The Call

The call to plant a church can be different for all who are called to work in ministry. For some, they just know that they were meant to be in ministry for their whole life. Others have a life changing moment that God uses to turn them back toward Him and serve. The call to plant a church is usually an interesting story and unique for each church planter. I thought that I would share mine.

I grew up in a small town in Northern New Mexico, called Los Alamos. I attended school there, met my wife there, had three amazing children there, and purchased my dream house there. I knew that I was called into ministry and was put on the pastoral team at our local church. I was blessed. Before God turned my life upside down, I'll go back and fill in a few blanks.

After I got married, to an amazing girl, right out of high school, I got a job with the local lab. It was a great job, paid well, good benefits, but I had to work the graveyard shift, and never had any holiday off. Wo after five years of feeling a bit like Batman, I took a job in another area of the lab that gave me days, holidays, and a life, but horrible benefits. It was around that time that my wife started having medical problems. I learned just how valuable medical insurance was, and found another job that had excellent benefits and kept me home at night.

By this time I thought that God had truly blessed my life. I was in line to take over our local church, I had an awesome job, three wonderful kids, and a lovely wife. I sat in my office thanking God for all that He had done. I was thinking of how I would love to work for the church full time, but was in no rush, everything in His time.

Then like the violent explosion of an atomic bomb in the still of the night, God dropped His plan in my lap. In the quiet prayer of thankfulness in my office, almost audible, I heard God clearly change everything,"plant a church."

Terrified and confused I stopped praying and threw myself into espn.com like Jonah ran to Tarshish. I had no intention of ever leaving my home. God would never ask me to leave my small bubble of comfort and security. He blessed my life, I knew that He would never ask me to leave it. Over a period of about six hours, and feeling the Holy Spirit poke at me with a cattle prod. I finally closed me eyes and prayed. I asked God where He wanted this to happen. I wanted a specific place, not a vague confirmation, but something as clear as the first call. In this quiet moment, in the same voice, I heard, "Lakewood, Washington". Really specific. I had never heard of this place, if they needed a church plant, if this place really existed. So I did what every other person does when they have a question, I googled it. Turns out that there is such a place.

The next thing I had to do was tell my wife. My wife really is reasonable, she will go where God is leading but I had never had to tell her that I believed God was about to turn our lives upside down. As gently and carefully as I could I asked her to pray about planting a church, it was just then that the line went dead, and couch was where I thought I was destined to sleep that night. When she called me back and told me that she lost reception, she calmly told me that Satan was playing tricks in my head. There was no way that this could be from God with all of the blessings we had currently been experiencing. I only only asked her to pray. Pray that God would tell us exactly what to do.

Over the next few days I talked to pastors in the area. Turns out that they were excited to have a new kid on the block. That Lakewood needed church planters, and they would love to help me.

I let my wife pray for a few days, and gave her some space. She came to me and said that the only thing that she heard was to follow me. She said that if I was sure, she was sure. I have been blessed with a godly wife.

The next person that I had to talk to was my Senior Pastor, Pat. I thought that this was going to be as big a shock to him as it was to me. As I finally got the courage up to tell him that God was calling me away, he just calmly sat there, thought about it for a minute, and said, "I can see that.". Apparently he thought that my whole plan for life was just too easy. He believed that I needed to be stretched, and challenged. News to me.

I hope that this helps the people that are wondering why I seem so crazy about church planting. If I were to stay in Los Alamos, I would be in sin. If you happen to come across this and are thinking about planting a church, no your not crazy. I hope that you can see that God will work in truly mysterious ways, even when it does not make any sense to you.

God Bless,

Cam

Update

Hey all,


We are here in sunny California for Christmas, and I thought I needed to start an update blog to get out to everyone.

First, we are getting a new roof put on our house this week to hopefully get it sold soon. Unfortunately we have to sell them before we can leave.

Second, in case you did not know already have a new member of the church plant team. Landon Sutherland has heard the call to plant this church in Lakewood. We are so thankful to have him coming with us.

Third, when we get back into town, we are going to be having some of you over for dessert and coffee, and a conversation about praying for the church plant in Washington. If you think that I might overlook you and would like to be a part of this, please send me an e-mail. Cbbarber@q.com

I am still looking for a job close to Lakewood. Still praying for some supporters. More than anything, we are excited to see Jesus glorified in Washington. I have been encouraged out here in California seeing an actual church plant. This has really clarified the process to me. We know that we already have people praying for us now, but we would like to give as many people as we can to be a part of what God is doing, by committing to the prayer team.

Thank you all, and God bless you in this Christmas season.

Pastor Cameron Barber