What a weekend

Wow, I am still trying to catch up with reality after being so amazed by God all weekend. God is just so good and the way He does things are just so amazing! This weekend I met a couple and a gentleman who found our church through the internet. How cool is that. Then, as usual, we tried something completely new with the sermon. I had Josh help me with the message as we took turns presenting different perspectives of the same points. It went great. I mean, if someone didn't know better, they might actually think we had spent a lot of time working on it (o.k. we actually did get together several times that week to make sure it was communicated correctly). I love it! Every person I spoke to said that it was a real blessing to them and that they really loved it. Praise God! Well, then came Sunday...
Sunday morning I shared my testimony with Lifesource on the final Sunday before they made the decision as to whether or not they would be coming to join Freedom Life Church. After the message all of the Freedom Life people there with me left the room and went to a classroom in the children's area to wait. After what seemed like an eternity (actually about 45 minutes) we were summoned to come into the sanctuary. As we entered we were greeted by applause as everyone stood up excitedly to announce that the decision had been made to come join us! Wow, what a morning. I later found out that it had been unanimously decided by all of those who were covenanted partners of Lifesource.
So in four months we have grown from a church of 26 adults and kids to a church of around 110-120 people. In addition to that, we have been blessed with a completely debt free building, sound system, chairs, computer lab, video projectors, 6 acres piece of land, etc, etc, etc... God is so faithful.
As arrogant as this might sound, I truly believe that God has said to me that this is only the first of many blessings that God has in store for Freedom Life Church. Once when I was praying about it as I was overwhelmed with gratitude about such a huge blessing of people and resources, I felt God saying to me, "Freddy, this is just the baby blessings for a baby church. You are just getting started as a church, and I am just getting started blessing you." That made me both excited and nervous. You know how it goes, "to those who much is given, much is expected." So, I know that God is calling us to something huge...and recently I get the feeling that it is something even bigger than the huge things I have already imagined. Well God, as the Rock says, "just bring it." I am ready for the God- sized challenges and the God-sized blessings. I never want to be a church that settles for "safe and realistic" goals. We don't serve a "safe and realistic" God! We serve a God who chooses the very people society rejected to change the world. Jesus didn't go the "safe route"...he went to the cross! Moses followed God through an ocean being held apart by wind...(I bet he was praying for that wind to keep blowing), only to walk straight into a desert for 40 years. Daniel went into a lions den, after his three friends had been throne into a furnace! That is where they found the provision of God...in the desert, in the ocean, surrounded by lions, in the FURNACE! In the danger zone, in the middle of the risk, in the place where they had to completely depend on God. That is where the power of God was demonstrated greatest. So lets go! Put on your seat belt if your gonna ride this train, baby! Grab on tight, white-knuckle the role bar, and pray that you can hang on. We are storming the gates of the enemy running right into the heat of the battle! That means risk. That means opposition. That means intensity. That means sweet sweet victory! Remember, we are on the winning team!

On Sunday night it was decided that starting this week, Freedom Life Church will be setting aside 10% of every dollar we get to go towards advancing the Kingdom through Missions. We figured we should put our money where our mouth is! July 1st, our first foreign missionary, Lee Brookman will be leaving for a six-month mission trip to El Salvador to work with orphaned children. We will support him completely while he is there.

This isn't just a Riverdale thing, or a Hampton thing, or a Hampton Roads thing...this is a world thing...because that is how big our God is!

Big things on the horizon

Yeah so anyone who has been around the church lately knows that there is a pretty big decision right around the corner that will have a huge impact on our baby church. A few months ago the Elders of Lifesource Community Church came to us and said that they felt like God was calling Lifesource to come and be a part of Freedom Life. They wanted to know if we would be open to that idea, and we said, "Of course we are open to that!" Then we all began praying about what God's will was and how He wanted us to approach this. Having served at several churches now in leadership capacity, it has been amazing to me to see how boards would so quickly decide that something was God's will when money or buildings were involved. Whatever...that stuff is so temporary and money comes and goes. What I was more excited and concerned about was the possibility of all the new people who might be coming to be a part of our vision as a church.
When we started Freedom Life, I knew that God had some pretty big (God-sized) goals in mind for us. Once He showed me some of the things He wanted to do through us I immediately began praying, "O.K. Lord, you have called us to do these things, so I am excited about the fact that you are going to send the people and resources we need to accomplish this." Well, since day one, He has been faithful to answer that prayer. Most new churches fail in the first year because of finances. This causes some people to worry about the financial well-being of their pastor and his wife and two kids. I was never worried about this though. Call it simple faith or blind ignorance, I have never stopped to create a "back-up plan". Failure has never been an option for me in this church plant. That is not because of anything but the fact that I knew God had called us to do this and I rely on Him to build Freedom Life. Jesus said that He himself would build his church and the gates of hell wouldn't prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). So that is exactly what I have expected Him to do.
No one can build Freedom Life better than Christ. So I try to just keep my ears ready for His commands and my eyes on his Blueprints. When He says "Go", we go. When He says, "Stop", we stop. I have read tons of leadership books ( and learned many great things from them). I have also read most of the books that come out about planting churches and the postmodern generations expectations of church (some are good, most are repeats of other peoples ideas with a new flashy cover). What I finally concluded was that God was doing a new thing at Freedom Life and I couldn't count on what He was doing in this church, or that church over there, to determine the way things would go here. It is very easy (and tempting) to say, "Well that is a successful church, how did they do it?", but God showed me very early on that I would not be able to do that with Freedom Life. The truth is, I don't know how we are going to do it, and I don't care. I just take orders! I have ideas, but my ideas are always subject to File 13 (the trash can). I just do what I am doing until God reveals the next step to us. It really is that simple (and scary).
I realize that this leadership style seems scary to some who want to have a better feel of control on the future of their organization or ministry, but when it comes down to it, I know that God is wiser, smarter, more strategic, more capable, and much more in touch with "the postmodern generation" than I ever will be. So I do everything I can to make sure that He is in charge, and not Freddy (because I know what Freddy is capable of). What He tells us to do doesn't always "make sense" or fit into the normal logic of trying to grow an organization, but WHO CARES! You can't argue with results :)
Because we have asked God to be in charge of our church we have never been in a financial pinch (He is the one who owns cattle on a thousand hills remember-Psalm 50:10). We have also seen our weekend services grow from 26 people to around 80 in just four months. More specifically, in those four short months we have had the priviledge of seeing 20 people accept Jesus Christ as their savior. Talk about humbling. The last thing I want to do is get in God's way with my "great strategies".
So I got a little off coarse, but like I said in the beginning, in 4 days we find out if Lifesource wants to come be a part of our church. If they do, that means that Freedom Life will be growing by another 30-40 amazing people and inheriting the property we are currently renting. Not bad for the first 5 months. Wow, God really does know how to build his church better than me :)
I find it completely humbling that God allows us to be a part of such great experiences, and meet such great people. As I think about some of the families that have come to be a part of Freedom Life I can't help but thank God for sending them to us. He is good! On with the journey!