Journey

I read the story of Abraham again from the Old Testament the other day.  There's one word in that Gen. 12 passage I keep thinking over.  It's the word "show."  God says to Abraham, go where I show you!  Show indicates several things.  First, it says that God knows where you're going.  It says that God's somehow waiting there for you and simultaneously with you as you head there.  Show=with.  God walked beside Abraham along the journey.  Now if you look at the path Abraham journeyed, it wasn't exactly the shortest distance between the two points.  He's at least 600 miles seemingly off track.  He backtracks some.  He's headed to the promised land, but interestingly, has to go through Egypt to get there (an interesting little pattern in the OT, that Egypt is a constant diversion to the promised land.)  

How well did Abraham "know" the voice of God before he set out on the journey?  Who knows.  How well did Abraham know the voice of God during his journey and after he arrived at the appointed destination?  Probably a lot better than before.  Maybe that's the important part.

Do you think Abraham knew he was backtracking, that he wasn't following the straightest course?  He didn't know where he was going, what direction to take, or where the destination was until God said, "Okay you're here?  Or did it really matter, because the journey was the purpose?  Did the conversation with God remain so sweet that he never noticed the travel being such a long way?  

This Catalyst journey feels sometimes like Abraham's journey.  I have some small picture of the destination.  Dangerously, I may have had some sense of the path of the journey.  Often, I'm reminded that I don't know the pat at all.  God reveals as God sees fit.  I said several times after last summer that I felt as if I'd spent time in the wilderness, trying to figure out which direction the promised land was.  I thought making the decision to move to Pendleton meant we'd found the Jordan and were ready to cross into this great new place.  I think I now realize that last summer is a lot like this summer, that we're on the Abraham journey, and God has yet to reveal the stopping point.  So we keep walking, keep listening to Him, and...I'm not sure what besides that.  I guess that's enough.  To keep walking, keep listening, not always understanding, but keep walking because we've not yet been told to stop.  

I'm not going to lie.  There are days when I think Abraham had to think, you know Ur wasn't so bad.  Somedays I'd love to have the tent in the place I knew so well for so long.  I've thought recently a couple of times, "were we crazy to leave LaGrange?"  We felt sure that the voice of God prompted us to move.  And I'm still sure.  Somedays though, I have to ask God, "are you sure I heard you correctly?"  Today is one of those days.  Still walking, just asking while we keep journeying forward to....wherever God has in mind.

Peas

Okay here's the life lesson I learned the other day about church planting...from a vegetable.

We're in this farm coop thing.  And they give us different kinds of natural/organic vegetables each week as part of our "share."  Last Thursday we got peas.  I am not super familiar with gardening but I'm amazed at the amount of work peas are.  We got this decent size bag of peas, still in the pod.  Now I'm aware that pod size and bag size doesn't always equal significant quantity.  Actually, i had little to no idea what quantity would be produced.  So I shell the peas, begin working to fill a bowl of the finished product.  Twenty minutes later, there's a huge pile of empty pods (which by the way we could find nothing constructive to do with on the internet) and the equivalent of maybe 2/3 of a store bought can of peas.  

Here's what I learned about church planting from peas.  I feel like the last 8.5 months have been a lot of working, connecting, praying, thinking, networking.  If you look at the pile of work that's been done, it's probably been as much as I've done in my whole life.  When you look at the results simply in terms of quantity, you think, has this produced enough?  Why not "grow" something that has more immediate impact, more tangible results?  But then you get a taste of what you've invested in, and every time you taste it, the experience is ever sweeter.  And as you begin to enjoy the fruit of your labor, you recognize, "hey, there's a bit more here than I thought."  Not like the pan is running over or anything, but it certainly makes you want more.  (I just heard we're getting more peas today, hooray!)

I don't know what the next couple of months holds.  I don't know who God has in store for us to connect with, grow with, love and serve with.  I don't know how many results will flow from all the conversational work we're doing.  Catalyst has not been all fun and games.  But the taste of this calling has never been sweeter in my soul.  So I'll press on for more.  Press on to complete the calling which we've been given.  That's it.   Prayers.

So ashamed...

It's so embarrassing when you put yourself out there and say things like, "No, I really am going to post more often," and then you look at the date of your last post and it was 2 weeks ago!  

Okay, guilt acknowledged, guilt absolved, because tomorrow I can look at the blog and see, "Last post...yesterday."

Catalyst had a great week at June Jamboree.  See picture posted above.  Talked with lots of people, gave away lots of tattoos (the temporary kind) to kids and adults.  (Even though our sign said, "Free kids' temporary tattoos!")  Lot's of guitar Hero players.  (IF I never have to hear Bon Jovi's 'Livin on a Prayer one more time, I think I'll be okay) and some good connects for Catalyst.  It's always fun to hear what people's guesses are about What is Catalyst?.  People often think we're a computer company, an electronics store, I even got a sporting goods company from one guy, even though our booth had no sporting equipment or even sports references.  We we were the only booth with a 37" flat screen however!

As I've posted on our twitter feed (which is a great place to get more frequent, shorter updates) we're praying and inviting people to be part of the team like crazy and seeing where and how God leads.  We may have to realign our timeline a bit, but our calling has never changed.  We are here to plant a healthy, growing new faith community in the Lapel-Fortville-Pendleton area.  Whenever, however that happens is up to God and we'll follow His timing, but our goal remains the same, to help disconnected people connect with God and that all people involved in our ministry can clearly understand and take the next step in our journeys with God together.  

We ask that you keep praying with us.  We know God has called us to plant here.  And we know He has people in mind to join us in this birthing process.  Keep praying with us that our paths will continually and clearly cross with those who God is aligning to join the Catalyst mission. 

It was good to connect with our friends and partners at the LaGrange church this past weekend.  Just being there this past weekend reminded me of two very important things.  First, we have incredible friends there.  And they remain so.  Second, to leave friends like those, it had to have been God's calling for us to transition from there, because all other things being equal, we'd probably have stayed til they threw us out!  So thank you to our friends from LaGrange for loving us so much and for affirming God's call on our lives.  If I think about it too long, this is where the keyboard gets a few teardrops.  So, I'll bring our post to a close here by asking you to pray and check in with us as you'd like, via email, twitter, phone call (the number I had in LaGrange is still connected to one of the two phones in my pocket every day) or by mail.  And I'll do my best to respond promptly...at least much more promptly than I often do in this blog!

Launch team gathering III

We gathered at the Webster's tonight for our third launch team gathering.  Catalyst will rise or fall in part because of the experience of these gatherings.  Tonight my friend Jay Harvey came and shared with our team about his passion for and insights about reaching our community of Pendleton.  Jay is one of the funniest guys I know, but he is completely serious about reaching people with the hope of Christ.  I saw our team really begin to come together tonight, especially around the topics of shared mission and the role gathering will take in these next few weeks.  Our ministry teams are beginning to pick up steam and momentum, and even though the clock is ticking towards August and especially October, I just feel an even greater sense of excitement about Catalyst and the God who never fails but leads and guides for His purposes and will fulfill His desires in us to reach this community.  

I was reminded of the words of Galatians 6:9 today, words I cling to as we journey forward.  It says, 

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people..."

We will reap a harvest...if we don't give up.  God will determine the proper time, and I believe that we're beginning to see that time is now.  So we're asking the Lord of the Harvest to help us reach deeper and further into those places where people need to connect with Him and to be his witnesses wherever we go.

The First of Many Catalyst Baptisms

Okay, so it happened at Crosspoint.  And we technically don't have meeting times yet.  But we're claiming it anyway.  Yesterday, we had our first baptism as part of the ministry of Catalyst.  My friend and partner Brad Justus took the step of baptism as a high water mark (no pun intended) on his faith journey yesterday.  After the service, PJ asked, "so did you shudder when you got into the water?" (which was heated when it went in in the morning but not so much by 11:15am)  My response was no, it wasn't about shuddering, but in typical Chris fashion, the moment I hit that water, this emotion just welled up inside me once again.  It always does.  When people express publicly what God is doing transformationally in their life, how can you not get a little emotional and completely excited?  So we heard Brad's story via video, and then it gave me a chance again to express to the crowd at Crosspoint, that this kind of experience is why we're starting Catalyst.  It's not about the banners and the loud music and all the etherial stuff.  Those are just means.  This is the end we live for and want to celebrate again and again.  Life transformation.  So as Brad and I walked to the locker room, fresh off the eruption of applause as he came up out of the water, I told him, "so, this is what I want to do hundreds of times in the next several years of the life of Catalyst.  Matter of fact, I'll do the hard work (and it is harder work when you rent space and have to use temporary baptistries) as often as people want to demonstrate the transforming work God is doing in our lives.  It's always worth it.