MY LIFE – PT. 6 (Going Back Home)

This post will be shorter than the others. Thanks for your patience in this set – both with my untimely submission and the length of a few of them.

So when we last talked, I mentioned that I had hooked up with The Orchard Group who is a Church Planting group that is specifically targeting the North East. After emailing Paul, he in turn connected me with some folks who interviewed me in Gaithersburg, Maryland and we ate at a Sandwich shop that I kid you not has like 150 different kinds of sandwiches. It was unbelievable – I had never seen anything like it. Oh yeah.., and the samwiches were Awesome too! Anyway…, I convinced them that I was insane and they bought into the dream and decided to send Karen and me to church planting assessment.

Assessment for most folks is like getting teeth pulled; but I am kind of whacky and I actually enjoyed the experience. I thrive in such environments and relish the opportunity to stumble and fall; it has always been when I’ve grown the most – what can I say? :-) We left there with a thumbs-up, but we had some work to do to prepare; and they gave us a little bit more of an extended period to get ready. Pretty much since that time, it has been a bunch of reading; trying to preach when and where I can; finishing my degree; attending as many conferences as time and money will allow; and then finally, finding a great coach and listening to his advice. In actuality, I have 3 folks who are kind of mentoring me all at once – which is a total blessing in and of itself.

So.., here we are, it is April 2008 and in less then one year in March 2009, Karen and I will be “Going Back Home” to live for the first time in 31 years. Crazy? Maybe.., but I like the way Erwin McManus the pastor and author puts it best in his book The Barbarian Way – “NO REASONABLE PERSON WOULD EVER FULLY FOLLOW GOD EVERYWHERE HE CALLS. GOD IS SIMPLY UNREASONABLE.” Ready or not Lehigh Valley here we come and you will never, ever be the same! :-)

For those of you that read this blog and share with others: Please continue to pray for our preparations, our future move, and for the people of the Valley that we will eventually be reaching out to. Pray that God is already planting seeds that we can water and pray that the ground is fertile for good planting! Thanks to you all for your Love and Support!

Until the next post – Run up and down your street singing loudly “Who Let the Dogs Out! Woof! Woof! Woof!” Your neighbors will Love it and it is close enough the NFL Draft, that they'll get it - maybe?