What do you do when you’re actively walking in what God called you to do, and His still small voice disrupts what you thought was His way for this calling?
That is the question myself and a few key leaders wrestled with two and a half years ago. At that point, we had been following God’s call to plant Hope Springs Community Church in an urban area of Columbus, Georgia. By God’s grace, we had witnessed a couple of salvations, had seen the start of outreach initiatives to our community, received a good amount of property to use for a low cost, and saw a church plant project grow into an attendance of about 30 people.
A Different Way?
Yet something started to feel oJ. This grew day by day. The call to make disciples who make disciples and reach those who won’t go to church had started to fade into an attractional model, a concern about “how to pay the bills, ” and a pastor who was juggling the weekly worship service, working full-time as an educator while leading a family. Burnout was knocking on the door.
In comes the Lord’s voice: “What if my way is different?”
It didn’t take long for us to realize that we should heed this call and this question. After days in prayer, it became clear: What if we stripped the church of the focus on a building, of the focus on programs and initiatives, and truly leaned into discipleship? What if we poured into the “few” to allow the Holy Spirit and everyday people to reach the many? This is exactly the journey we have been on.
Missional Multiplication
Two and a half years later, we are seeing the early glimpses of a missional multiplication network. We have been blessed to learn from NewBreed through the Southeast Region Conference, and to connect with the Church Development Network, which has been a great partnership and resource to activate people.
Since then, we have witnessed six of our people say “yes, Lord” to being sent out into the harvest. One has established a missional church in one of the hard-to-reach areas of our city.
A woman — who once said, “Who am I to do this?” — now leads a growing weekly missional gathering of 10+ people whose lives are being changed.
A young man who never heard of discipleship or evangelism beyond what he saw in the Scriptures now prayer-walks a park weekly, serves the teens of a local recreation center, and has started a weekly discovery Bible study at this rec center.
My wife and I host a weekly gathering in our home — pouring into a group of 13 adults and six children to seek growth and transformation in the Lord and to send them out. Two older adults are starting a community at a local Starbucks that is seeking to reach and grow people. Funds are freed to pour into a local school, a summer camp ministry for kids at risk, and into missionaries who are doing missional work in Argentina. Salvations and baptisms are happening, everyday people are saying “yes, Lord, ” and transformations are plenty.
I, for one, am beyond grateful to have listened to the still small voice and to serve a God who lovingly disrupts. Whatever the call, we still say “yes, Lord.”