Acts 29

Last week we celebrated our church’s Fourth Anniversary.

We started Core four years ago with a group of twenty-five zealous, idealistic, and deranged people.  We spent a year primarily planting seeds.  Any farmer will tell you that cultivating the soil and spreading fertilizer is a dirty process.  I was frantically trying to build relationships, talking to interested people, and shamelessly recruiting any warm-bodied individuals into our ranks.  Just as dead people sometimes end up on political polls, the same can be true of church planting.  Its frustrating work because you’re pretty sure there are seeds somewhere under the ground, you just can’t see any of them. 

The second year was a season of foundation-laying.  I clarified the vision.  I developed the values, and I tried to get the group to see, live, and own the purpose and direction of the church.  I was trying to develop members and leaders.  I found a lot of people who wanted to talk about the mission of the church, but very few who wanted to live the mission of the church.  People at their core want peace, comfort, ease, and little effort.  You can’t build the kingdom on these values.  The kingdom is constructed on values of sacrifice, service, and selflessness.  People don’t want to go to the difficult person to love, the hard person to reach, or even the neighbor across the street.  I was frustrated with everyone, until I realized I was the same way.  I didn’t love my city, I didn’t love my neighbors.  My congregation was just like me.  I had to change for any hope that they would.  I felt as though the ground was a mirror of my own soul.  It was barren.  God was pulling weeds and moving rocks to make my heart more fertile, and then proceeded to the congregation.  I was teaching on the Gospel of John when I realized that in the vineyard the gardener cut, trimmed, and pruned the vine for 3 years.  He allowed no fruit to be produced above ground, in order to increase the root structure below.  It was an intentional process for the health, strength, and vitality of the plant.  It was at the 3 year mark we started to see some change.

The last season has been one of growth.  I moved the church to a new location and our thirty-five people have increased to four or five times as many.  We’ve got some momentum.  I compare this season to a prepubescent teenager.  We’ve got acne, bad breath, and our voice can go from Barry White to Cindy Brady in one syllable without taking a breath. Doesn’t it seem like it’s a miracle when you make it out of high school alive?  You begin to think, “I didn’t get aborted in the womb. I didn’t get dropped on my head as a kid.  I didn’t die when I stuck my finger in an electrical outlet.  And, I’m glad the airbag went off when I got my drivers license.”  I feel like we, as a church, are almost completely normal except for the occasional tick in the eye and full body muscle spasms.

The great thing that God has done in the last few years is establish a base.  Our desire is to see this base become a launching pad from which to begin multiple future congregations.

Four years is also a milestone.  I’m different.  Our church is different.  I hope our city becomes different.  My desire is to see Omaha reached, touched and transformed by the healing effect of the same gospel that’s had an impact on me…