Saturday night rambling . . .

Emily and I’s excitement on Friday wasn’t wasted.  When we set out on this spritual exercise, we were looking for some pretty specific answers . . . well . . . we got a pretty clear “partial” answer last night.  We continued the spiritual exercise into today, but after talking and praying some more today, we both decided that the answer we got last night was what we were really needing right now, and we would continue to seek God for the next month or two for the rest of the details to work themselves out.

The following is an excerpt from my journal from January 1997 (yes, over ten years ago), while an architecture student at Auburn:

The Lord has called me to build His church.

In my ignorance, I followed by seeking a degree in architecture.

But the church is not the building.
It is the people, the bride of Christ,
those who have responded to the call of God
and have begun a love relationship with Him through His initiative.

I have been called to build Christ’s church.

Steer me and lead me to the center of Your will,
that I would be used by You to build Your church, oh Lord.

This journal entry came after some anguish within my pursuit of architecture.  I considered this a call to vocational ministry and immediately followed architecture school by attending seminary in 1999-2002.  I never thought I would look back.

In 2002, after God put a major halt on the plans I had laid out for ministry, I fell back into architecture to keep the bills paid.  From a worldly perspective, the past 5 years have been an incredibly successful career in architecture for someone my age.  For the past 2 years, I have been able to bridge a little between architecture and ministry by focussing primarily on church buildings.  But the quote from my journal has constantly haunted me.

This past year, after a spiritual exercise similar to this past week, God led Emily and I to Journey Church, where I was quickly sucked into a ministry opportunity as the Small Groups Coordinator.  Several people were excited that I was now able to continue in architecture and have a focussed ministry, as well.  At first, I shared their excitement.  But the reality is, the dual-life only reminded me more of my call . . . it only made me want to do more . . .

During our vacation, I shared this frustration with Emily, and we both prayed and talked about it.  That conversation opened a whole new world to both of us.  This past week, we knew God was drawing a line in the sand for us.  Was I supposed to continue on this path, balancing ministry and architecture . . . or was I going to be leaning one way or the other?  Was that journal entry a reaction to circumstances, or a genuine word from God?

Friday night we set aside most of the evening to really pour our lives, frustrations, and hearts out to God on the matter.  As we did, we both found a sense of ease.  One phrase of my prayer was, “If the call is genuine, open the door.  If the call was not, remove the desire.”  As I said those words, Emily and I both began to cry as we knew the desire was not going to go away.  We felt we had our answer.

We don’t know what God’s timing will be . . .

We don’t know the details of what we will be doing . . .

We don’t know where we will go . . .

But we both truly believe that God is leading us to focus our energy more on ministry, and in the next couple years, we believe architecture will slip away so we can be in vocational ministry together.

Please pray for us as we begin this huge transition.  There are a lot of very big hurdles to overcome.  There’s a lot of unkowns.  We’re going to continue to seek God this summer in hopes that more will develop . . . and we will keep everyone else informed.

I have been called to build Christ’s church.

Steer me and lead me to the center of your will, that I would be used by You to build Your church, o Lord.

Productive? Friday

OK, since I’m sitting at work writing on my blog, it is obvious that I am not being the most productive at work today.  But, hey, I work overtime almost every day and have accomplished a ton of stuff this week, even up to this point this morning . . .

Besides, I am really excited about what God is doing.

Emily and I are continuing our spritual exercise to seek God out on major direction issues in our life together.  We are praying that God would give us clear direction no matter what He is directing us to do.  I am really tired of continuing on a path just because God hasn’t told me to go on a different one . . . If this path is the right one to continue on, I am asking Him to make that just as clear as if He is leading us somewhere else.  I don’t want to live life by default.

I also don’t want to be looking for signs and wonders behind every bush.  It would be easy to look at every little circumstance as a possible “sign from God.”  Frankly, very few of them really are.  I don’t want some great sign.  I want to hear God’s voice speaking to Emily and me about how He wants to use us to make His name famous in this world.  It’s not about bragging rights.  It’s not about doing something awesome or scary or just plain crazy.  It’s about having absolute confidence that we are in the center of God’s will, doing what will best glorify Him.

Please pray that this exercise will result in us hearing a clear word from God.

Wednesday at Home . . .

It’s been a pretty good Wednesday, overall.  I actually got to work at home today . . . even though I have some really important meetings in the morning at the office.

It’s been a little while since I wrote a blog entry . . . Honestly, with the spiritual stuff Emily and I are doing right now, and a really busy time at work . . . I tend to get focussed on other stuff and forget to keep everyone else informed . . . I need to do better since there’s so much going on right now . . .

Hopefully God will release Emily and I soon to start talking more openly about what has been going on.  Honestly, while we both agree on what we WANT God to be doing, there’s a lot of questions as to whether it is just our excitement or really God speaking.  We’ve decided to set up several personal and family spiritual exercises over the course of July and August to help us clear our own agendas and to hear from God . . .

We’re both really excited about what this summer is going to bring . . . at Journey Church, in our lives, in the lives of those around us . . . and what lies farther down the road . . .

PLEASE join us in prayer during this rather unsettled time.  There’s a lot to consider, but more importantly, we just need you to pray that we would hear from God . . . clearly and confidently.

Quick peek on the inside . . .

Wow! What a week!

Wednesday morning with Eric was really cool. I had a great time downloading what Emily and I are hearing from God and some major life changes that we are considering.  The opportunities to visit other churches on our vacation gave us some great perspective for Journey, and also our future together in ministry.

Several months ago, Emily and I had been talking about various interests in life and what about our relationship has helped to define where we are going in life.  One thing we talked about was how having a spouse can sometimes eliminate possibilities of what you will do with your life.  At the time, I had an example of how being married to Emily had directed my life a little bit away from one of my interests . . .

But our vacation has changed that.  I can’t believe it, but Emily is now the one pushing me to focus back on that direction in life.  Her fears and hesitations are gone, and my discomfort of going that direction with her his quickly disappearing. I honestly have to say, it is both the scariest thing I’ve ever wanted to do, but also the most exciting if it actually works out.

As I look back to when I first found interest in this direction . . . if I had done it then, I would have failed big-time.  I am thankful that God stopped me when He did, and appologize if anyone got hurt in the process, but God knows better than we do.  Now, I am in a totally different station in life with a totally different perspective, and a whole new set of experiences and knowledge to move forward . . . and I have a wonderful, godly wife to walk the road with me! 

Please pray earnestly for us as we consider these major changes.  They are so scary, we’re not sharing too specifically yet, because we need to hear from God clearly if it is His will or only our own excitement leading us in this direction.  Over the rest of the summer, we will be scheduling some intense spiritual exercises such as fasting, intense Bible study, prayer, etc. We need to hear very clearly from God on this . . . and we will share whatever He tells us as we have confidence that He has spoken.

Of course, if you know us well, you have probably already figured out what’s going on . . . so you know even more how much we need your prayers!

Catching Up . . .

Well, I’m back in the daily grind . . .

I definitely miss our vacation.  Emily and I had such a wonderful time.  It was the best week of our marriage so far.

But, I’m home . . . It took me the entire day on Monday just to catch up on emails at work . . . so I was finally able to start moving forward yesterday.

We have a yet another new employee at our office, Brady.  He is a CAD draftsman, so he will be easing the burden of getting all the drawings done that we have to get done this summer.  Right now, he’s going to be shared among a bunch of projects.  However, as the summer moves on, he should be primarily focusing on helping me get my projects done.  This is an incredible relief for me, because I’ve been doing all my work myself up to this point.  Brady has already shown promise in being a good employee to work with.  Without even meeting him, I had left a bunch of work for him to do while I was gone.  In the midst of learning how our office draws and does things, he got almost all of the work done.  This was a great blessing to me coming back.  PLUS - Brady is a strong coffee drinker, so it will be nice to have another one around!  I spent some time yesterday just chatting with him and getting to know him, and I think we’re going to have a lot of fun.

 This morning, I am going in to work (a change from my usual Wednesday routine), but I will be going in late so that I can catch up with Eric on Journey stuff.  I’m looking forward to an opportunity to download some stuff Emily and I talked about on vacation.

God is so good!

Back in Town . . .

Emily and I are now back in Auburn . . . unpacking, paying bills, sorting junkmail, and getting ready to get back in the grind tomorrow . . .

We started this morning by visiting Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC.  We went to the 10am service . . . and it rocked!  It amazes me that such a young church is making such a big impact . . . at multiple locations with multiple services.  I also have to admit, I’m a little jealous that a young church would have so many cool gadgets . . . 3 huge projection screens PLUS 3 plasmas . . . all 16×9 format . . . running 3 different images . . . Hi-def, live video, lighting . . . yeah, cool stuff.

I was also impressed with Steven Furtick.  A 27 year old leading a (less than) 2-year old church that baptized over 400 people so far this year. Unfortunately, he didn’t give a normal message today.  Instead, he had a live interview with his father-in-law, a pastor of 30+ years.  It was really cool, and the pair put together a great father’s day “message” about living a godly life even when life gets hard.  Oh, and Steven isn’t afraid of “churchy” words or of offending any visitors . . . He’s gonna tell it like it is, and call sin “sin” when he needs to . . . But just because he’ll use churchy words . . . doesn’t mean he’s a typical church dude.  He very clearly said “We’re a manly church.  I hate the feminizing of the American church.  No lavender here. We’re a manly church.” 

I was disapointed in one major thing, though.  They gave out a worship sampler with their First Time Guest packet.  The worship that we enjoyed this morning rocked and was awesome.  The music on the CD was VERY different.  Most of our Sovereign Grace CDs or Passion CDs rock a whole lot more than this CD.  Getting this CD as a guest was very confusing.  It’s almost like an identity crisis.  I think they need to relook at what’s on this CD they are giving out and make sure it fits who they are as a church.  Maybe some girl put together the packet (Just kidding).

Well, that’s my download on Elevation Church.  Very helpful, and it gave Emily and I some fodder for some good conversation about church planting and specifically about Journey.  This was an excellent close to our vacation.  God is really beginning to do some cool stuff in our hearts, and it is drawing us closer together in the process.

Homeward Bound . . .

Hey folks!

It’s Saturday night and Emily and I are now about halfway back to Alabama.  We’re staying the night in Charlotte, NC.  Eric is going to be jealous, because we’re going to Elevation Church, pastored by Steven Furtick.  In Eric’s words: “He is the man.”

I can’t wait to be home tomorrow night.  I’m sure Roxie misses us . . . although I think Zach is so busy playing with her he hasn’t blogged in forever.

BuBye Baltimore

It’s Saturday morning . . . Emily and I are packing up and getting ready to leave our hotel in Baltimore and begin our trek back to Alabama.

We have had a great vacation together.  An extended vacation with your spouse is a must for every married couple.  Other than visiting churches on Sunday, we haven’t done anything particularly spiritual, but we have spend an incredible amount of time praying, talking, and dreaming together — a very healthy exercise to help us reconnect and draw together as a couple.  The longer we’re married, and the more we communicate with each other, the more God brings together our vision for our life and family in the future.  I genuinely feel like we are returning to Auburn with our hearts beating as one as we engage life together.

Did I mention that I am the luckiest man in the world to be able to parade around Baltimore with the most beautiful woman in the world on my arm with the cutest, most amazing smile and bright shining eyes on her face?

Well, as vacation begins to come to a close, I guess I ought to take a little time to get Growth Groups stuff ready for the groups that will be meeting before I get back . . .

Baltimore . . .

I love this city.  I’m honestly not sure why, but I just do.  I’ve come to this city several times in the past.  I’ve done a few of the sites here before, but this is the first time I’ve stayed overnight and attempted to get as much of the experience as possible.  There’s some less-than-ideal areas . . . hey, it’s a city.  But there’s so much new stuff here.  I can’t believe the number of hotels, condos, and apartment buildings that have been built since the last time I was here.  I wonder who is living in them.  I wonder what churches are reaching out to those people.  I wonder if anyone is making a difference that will last for eternity.

I’m just always drawn to Baltimore.  I almost moved here after seminary, but God put some breaks on it.  I never fully understood why.  I don’t know if Emily is enjoying it quite as much as me, but she loves the atmosphere, too.  I believe whole-heartedly that God has us where we are in Auburn right now, and that isn’t going to change any time soon . . . but I still wonder why this area keeps coming back into my radar screen time and time again.  Maybe God has something down the road for us that is beyond our wildest dreams.  Maybe He just wants us to keep praying for the work He is doing here without us. 

Anyway, don’t want to scare anyone into thinking we’re not coming home . . . just enjoying our vacation as much as we can!

Vacation Update . . .

We had a good (expensive) dinner provided by my uncle on Sunday night.  It was hard not to talk work stuff, since my unlce is an architect.  I admit, we talked some architecture stuff, but generally kept it generic and not specific job stuff.

Yesterday was a ot of fun.  We took my Grammy for a drive down to where we all used to live.  I got to show Emily the house in Ottsville, PA, that my Grammy and Pop Pop lived in since about the time my dad was born (It looks about the same as it did 7 years ago when Grammy moved out).  We then went down to see the house we lived in when I was born (Plumsteadville, PA) . . . which looks like a little dump now.  They’ve painted the trim a couple times, but I don’t think the main house has EVER been painted . . . It’s still the nasty light green my dad put on when he built the house over 35 years ago — just some of it is peeling off, now.

From there, we went to the church that we went to when we lived in Plumsteadville . . . Hilltown Baptist Church.  HBC was a church plant in 1725 . . . and it has been a relatively healthy, conservative church for its entire 280+ years of ministry.  I became a Christ-follower at Hilltown when I was only 4 years old.  Along with my mom’s guidance, I credit Hilltown for placing a quality foundation on which my faith and life has been built.  So seeing the church again is always a little special for me.

We also went down to Holland, PA, to see the house my mom always talks so much about.  We lived in Holland from the time I was in 2nd grade until after 6th grade. Interestingly, the house is for sale again, so we picked up a flier.  I’ll check on the price later just out of curiousity.

During this entire trip down memory lane . . . we had a great visit with Grammy, completing the visit with a good dinner at a local diner here in Allentown.

Last night, Emily and I simply enjoyed an evening together in the hotel.  We both commented that yesterday finally gave us a sense that we are really on vacation.  We are now starting to get refreshed.

Today we head down to Baltimore where we will be for the remainder of our vacation.  We got a pretty cool package deal on the hotel and site-seeing, so we’re really looking forward to it.