leadership community

Last night was a sweet night. After a couple months of inviting trusted friends to be a part of the church plant’s leadership community, we finally got together as a group for the first time. My only agenda was to eat, share our stories w/ each other, and pray. All of those things were accomplished. Over a meal we told each other about ourselves. It was cool to hear new aspects of my friends’ lives and journeys. We spent a brief time prayer for the future of our community, our group, and our church, that God would grant us wisdom, unity, and fun. It was everything I hoped the party would be… and more.

After our official times was over, most folks stayed around, and immediately we began daydreaming together. I had the desire to gather the church for worship over the summer, but did not know when we would begin. I tend to want to move faster than is relationally realistic. So I was playing “the patient card,” waiting to see the timetable of everyone else. And to my very pleasant surprise, the crew last night wanted to start a worship gathering very soon. So we set a date (June 27th at 5:30pm at our house), and began scheming what needs to happen to pull it off. There was an obvious spirit of excitement in the air, as people were suddenly speaking a little louder and quicker, and rapidly throwing ideas back and forth. It was awesome.

I feel tremendously blessed and thankful for how God has moved. The process of forming a community out of nothing is draining at times. And it is moments that I rely on my own efforts that cause me the most stress and grief. But, when I sit back and observe how God is forming the church, and moving in our lives, those are, by far, the most rewarding, productive, and encouraging times. Psalm 127:1 says that unless God builds the house, we labor in vain. It was apparent last night that God is doing some building.

So now our task is to be obedient to what He is forming, and laying on people’s heart. We will be figuring out a liturgy as we go along, how we will structure ourselves, and how God wants us to serve Bellingham. It is a freaky, humbling task. But I am blessed to have some friends to do it with, for His glory.