Church Planting - The Prologue to Life180

Many of you have asked what led us to the point of doing a true 180 in our lives and moving to Phoenix. It has seemed like a sudden decision to a lot of people, and it some ways this did happen really quickly. In other ways, however, this life change has been in the making for the past two years.

Really Ben should be the one writing this story since it is mostly his, but one thing about being a pastor's wife (actually I've never been another kind, so maybe it is the same) is that my story is inextricably interwoven with his.

So two years ago Ben and I were sitting on a beach in Maui (ahhh, warm memories) and Ben nervously told me he wanted to tell me something. You would have thought he was going to propose or something, and in a way he was. He gave what I assumed was a slightly prepared statement, and ended with, "I think God is calling me to plant a church." Now you have to understand that we had had many conversations over the years of our marriage about how we would NEVER do that. He had no interest in it. I had no interest in the struggle that comes with church planting. My response to his statement? Of course. I absolutely think that is what you should do. And I meant it. From that moment forward I knew that this was the path that God was laying out for us.

But as the Bible says God's ways are not our ways, and the waiting began. Ben started pursuing what church planting might look like for him, and we had occasional conversations about what that church might look like someday. The words missional (being outreach oriented), social justice, and relevant gospel message were often heard floating around our house.

However, we seemed to hit road block after road block. Ben had the support of his senior pastor who was himself a former church planter, and that was invaluable. But as time passed we started to wonder if we had heard the call correctly. We knew it was going to happen but when would it be?

Stay tuned next week for the rest of the story.

And because a post is not as great as it can be without some cuteness . . .

Peek

a boo!