks Josh has been meeting with the leadership of our current church and helping them set up our current campus for success long after we're gone.  He and I both know that the pastors don't make people come to church, but having a good one sure does help.  We know that God is bigger than that and us leaving would not cause our church to stumble in the least as long as we leave it in a healthy state and a healthy way.  As an answer to our prayers, our current worship leader and youth pastor interviewed and fit the bill as our replacement.  He and his wife have become incredible friends of ours and they are two of the most kind-hearted, generous, loving, and prayerful individuals that I have ever met.  They truly taught me what it means to let yourself go and immerse yourself in the words of a song, and I will miss hearing his voice sing to the Lord every Sunday.  Our church family here is so blessed to have them, and although it doesn't make it easy to leave, it gives us an even greater sense of peace about it.  And today when we announced it to the congregation, there were a lot of tears built out of relationship, but also a lot of words of encouragement and excitement for the journey ahead for us.  We know that in this next year we will have more support, love, and prayer from people in Small Town, Illinois than we could have ever dreamed of.  God is really watching over us and I know His hand is all over this.

As for us, our last Sunday with Crossroads is on June 12th.  We will open the doors and have our very first services at TurningPoint Church in Lexington, Kentucky in February 2012.  We have a lot of work to do between now and then, as well as a lot of stuff to figure out personally, but we both could not be more excited.  I tell people that I am so confident that this is God's will for our lives because of the peace I have about all of the unknowns that lie ahead; the timing for our family could not be more inconvenient.  In the next nine months we will be trying to sell a house, find a new place in a new town, transporting all of our belongings, going down to one income, raising a one-year-old, and bringing a newborn into the mix.  My usual self would be so stressed out by now that my head would probably explode.  But I surprisingly have very little anxiety about it.  I know it won't be easy, and I know that there will be some difficult and very stressful times along the way, but I also know that we're being obedient and that our Father will provide for us.  I never understood the phrase "a peace that passes understanding" until now, and I am so very thankful.

For those of you here in Small Town, Illinois, please know that we leave here with such mixed emotions.  We are excited for what lies ahead, but will miss you all tremendously.  Our life as a married couple and as a family started here.  My first real role in ministry began here, and although I know I still need to grow by leaps and bounds to be the pastor's wife God made me to be, He definitely did some important work on me while we were here.  I truly have a love affair with the Midwest now... and it's not because the location itself is something spectacular but because of the hearts of the people who live here. I have never in my life met more warm, generous, friendly, and loving people anywhere else in the world and I have lived in a lot of places!  You just don't find folks better than this, and I know that our friends here have helped me grow into a better woman and a better friend.  I am forever grateful.  I also want you all to know that we're not just going to disappear from this place.  Over the summer we will be here from time to time as we take care of our personal business and will stay connected well beyond the move.  This place is so special to our family and I know that we can't leave without looking back.  So don't think you're getting rid of us so easily!

I know this has gotten long, and there is still so much that I probably could have shared, but our ask is that you please put our family on your prayer list.  Like I said, there are so many unknowns out there right now, but we know where the path is leading us.  And if any of you know folks in the Lexington area that have been without a church home for awhile, please try to connect them with us.  We'd love to share our vision and our passion for what God is calling us to do.

I look forward to the first weekend of February next year when I can look back at this post and remind myself of where this next part of our journey began.  What I do know for sure is that God is up to something big, and I am humbled to be a part of it.  We love you all so much... thank you for the love and support you show us every day.  I look forward to sharing this journey with you all over this next year.