Rhino Skin????

Before we left for California to attend the "Fit for the Field" church planting course, someone gave me some weird advise, that has only recently become prophetic in our lives.  Just before we pulled out of the parking lot of the church, I was pulled aside and told that I would come back with the skin of a rhino.  I had no idea what that meant, or how it would apply to my life, ministry, and desire to plant a church. 

One of the main points throughout the course, was nailing down our call.  Make sure of the calling, to the point that if we do not go, it is sin.  I wrote on the front of my notebook "home with the skin of a rhino."  Often, vision from God, is met with initial favor from man.  When I first knew that I was called to leave and plant a church, we had a lot of favor and encouragement from man.  As we draw closer to our departure day, D-day, there are so many people that, love us, and seek to help, by showing how hard, and nearly impossible this really is. 

I see a few roads that I can take.  First, I could choose to look at all of the hurdles in front of us, and not run the race.  I could bow out, and call the whole thing off.  While all of the hurdles are real, and some are high hurdles and some seem like jumping a ten foot, barb wire fence, they are real.  Trials await us, pain will be expected.  I must say, that there are times that I look forward and have great discouragement because of all the things that have to happen, to ensure that we can leave.

Another road is to become bitter, withdrawn, and spiteful.  I could take an attitude of spite, wanting to show how wrong everyone else is.  But, looking down that road, there is only destruction.  This will lead me away from God, away from His plan, and resting on my own anger and spite to fulfill my own ambition, not His.

The road, by the grace of God, that I seek is to step out on faith.  Yes there are trials, yes there is hurt, and no I am not prepared for everything.  I am not qualified, I don't have all the knowledge that maybe I should have, but I am called.  Not everything that comes our way is for benefit, but much is.  So, what should I do.  Take those things to prayer.  The Spirit will lead us into all truth and conviction.  We cannot safeguard against all things.  We know the enemies objectives are to distract and discourage.  I can say with conviction, that I am nothing, and Christ is everything.  So, no matter what, I pray, we will do the will of the Lord.  Not look left, right, or behind, but ahead to those things that God would have for us.

There was a time that I would not have this conviction.  There was a time that I would have become bitter, and spiteful.  God, has blessed us with faith.  Not to boast, but to glorify Him.  He has blessed the skin of a rhino upon this time.  While this time may be hard and seem impossible, the Lord has a plan that we need to walk in. 

Blogs can often be clarifying, and therapeutic for the writer, but sting others.  This is not the point.  I pray that this is an encouragement.  I welcome questions, clarifications, even those that come is harsh ways.  I welcome them because through them vision is refined, rhino skin is toughened, and dependence of the Lord is deepened.  God wants to make us holy, more than happy.   There are three types of spiritual storms that come the Christian's way. 

First there are perfecting storms.  Storms of life the God allows to perfect us, to make us more like Jesus, to strengthen our faith.  Job went through this type of storm.  God allowed terrible disaster in Job's life, to conform him to the will of the Father.  The second is a correcting storm.  These come about because of our sin.  Jonah experienced this type of storm.  As he fled the will of God to preach repentance to Nineveh.  Jonah left in the opposite direction to escape the will of God, and brought about a literal storm on the sea.  The third is a protecting storm.  Sent His disciples away on a ship by themselves, to protect them from the crowds that would seek to force Jesus to be king.  Jesus protected them not only from the mob, but from the result of what the crowd's wanted to do.  If Jesus were to be crowned king, they would become powerful men.  They were already bickering, the whole thing could have ended in disaster. 

While in the midst of the storm, I usually do not have joy in them, this outlook pushes me toward Jesus in the eye of the storm, and not be thrashed in the wind and waves.  Sometimes I need to have some waves crash into me before I turn to God, but He is there, waiting, for me to turn to Him.  In storms, my rhino skin is tested, and sometimes torn off, so that I am humbled for Him.  As I have heard Driscoll say, "you are either humble or humiliated," as I need to be humbled, I have often been humiliated for the glory of God. 

Rhine skin is necessary for me to fulfill the calling of God.  Rhino skin will get me through storms.  The thing is, you cannot get rhino skin without getting skinned.  You can't get it by everyone being nice to you, you have to get cut.  You have to heal, and be cut again. Rhino Skin, just sayin.
 

The icky stuff

There are so many things about church planting that I am totally sold out for.  I am excited to see the people that God will bring into His new work.  I am excited to move to a new place and meet new people.  I could go on and on about all of the things that are so exciting about church planting, but I feel I need to talk about the one aspect I cannot get around.  Funding.
Let me first say about this, I wish that God did not want me to do this.  I asked Him to allow His work to happen without this step.  But, He said no.  So even when I don't want to, I will obey.  Money and church has got to be one of the most uncomfortable things for a pastor/planter.  I believe that I can do all of things on my own.  I have a superhero mentality when it comes to all of the things that I can and cannot do.  But, I am not Superman.  So the church plant needs help.  Financially.
The hard truth is that the Gospel is free, but getting this free thing out there is not.  Probably dozens of times I have written support letters, read them, thought it was stupid, and deleted it.  A friend gave me some good advice.  He said, "all support letters are cheesy, that's just the way it is."  Thanks Steven.  So I sat back down and wrote out a support letter.  Sounded less cheesy.  Prayed over it, and am now printing it and preparing it.  We are starting tonight to have families over to talk about the church plant and financial support.
The exciting thing is, we get to see the prayer support in this.  Which I think is infinitely more important.  We get to talk to people about praying for God's kingdom.
So while this might really be, "the icky stuff."  It is part of God's design.  We don't need to feel manipulative, or like beggars with cardboard signs on the street.  We get to be blessed with what God has for us.  That is truly exciting.  That is why I can ask for support.  It's God's support, and not anyone else.

In Him,

Pastor Cam

God is sovereign through it all

Hey all, my wife Brittney wrote a blog about her health, and really about God working through any situation.  I am so grateful for her, and her heart to serve the Lord.

  

So many of you have been praying for my health, I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you and also give you an update and info for those who don't really know all the details. Having a migraine everyday is the hardest thing that I have ever gone through, and I am so blessed to be able to rest knowing that I am being prayed for. Just today a sweet friend asked me how I was doing and told me that every-time she sees me she prays for me. Wow! God has used this to show me the blessings of having such amazing people continually praying for me. I know that because of your prayers I have grown so much in my faith, and been able to lean on the Lord to help me through. I feel so humbled because of all of you!

Here is a a recap of whats been going on and some testimonies I wanted to share: In July 2011 I got a migraine that wouldn't go away. I had some shots and medicine to help but it didn't work.

After two months of a daily migraine I went to my doctor and he put me on some preventative medicine and did a CT scan just to check and make sure nothing was abnormal. God is so good- not only did the scan come out fine as far as my brain, me-who is a bad worrier was not stressed at all about the results. He gave me His peace. They found that I had a sinus infection. At this point I was so excited and I remember calling my friend and telling her “Good news, I have a sinus infection!”. Strange way to react I suppose, but I figured that some antibiotics and then...bamm no more headache. I felt like I had had enough headache to last the rest of my life. I then got referred to an ear nose and throat doctor because of the severity of the infection. At this point we had no health insurance. Cam had just switched jobs, and because of that we didn't have coverage. I was feeling so horrible that we decided that I would go ahead and see the ENT doctor anyway and see what he said. I met him and he was such a blessing, he didn't charge us very much. Then he said I would need surgery and it would be fixed! Okay, surgery is more than just antibiotics but still, an answer. Then he told me that the infection was actually more serious than I thought because it was in the upper sinus close to the brain. He explained some bad things that could happen if I didn't get the surgery (bad is my best explanation, if I tired to explain I would just look dumb and it would be clear I don't understand a lot of doctor talk!)

We had no insurance and I needed surgery. This surgery was going to cost about $20,000. This is where I started to see that God had is hand in the whole situation. Cam and I decided to wait things out until we had health insurance. Then, the headaches got worse and worse and Cam finally said it needed to happen. I happened to be at Community Bible Study when this was decided. I am not the first person who I have heard of being there when bad news came! God placed me there for strong Christian ladies to encourage me and tell me that I wasn’t robbing my family of all that money, that I needed to get taken care of. So Cam and I trusted God that somehow we could pay that money. I had the surgery and felt better for a couple days, then it all came right back!! I needed another surgery. God then showed us he was providing us the money- we got a letter in the mail with the option of paying for the health insurance that we used to have, and they would backdate it to Cam's last day of work! God used this to show us that He will take care of us, and we can trust Him. I know when we live in Lakewood there will be times we feel like we don't have the money, but I can look back to this and trust God. He is not poor!!

Starting at New Years I got health insurance, which was good because I was not better. My sinuses still looked bad, and they needed to figure out this problem. They ordered tests and found out that I had something wrong with my immune system, this is why my body couldn't clear the sinus infections, even with antibiotics and surgery. They also told me my wisdom teeth needed to come out because they were in my sinuses. I had that surgery (which was horrible they had to do a bone graph to repair the whole they made to get it out), then two weeks later I had the 3^rd surgery on my sinuses, then started me on immune therapy.

They told me that this therapy (which even with insurance costs so much) would probably be forever. At this point we knew we were called to Lakewood to plant a church. I was worried about moving, and needing to be at the hospital once a month, and no help with the kids. Cam said that God had put it on his heart that I would not need the therapy in Lakewood. So yet again we got to see God work. About 3 months ago they tested my immune system and it came back normal! I no longer need these very expensive and time consuming treatments! Thank you Lord for healing me! I don't know if this is a permanent thing, or if some day I might need them again, but I do know that God worked and I got better.

So about 9 months ago my sinuses finally were better, but I still had a headache. The headache didn't get better once they were better. Since then I have been to tons of doctors, had tons of tests, and they can't fix it. This is so devastating. But God tells us in 2 Cor 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." I have been resting, trusting, and knowing that Gods grace will get me through, and his power is perfected, because I am so weak! Only through Him I have been able to “handle” this, and He gave me the faith to trust Him. Now, I have cried a lot, and questioned Him why even more, but I do know that He is sovereign, and He has a plan. I do believe that I will get better, but He has had to show me that He is God and I am not! Ouch! He gave me 2 Cor 1:3-6, which tells us He is our comforter and we can now comfort others with the same comfort he has given us. I can now pray and truly understand how others feel who have headache problems, or have some kind of daily pain. I have been blessed to be able to pray for a friend who has daily headaches, a friend who's son had daily headaches for at least a month (which God healed Him, yea!), and pray for another friend who has no health insurance and gets headaches often.

The last part of the story is what is going on now: A doctor is doing pain therapy (I guess is what its called) with a new method called a PSTYM. He told me he is one of 10 doctors in the US doing it. Gods timing here too, we wanted to leave for WA late last summer, but God told us to wait. So I am in the middle of two 12 day periods where I wear the PSTYM, and it appears to be helping! I will update you all on how it is working, but for now it looks good!

I want an answer, I want to know why this all happened to me- then I look at others much worse, or going through much worse things, and I can pray. God keeps reminding me. Prov 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. I don't need to know why, all I need to to is trust and obey!

Thank you thank you thank you for praying for me!!

Love,

Brittney

Wait......Not yet.......

Waiting has to be one of the most frustrating things for church planters.  Here's why; we have vision, energy, passion, and the will, from God, but not the time.  It's like waiting for the Super Bowl to come on, at 8:00 a.m.  Where I live the game didn't come on until 4:30 p.m.  We woke up this Super Bowl Sunday, and my five year old told me, "this is going to be the best day, it's Super Bowl day!"  She had other motivation, we had gone to the store on Saturday to get snacks and she got a cupcake, but not until game time.  So all day, through church, and lunch, she was waiting until game time to partake in the cupcake.  But, we had to wait.

In looking at the calendar it is getting close to being a year since I experienced the call to plant a church.  I have been given vision, and direction, more team members, and a burden for the people of Pierce county.  Yet I have not set foot on the soil that I am going to live.  I seek to do the will of God, but have not yet been allowed to leave.  So what do church planters do when they cannot yet go?  I believe that we can do many things.

First, get ready.  We get ready to go.  I have heard it said, "set your feet in the direction of your church plant."  Boil what you do through what God has given you.  Church planters need to plant a church.  If what you are doing is hindering you to plant the church, stop doing it.  Stop it.  We need to be used in the place where God has us, but it is not of God to sway from the call of God to plant a church.  There will be a time when each planter will have to choose to travel the road away from the life before the call, and start down the road to planting a new church.  Everything you do, ask if it is hindering the church plant, or helping it?  Get ready through prayer.  Ask God what He wants you to do.  There may be some stuff that you may think is hindering you from leaving, when God wants you to do it in preparation of leaving.

Next, raise support.  This may be way outside of what you think of.  There are two main types of support in church planting.  First, and most important, is prayer support.  If you are planting a church, you are going into enemy territory, and you need prayer to accomplish this.  You need people that are consistently praying for our physical, and spiritual well being.  We should be be resting on those prayers.  Second, is the physical support.  The fact of the matter is, church planters are missionaries.  They, we, need some support.  This could be something that church planters shy away from.  Frankly, asking for money is not the most comfortable think you can do.  Most look to Paul and "tent making" to support the church plant.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Look closer at what Paul was doing.  Paul was working in the cities to meet people where they were.  When his team came later, Paul would usually stop working in the town square, and started working on preaching to the people.  So both is really the answer.  Get out there and get some support, and get out and work in the city that God has you in, to work, and meet people. 

Third, is learn what God is doing in the meantime.  I have had my house one the market for almost six months, and it still has not sold.  This does not mean that we are not called, only that He is waiting until His perfect timing.  So what is it that I should be doing?  That is the question that every church planter needs to ask himself in this sort of holding pattern.  Don't think that you have nothing to do if you are not physically in the city of the church plant, God has stuff for us in the meantime.

Don't forget to research the place that you are going.  Ask Pastors what the spiritual state is of the place that you are going.  Call the local Pastors to start a relationship with them.  Don't think that you are the anointed gunslinger, coming to town to save the day.  If you do this, you insult the workers that God already has there, and you need to repent.  As I have heard it said, and written of before, God wants to do something in you, the church planter, more than He wants to do something through you.  There are anointed men in the area that know more than you do.  Draw wisdom from them.  Instead of thinking of building a building, think kingdom minded, and show the Pastors in the area that heart.

So there is much work to be done, before church planters set foot on the soil of the city of the church plant.  Don't let it be overwhelming.  Seek to do God's will each day.  He will tell you what He wants you to plan, work on, and spend your energy on.  Cherish your time that God has given you.  Ask Him for patience.  Enjoy the place you are in.  Personally I love New Mexico, and will miss it.  I plan to do several things before I leave, to enjoy this last season.  I would advise others in this situation to do the same.

In Him,

Cam