He needed to go through.....

Last night was the first meeting that we had for the church plant.  We wanted to get into the Lakewood Town Center and hold something there.  We decided on the coffee shop in the Barns and Noble book store.  It always has people and is a great place to sit and talk, open a book, and hang out.  I had been planning this for a few weeks and had gone back and forth about exactly what to do on these nights where we are out looking to find people and introduce them to Jesus.  At first I wanted to just hand out some flyers a few days before and show up totally open to what God wanted to do.  Britt really felt that the Lord was wanting us to hold somewhat of a Bible study.  I was kind of mixed up and did not have a clear direction about what to do.  After some time in prayer I decided to just show up and see if we could meet new people and make some friends.

But then a funny thing happened.  On my way home from work I was listening to the radio and the lyrics of a song really hit me.  "I want to heal, I want to feel, like I'm close to something real, I want to let go of the pain I felt so long, somewhere I belong."  Through this "secular" song, the Lord started to speak to my heart.  I immediately was reminded of Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well.  When I got home I told Britt and Landon, my wife and church planting partner about what the Lord was speaking to me.  When we got there we were the only people who had showed up, which did not surprise me, but I got a phone call from Ian, a guy I met at the Harvest America event last month and prayed with, telling me that he was running late and would be there soon.  After Ian got there the three of us sat and chatted over coffee and studied John chapter 4.

There was no real breakthrough day for us.  Just three guys sitting and talking about Jesus, studying the Word.  What was significant though was what was communicated to me through the story of Jesus and a sinful woman of Samaria.  John 4:1-4 describes Jesus leaving and making His way to Galilee.  The funny thing is that most if not all Jews would go around Samaria because they were an odd sect of their religion and wanted to go around them.  But John 4:4 says that, "He needed to go through Samaria."  Jesus certainly did not have to go through there, He would have gone around, but He needed to go through.  After that He meets this woman who has been passed around from man to man her whole life and is probably that lady in town who everyone avoids.  Jesus sits right down at Jacob's well and waits for her, has a conversation, and reveals that He is her Messiah.  She then has the honor of sharing this news with her whole town, and her life would never again be the same.

Why am I going over a passage that all Christians know?  Because it spoke to me in a new and profound way.  I have been wrapped up in thinking about how to get the Gospel to this young hip, and eastern spirituality obsessed culture the surrounds us in Washington.  But, what about the culture  beneath that one?  The one that I see every day at work, yes I work in the hood.  I have witnessed more drug addicted and destitute people in one week than I ever have in my life, granted I have lived in a pretty well to do culture for most of my life, but by most standards, it's pretty bad.  So what if we went to those, "women at the well."  There is no bring the law to the proud conversation with these people, they are not proud, they know they are sinners, it's written on the shame I see in their eyes.  What they need is hope, and to come back to the song, "somewhere I belong."  What if this church plant created the place that they belong?  What if we actually went to the one's that are not the cool, trendy, and spiritual, but the down and outs, drug addicts and sinners like Jesus did right here in John 4?  The nice thing about being the new guys in town is that we don't have to worry about what the other churches are doing, and what they might say.  We can provide that "somewhere I belong" place for them.  And in case you might wonder just what it might look like, I believe in a God who can radically change lives, and have seen it before.

So while I thought I just accepted the first job offered to me , God was working, and placing me right where He wanted me.  It's not pretty, it's not trendy, it is hard and people already let me down and don't fulfill my expectations.  But it is what I believe Jesus wants to do with us in the Northwest.  It's what we are called to do, and we are so excited to watch Jesus move!

Oh, and we are working with the slogan of, A Refuge from the Storm, because Jesus truly is just that.

In Him,

Calvary South Sound Church planting Team.