Building Excitement

I have found so often that the messages on the rail cars coming through Everett contain poignant messages.  This one says "Stay High" at the bottom and clearly says "HELP" at the top.  How true.

I realize that much of the writing on this blog has been about what is happening in my own life.  It may make it seem as though there isn't much happening in the realm of church planting for us.  I believe nothing could be further from the truth, but I also know that the Lord has been doing a work in my life.  As I have said before, many church planters have told me that before God works on the church plant, He works on the church planter.  That certainly has been and continues to be my experience.

Mt. Adams rises above a mountain ridge in central Washington.

I'll do a future post on how far things have come in the last year, but it is interesting to take a peek now at what we were doing a year ago.  One year ago I was in the middle of the summer at work.  We had finished a difficult year at Summer Creek and I was very tired.  I had already gone to the Caribbean with Amanda for some time away to celebrate 15 years of marriage, and we were planning on going to the mission trip to Tacoma, Washington within a couple of weeks.  I remember not really wanting to go on the trip at this point of the summer.  I saw the timing of it as poor since so many things begin happening at the end of July and the first part of August.  I was still interested in building my kingdom.

Questions for me at this time of my life consisted of the following:

• Would this school year be any easier than last school year?
• When would I be able to become a principal of my own school?
• Where would I be working in 1-2 years?
• Would we be living in the same house or would we move closer to town?  (I already was feeling unsettled about where we were living at the time).
• Would I be able to recover quickly from the Tacoma trip and get things back on track at work?

Flash forward one year.  My current questions are the following:

• Will I remain in education for the foreseeable future or will I have the ability to enter into full-time ministry?
• If I leave education, how will I provide for this family so we can stay afloat?
• When will we plant a church in north Everett?
• What can I be doing now to foster community connections in our neighborhood?
• If we start planning events with the local elementary school, will people come?
• Who would God have me talk to today about Himself?
• Am I discipling enough people?  Is there someone I am missing?
• What other neighbors can I connect with who are separated from Jesus?  What will I do about that?
• How am I discipling my own kids?
• What would the Lord have me do in Everett TODAY?

As you can see, the lists are very different.  To my shame, the entirety of the first list is about me and my kingdom.  The majority of the second list is about God and His kingdom, and glory be to Him for that.  What grace He has given me, a man who has spoken so often about how to live the Christian life but who many times has failed in that area!  I can't believe that He'd want to use me at all...but He does.  I believe that I am a very different person than the one who left Huffman, Texas in December of 2013.  Because I love symbolism, I have viewed our life and sending to Washington in much the same manner as Bilbo Baggins was send from the Shire in The Hobbit.  In a pivotal conversation at the start of the story before he leaves, he asks Gandalf:

Bilbo:  And you promise that I will come back?
Gandalf:  No, and if you do, you will not be the same.
Bilbo:  That's what I thought.

The Lord has shown us that He loves us and the people of Everett.  However, the time is coming when each one of us will have to deal directly with the Lord, because the Bible tells us that "every knee will bow" to Him.  What happens, then, if the majority of the people that we live around do not know God?  We carry this great light within us.  What are we doing to actively let it shine so that our community can see it?  While we know that it is only the Lord who ultimately draws people to Himself, we feel an urgency to tell people about Him.  The implications for people are absolutely enormous.  So, these thoughts are what we wake up and go to sleep to every day.  We know why He led us here and are determined to do the work He would have us do.

 

A shot of the recent 4th of July parade in downtown Everett.  So what if none of the people in this picture know the Lord?  What actions will our family take today to make His name known before it is too late?  This is the daily reality in the Pacific Northwest.

Current Events

Everett Family Church is in the final stages of planning the mission trip where Humble Area's First Baptist Church will come visit and do ministry right here in Everett.  I have personally been involved in planning this for months, but as time has gone by we now have more people involved and excitement is really building.  We now have an entire week planned out which includes a lot of prayer walking, fellowship and outreach times at Family Tree Apartments, and a vacation Bible school event each evening.  We believe this week will be a real shot in the arm for the church and that God is going to do some big things both during and after it.  What will those things be?  I have no idea, but have a great sense that there will be a great movement of God's spirit here in Everett.

We have enlisted people to help out with various stages of the mission trip week and many people continue to step up and ask how they can help out.  Yesterday at our worship gathering I extended an invitation to the congregation to come participate with us during any event that week, and several indicated that they want to come prayer walk and evangelize on the streets with us!  I can see that this might become a regular part of what we do as a church family, and frankly, it should.  Nothing we do as a congregation is as important as prayer is.  It is possible to have excellent music, teaching, and events, and to miss the Holy Spirit completely.

 

This is the future EFC van!

To top all of this off I was able to go with Mike this week to look at 12 passenger vans.  As many of you know EFC has desperately needed a van so that we can transport people from Family Tree Apartments, many of which do not have a car.  This endeavor routinely involves 3-5 families swinging by to pick people up and to take people home, and we have been at capacity for some time now.  This means that if anyone new started regularly attending, we had no room in our vehicles for them.  We were amazed about 6 weeks ago when a Sunday School at Humble Area's First Baptist Church heard about our need and began raising money for a vehicle for us.  On top of that, several individuals joined the effort and made contributions of their own.  To top even that, HAFBC itself contributed to the purchase, and I am very happy to say that we now have enough to get a van!  We should have it in time for the mission trip at the end of July!  This van will meet a big need but also fulfills the longer-term needs of EFC.  We are literally praying for at least another vanload of people to begin coming to church from Family Tree.  As Mike likes to say, God provides for the needs you have right now, and He certainly has done that.  We now have much greater potential for outreach simply by getting this vehicle.  What a tremendous blessing!

I can't put my finger on it, but we sense that there is about to be an even bigger move of God's Spirit here in Everett.  You might chalk it up to the upcoming mission trip, but I think that might be too easy.  I think this place is perhaps like a dry forest that can easily be set on fire by a little spark.  As a group the leadership team has been prompted to pray more and more.  Even this week we will be meeting at Family Tree apartments for the sole purpose of praying around the complex.  There is definitely a stronghold of evil there as so few of the residents know the Lord, but we believe that if we will just humble ourselves and pray God will do something truly amazing.  I don't know what that will be, but I know this:  He doesn't need any of us.  

2 Chronicles 7
 ¹⁴ Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. ¹⁵ My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place.

If I see a church that is devoid of power or see myself as being drained or without any effectiveness, it is because there has not been enough prayer.  That is what's wrong with the global church these days.  We give voice to God and His power and his Spirit, but we completely deny those things by our lack of prayer!

I ask that you join us in prayer for Everett, Washington and the people here.  Pray that we as a family would love them unconditionally and that the Lord's Spirit would be unleashed in such power here that we all stand amazed at what He has done.  Pray that He would draw many people to Him through this mission trip event.