It has been over a month since I’ve posted anything here so I thought I better take a minute to let everyone know what is happening in my life… but in order to tell the story correctly I have to go back a few years.
During my Junior year at North Central University I took a course on Cross-Cultural Church Planting with Lee Allison. Lee talked about his experiences of planting churches around the world and about halfway through the semester I knew that I was going to plant a church someday.
After I graduated my good friend Jeff Wendt invited me to check out Oak Hills Church, which is where I ended up for the past six years. Rod Carlson planted the church in 1991 and he invited us to come on staff (first as interns – part-time – full-time staff). It would be impossible to tell you how much I’ve learned during these years. Pastor Rod let me dream and experiment; succeed and fail.
This past Spring I really began to feel a stirring in my spirit. I felt that the Lord was calling me to take the next step towards a church plant. Then on a visit back to my hometown, Des Moines, I went downtown with my brother. My brother doesn’t really like church, but I started sharing my dream for an urban church in a theatre or marketplace specifically designed for people who have been let down or have never felt comfortable in a church.
Then something amazing happened. My brother, who had just told me how much he hates church, told me how excited he was to start a church with me. He took me to a couple locations downtown and we started talking about set-up & tear-down, lights & sound, coffee & parking. We drove over to the entertainment district and watched all of the people standing in line for the newest bar. It was at that moment my heart broke and I knew that God was calling me to plant a church inDes Moines… someday.
I immediately started making plans for the church plant and then I got a call from Dave Beroth. Dave is the new Lead Pastor at First Assembly in Des Moines - this is the church I grew up in. He told me that he would like to talk to me about coming on staff as the Pastor of Spiritual Formation where I would oversee discipleship classes and small groups.
Initially I thought this was a distraction - after all, the Lord was calling me to start a church. I told Dave about my vision and how I didn’t think it would work. Then Dave did something incredible to me, he listened. He wanted to hear more about my vision. He said that he would do anything he could to support me. Then, without applying any pressure, he said that maybe it didn’t have to be an “either/or.” He told me about his vision to start churches throughout central Iowa over the next few years and suddenly it all clicked.
After multiple discussions with my wife, my parents, close friends and Pastor Rod we determined that the Lord was calling us to First Assembly. We are joining an amazing team and I am going to get to do something I absolutely love… help people along their journey to full-devotion to Christ. On top of that, we are moving back to the mission field that God has specifically called us to and we are one step closer to fulfilling the dream of a church plant.
More to come…
That's so awesome Paul!!!!!! Glad to see you going after what God has put on your heart. I know He will use you in awesome and powerful ways to change lives for the Kingdom.
Posted by: Jon Roe | October 31, 2007 at 01:41 PM