August/September Part 1

Well, the heat has been on for us. You may recall the lists of trials we were suffering at my last post. That seems to have been just the beginning. Throughout the end of August and the first week of September, it seemed like it was never going to end.

*queue “sad-story” violin music*

Issues with my house are still ongoing, complete with a new leak in the roof. In addition to this, my wife and I got a flat tire in each of our vehicles within days of each other, and I personally developed an eye infection and came down with strep (which I then passed on to several in our core team).

Our 4^th Mississippi team did not come, and we had to shift gears rapidly in terms of how to advertise, outreach and cover the area in prayer. We also didn’t receive enough funds for our meet-the-community-event, and have had to re-tool it, which we are still working on. The finances across our three churches got tighter and we had to evaluate our funds versus our staffing resources. We went through a difficult process of “trimming our staff” and communicating that to our larger congregations. That is easier written than done, because it was fraught with much heartache and honest examination of giftings, callings, and obedience to God. Clearly, this added to my stress and sleepless nights, as these aren’t “just employees”, but people who are and have been a part of our church.

We were planning a “soft-launch” first service for September 9^th, with the official launch still scheduled for Oct 7^th. (This “soft-launch” September is designed to be a great time in which we can play around with the format, try out some different things, and give people practice in roles they have never filled before.) Our “/Sundays” had served their purpose well, and we were ready to move forward to regular Sunday services.

But there we were, one week away, and still no location! Not only that, but of our 3 churches, and 4-5 usual worship leaders, we lost all of them for Sept 9^th due to injury, illness, or “randomly” bad schedule conflicts. Then our worship team, that we had formed out of people who were interested in being part of the church plant, again, for one reason or another, changed their mind and were not going to be part of the church plant. Thus, no worship team. It felt like the proverbial “thirsty man afloat in the salty ocean”: a plethora of talent amongst us, and we could use none of it for starting our weekly Sunday services.

To be honest, the frequency and nature of it was almost comical. We considered rescheduling. We weighed the options and listened for whether this was God changing our timing, or an attack meant to distract us. Rather than get discouraged, we continued to pray, plan and do what we could to find solutions to our difficulties. We knew that Baltimore really starts to move in the fall, and that we needed to be in place and ready. To be caught unprepared as the city picks up in momentum could be devastating. So, we continued to fundraise and talk with various supporters. We felt God calling us forward, to step out in faith no matter what happened...

Stay Tuned for the next episode: Aug/Sept Part 2 “Our First Official Sunday Service”