Factor #1...
...God.
The first thing that has led TXC to be where we are after 10 months is undeniably God.
If it weren't for God giving us a dream to plant TXC, it wouldn't have happened. At least, not the way it has. We would probably still be sitting in the nursery of our sending church trying to muster up the courage to step outside! It's the confidence that God has given us this dream that enables us to boldly move ahead.
I still remember the day that this dream to plant a church consumed me as if a tidal wave had just dropped on top of me. I started writing frantically. I went through all the appropriate channels to make sure I wasn't being rebellious (because I was at a church at the time). After making sure I wasn't out of line, everything started falling in place. The preferred ethos (culture) of TXC came to me like I had been thinking about it forever.
One thing that was already set was the name: The CrossCurrent - where life is meant to be lived. God obviously knew what was coming because I had written that down quite a while before, not even knowing I would one day plant a church with that name.
Everything lined up in a way that can only be explained as God. Everyday, I felt this burning inside of me - knowing that God was behind this dream all the way. It was the scariest thing that I had ever attempted to do. I had no idea what the outcome would be. All I knew was that if I didn't plant this church, I would feel as if I was disobeying God. His call inside of me was absolutely undeniable. I couldn't even think of wanting to anything else with my life. God had totally ransacked any other dreams that I had and replaced them with TXC. I knew that this was what I was created to do and was ready to fully jump into the unknown.
And here we are - still green and naive - not really knowing what the heck we are doing. Still taking risks. But most importantly, still listening to where God want to lead us. I think one of the most important "skills" that a church planter can have is the ability to listen to the voice of God and then obey, no matter what the consequences will be.
For instance, God has called us to reconnect people to Jesus and in doing this, we aren't trying to connect with people who are already Christians. It's quite possible that some of our methods won't be approved by the average church going Christian (Someone recently told one of our TXCers that our church is "damned". Nice. Others loathe the fact that we meet in a movie theatre where the devil lives). But that's okay! Because they are already connected to Jesus...buddy down the street isn't!. We don't intentionally try to tick of religious people, but if they get offended by us intentionally trying reconnect people to Jesus, then that is something that we are willing to sacrifice. If we are hated by religious people and loved by those far from God, then we are happy.
We will keep on listening to what God says and obediently following Him. It scares the snot out of me at the best of times...but quite frankly...I can't imagine living my life any other way!
Factor #2 coming tomorrow...
The first thing that has led TXC to be where we are after 10 months is undeniably God.
If it weren't for God giving us a dream to plant TXC, it wouldn't have happened. At least, not the way it has. We would probably still be sitting in the nursery of our sending church trying to muster up the courage to step outside! It's the confidence that God has given us this dream that enables us to boldly move ahead.
I still remember the day that this dream to plant a church consumed me as if a tidal wave had just dropped on top of me. I started writing frantically. I went through all the appropriate channels to make sure I wasn't being rebellious (because I was at a church at the time). After making sure I wasn't out of line, everything started falling in place. The preferred ethos (culture) of TXC came to me like I had been thinking about it forever.
One thing that was already set was the name: The CrossCurrent - where life is meant to be lived. God obviously knew what was coming because I had written that down quite a while before, not even knowing I would one day plant a church with that name.
Everything lined up in a way that can only be explained as God. Everyday, I felt this burning inside of me - knowing that God was behind this dream all the way. It was the scariest thing that I had ever attempted to do. I had no idea what the outcome would be. All I knew was that if I didn't plant this church, I would feel as if I was disobeying God. His call inside of me was absolutely undeniable. I couldn't even think of wanting to anything else with my life. God had totally ransacked any other dreams that I had and replaced them with TXC. I knew that this was what I was created to do and was ready to fully jump into the unknown.
And here we are - still green and naive - not really knowing what the heck we are doing. Still taking risks. But most importantly, still listening to where God want to lead us. I think one of the most important "skills" that a church planter can have is the ability to listen to the voice of God and then obey, no matter what the consequences will be.
For instance, God has called us to reconnect people to Jesus and in doing this, we aren't trying to connect with people who are already Christians. It's quite possible that some of our methods won't be approved by the average church going Christian (Someone recently told one of our TXCers that our church is "damned". Nice. Others loathe the fact that we meet in a movie theatre where the devil lives). But that's okay! Because they are already connected to Jesus...buddy down the street isn't!. We don't intentionally try to tick of religious people, but if they get offended by us intentionally trying reconnect people to Jesus, then that is something that we are willing to sacrifice. If we are hated by religious people and loved by those far from God, then we are happy.
We will keep on listening to what God says and obediently following Him. It scares the snot out of me at the best of times...but quite frankly...I can't imagine living my life any other way!
Factor #2 coming tomorrow...
Blogged with Flock
