Part of the Process

The other day I was walking through a Christian bookstore when this thought came to my mind.  “Among the sea of theology and Christian thought my thoughts would be contained in the foam of one small wave.  And the collection of all thought pales in comparison to all that God knows and the sins He has forgotten.”

Part of this spiritual journey toward church planting has been reading.  I have a goal of 50 books this year, about a book per week.  God has helped me to see my need for knowledge about Him and His creation, man, and what the relationship between the two looks like.  Knowing that I need the information, knowledge, wisdom, and advice of men who have gone before me, I have jumped in head first into books of many types from many sources.  Reading has been a great check on my pride.  The more I read the more I see I have such a limited understanding of all things, especially God.  But He has given men like C.S. Lewis, Mark Driscoll, J.I. Packer, Francis Chan, Phillip Yancey, David Platt, and Norman Giesler to challenge me and to act as my teachers.  I have gleaned much from the pages I have read over the last 3 years.  But all this knowledge has a source and that is God. If I neglected knowing God for knowledge about God from others I would be robbing myself.

So for the past 3 years, my staple in reading has been the Bible.  It is the standard to which all others things are held up, examined or filtered.  God has given me an amazing hunger for the Word over the past 3 years.  I read it daily, am working on hiding it in my heart, and seek to live it out.  I have a friend who once challenged me to read the Bible as much as I read everything else.  It has been refreshing and eyeopening to me to see the plan of God unfold and radically change humanity from Genesis to Revelation from Adam to Jesus from the Old Testament Prophets to the New Testament Apostles.

I know God is using His Word and the words of men to shape me, refine me, and lead me into the next phase of life, while still living in the present.  These, among others, are a part of the process God has been leading me through.

No Joke

Today has been bittersweet to us. We announced at our church the following:

For several years God has been shaping us to follow a call that I can no longer deny or resist. In Jeremiah 20:9, Jeremiah says, “There is a fire in my bones and I grow weary of holding it in.” Throughout the past few years God has refined our call by showing us that He has called us to plant a church in Denver, CO. In order to be prepared to plant this church, we have accepted a residency with Frontline Church Planting Group in Colorado Springs, CO that is part of Vanguard Church, a 15-year-old church that desires to plant churches that plant churches.

We will remain at Fairhaven until the fall of 2012 in full capacity, but will use the coming months to build prayer support, raise support, gather church partnerships and prepare for the transition to Colorado.

Please know that our family loves the people of Fairhaven all very dearly and pray that God will continue to do great things at this place called Fairhaven.