I nearly broke down and cried like a baby yesterday…and it took every ounce of energy in me to hold myself together.
A group of us went over to our Greenville campus yesterday so that I could do an interview with WYFF, a local television station in G’vegas, and while we were touring the facility and answering a few questions it just hit me…I was overwhelmed with a sense of God’s power, goodness and amazement all at the same time.
Just the other day I was riding down the road and drove past the Sullivan Building on the campus at Anderson University. For those who do not know—that is where we first began having services in January of 2000.
I remembered the weekly battle with trying to make sure the air conditioner unit was working…it usually wasn’t & we had to call a technician out to try to rig it up before our services. Half of the time it didn’t work!!!
I remembered the Sunday we showed up and a student group had taken the sound system that we normally used…and being the mature Christians we all were…WE FREAKED OUT! BUT…thanks to “Super-Joel” we were able to piece a few things together and make it happen.
I remembered putting EVERYTHING our church owned—I mean EVERYTHING in a closet that we rented from the college that was about four feet wide and six feet long.
I remembered the “children’s facility” that we had to work with…a conference room that had a conference table in it that took up 75% of the room, no lie! (We had three kids the first Sunday!)
I remembered the retreat that several of the guys took in June of 2000, six months into the church plant. We stayed up VERY late into the night praying and dreaming…I asked them all to dream BIG with me—and we wrote out our incredibly enormous goal that we all felt could happen…that by the year 2010 we could literally have 1,000 people coming to church every week.
I remembered all of that while standing in one of the most incredibly decorated children’s rooms that I have ever seen…and it hit me, “God really is able to do immeasurably more than all I could ask or imagine. HIS DREAMS for HIS CHURCH are way larger than my dreams for HIS CHURCH. And…this is JUST the beginning!”
It hit me like a ton of bricks while standing there, “None of us from that retreat in June of 2000 would have EVER imagined that we would one day be opening a facility like this in Greenville. Heck, we didn’t even know something like this was possible. But God knew all along…and prepared us all the way, step by step—He’s been so faithful.”
It hit me standing right there in that kids room…because we were willing to follow His leadership—addicts are going to find freedom, the excluded will be included, marriages will be saved, kids will know what it’s like to have a mommy AND a daddy, those wrestling with guilt will find hope, eternal destinations will be forever altered, the Church will grow, the gates of hell will get pushed back a little more and God will get the glory for it all. JESUS WILL BE MADE FAMOUS!!!!
And it this has happened in less than 10 years—what will be taking place by the year 2020?
THAT excites me…beyond words!!! One day I will stand accountable before God as to how I lived and led…and one of the things I am not going to have to answer for is dreaming too small and trying my best to maintain status quo.
NewSpring…this Sunday Greenville campus opens…and this is just the beginning. Philippians 1:6 that He will complete what He begins…and I can’t WAIT to see what that is.
Walking with God along this journey has required us to pray bold prayers, take huge risks, make unpopular changes and be willing to endure quite a few sleepless nights. And…to be sure…there is more of all of that on the way.
BUT…it’s worth it!!! It’s HIS CHURCH…we are merely stewards, and as long as we stay faithful and obedient…there is no telling what incredible things are in store.
I’m amazed! See you all on Sunday!