How's Your Heart?

How's your heart? This is such a very simple question. Yet it has the opportunity to be so intimate, life giving, giving life bearing results. It is a question we don't ask very often. Most likely because we don't really care to take enough time to listen for a real answer from whom we asked the question. it's so much easier to ask How are you? which in today's vernacular really is just a greeting not anticipating a response.

One of the things I have so enjoyed and already learned from sitting under the discipleship of Jim and Mitch  (our senior and executive pastor here at grace) is the importance of bearing ones soul with a few very trusted people who will be praying for you. Not the kind of people that will say "I'll be praying for you," no the kind of people I am talking about are the ones who stop whatever they are doing and say "let me pray for you right now."

One of the realities I knew was coming in becoming a pastor was the ever increasing amount of meetings I would need to attend. One of the things I never expected was how life giving and enjoyable meetings can be! Here at Grace every meeting I have attended over the past month (to many to count) have begun by sharing the best and worst things that have happened to us in the past week. Depending on how many are in the meeting it might be with everyone or just those sitting right next to you. Nonetheless we begin by sharing where we are at Spiritually, emotionally, physically. Then we pray for each other. Not a 30 second token prayer, rather a sincere cry out for our brother or sister to the Father for His intervention and provision.

Sometimes this only leaves a few minutes for the business to get done, but it is amazing how after spending time "being" the church, rather than trying to "do" church, the Spirit gives wisdom and like mindedness so that the business flows and tends to take care of itself.

This is the kind of pastor I want to be! This is the kind of staff I want to lead! This is the church I want to be a part of!

Monday the pastors of Grace left their busy schedules and Jim took us on a mystery day. We started off at a  place in Houston that is the size of an airplane hanger that had various courts for differing games. The cool thing was the floors of each court were trampolines, the walls were trampolines. What ensued  was the ultimate game of dodge-ball much like when you were growing up as a kid in PE only here you didn't run around you bounced, jumped, launched yourself off the floor and bounced off the wall to get the ultimate 10ft in the air (slight exaggeration) throw across the court. IT WAS AWESOME! We then left, everyone having had a total cardio workout, to go eat lunch together. We ended the day sharing 15 minute versions of our life stories. Then the pastors gathered around me and welcomed and commissioned me for ministry here.

Life! It's meant to be lived together! I can't thank you enough for praying for Kim, Max, Joshua, Tate and I!

It means the world to us and we covet your prayers! Without them we would surely fail and fall apart!

Here are some prayer requests for this week:

1. Tate had strep-throat this week. he is feeling better but pray the rest of us don't get it 

2. We REALLY need to sell our house in Carrollton, please pray God's intervention here

3. Pray for continued vision and clear direction as we work through the complexities of starting a satellite campus

4. Pray for Kim and I to continue to fall in love with each other more and more every day

Finally, How is your heart? email us and let us pray for you and what is going on in your life this week! It would be our honor!

Jeff

Reationships

God has blessed us in too many ways to write or describe!

As we pray and prepare to launch our satellite campus in a year, we have two main objectives... to soak up the DNA of Grace Fellowship and to build relationships with people to start this journey with us. Grace is a large church with close to 6000 members. Several hundred live in the target area we plan on opening a campus in. However to assume that all of them will want to pioneer a new campus, leaving the comforts of an established campus with all its frills, would be naive.

With all these new things comes lots of opportunity! Opportunity to try the unthinkable... to strive to see dreams fulfilled! Our vision at Grace is to "be a house of prayer for all nations". This vision is broken down into three main components. "House" is true relational and biblically founded discipleship. "Prayer", there is no way we can accomplish the dreams God has given us unless they are bathed and covered by prayer and a move of the Holy Spirit.And finally, "Nations", we want to take the gospel to all people groups! 

God is teaching us so much about each one of these three components and we are so excited to see where HE will lead us in each of these.

We came to the conclusion the other day that, though while in Carrollton we were able to be a one car family, it just wasn't going to work here. We live a good distance from the church and many of my meetings are late in the afternoon, so Kim needs a car to be able to pick the boys up from school and just so she's not stuck in the house all day long. As we explored vehicles and prayed about it, we felt the Lord leading us to avoid another car payment, so we decided to pay cash for something older that could just get me to and from work. This way we have a little bit more financial flexibility to use our money in any way God wants to use it. So we have been looking for a couple of weeks and literally visiting every used car lot in northwestern Houston (too many to count). We couldn't find anything that we would feel safe spending money on for the cash we had. So back to the drawing board. After days of searching, praying and searching some more, finding cars only to have them sold before we could get there, and praying some more, I gave up. No sooner had I given up, then I noticed a little, and by little i mean tiny, dealership three blocks from the house. So little in fact, I didn't know it was a dealership. There, on the lot, was a little vehicle that fit what we were looking for, so today I drove by to let Kim look at it. We felt peace about this vehicle and decided this was the one, so we bought it. We quickly drove home to get the cash and Kim drove me back up to sign the papers and pick it up. When I walked in Samer,a very nice gentlemen who also happens to be the owner, began to  witness to me. "Do you know that the Holy Spirit told me someone was going to purchase this vehicle today?" "Do you believe in Jesus Christ the son of the one true Lord?" To which I replied "I sure do, in fact I am a pastor!" He began to cry and for the next hour Samer, a christian from Lebanon, and I shared stories and celebrated that God had brought us together. In fact, Kim and I are going to go eat Lebanese food with Samer and his Syrian wife in the next couple of weeks

In our previous post I talked about just looking for the next step. Well, God is leading us into relationships with people of other nations already. Our dream is that Grace Fellowship North would be a church that is a true mosaic of ethnicity, full of people from every tribe and tongue. That each week we would see a slice of what heaven is going to be like! As you pray with us, pray God would bring to fruition the dreams he has given us to do just that! Pray for Samer and his wife who's home countries are in such turmoil and unrest right now. Pray for North East Katy for the seeds of revival to be planted so that when God calls us to launch we might reap the harvest that is so plentiful here. Pray that God would continue to grow me into the man He needs me to be to lead and have favor here. Pray for Kim's health to become less and less of a burden and distraction for her. Pray that we might be the parents God wants us to be for our boys so they might become mighty men of God! And thank God for our little black SUV, an ever present reminder that He is guiding our every step!

The Obvious is Often Forgotten

I walked out of the office today to see a delivery of several boxes. When I say several I mean upwards of twenty or so! We are talking stacks with more than six or seven in each stack. the stacks were so high I couldn't see the top of each stack and I am 6'4" so they were piled up!

ON the bottom of one of the stacks I saw a box with a sticker that said "Fragile xxxxxx Do Not Stack." As you can see in the pic above there it is! Clear as day! Bright and Orange!

I found it so hilarious and had to pull out my phone to take this shot only to be caught by one of the delivery guys walking up with a dolly, my cue to exit the scene!

As Kim and I endeavor to start a new campus for Grace and then seek to pastor that campus with everything that is entailed in that I am ever reminded to look to the One who "holds all things together"He says that "the steps of a righteous man are ordained by the Lord." Psalm 37:23

It's my desire to not only be righteous before the Lord but to lead others to do the same. If we are to be successful in creating and pastoring  a satellite campus, and success is measured by creating disciples of Christ, it will only happen as I follow the steps God has laid before me to take.

I mustn't forget the obvious next step. I mustn't look beyond the next step! He will guide me one step at a time if I will only pay attention and not try and get ahead of God!

Please be praying that this will be ever present on my mind! That God will make each step very clear!

Ask God what the next step is in your life! Pause and look and listen! Let's make sure we aren't overlooking or forgetting the obvious!

Preyed On Or Prayed For

Well we have been in Katy for two full weeks now!

It feels amazing to say that and at the same time rather daunting! We are still scattered and in boxes in several rooms in the house. Most of the major things have found a place but it is those little things that you didn't think much of when you just threw them in a box that now suddenly you can't live without and you desperately need that now you can't find. This is moving!

Our journey has been challenging in many ways but good, really good!

My first two weeks in ministry here have been truly amazing! God has been stretching me in ways I so needed and yet had highly overlooked or neglected. God, true to Who He is, has been patient with me and oh so gracious. He is pouring into me so much love and encouragement that it makes the growing pains truly enjoyable like the muscle pains you feel after working really hard. You feel sore all over but you spiritually and emotionally feel like there is no other place you would rather be!

There are so many things He is doing in me that I will share over time but for this first post I will just mention one.

My first official day in the office I found a gift from one of the pastors at our church. There are twelve pastors on staff at Grace. Each of them manages a staff of associate pastors, part time ministers and interns and then volunteers under them. I say all this because you could imagine my surprise that one of them would have already gotten me a gift when they are so busy, it would be easy for me to be just another drop in the bucket. However I have quickly come to realize that Grace however large it is, is still a family and a "church" in the true since of the word.

The gift was a book accompanied by a personalized hand written note. The book was entitled "Preyed On Or Prayed For."

Now I will be the first to admit, I have read some of Terry Teykl's stuff and been to a couple of prayer conferences he lead. He is good and with the busyness of a move and getting plugged in, it would have been easy to put the book on the shelf with the rest of the books I have yet to read. However the note was from Brenda, our pastor over prayer at Grace. The note simple welcomed us and then said that at Grace they want all of the pastors to have a "Prayer Shield." This is simply a group of 25 people or couples that commit to be in prayer, not just pray for, but be in the trenches praying for their pastors. She offered if we did not have one to not only get people to become our shield but to manage it for us as well. 

In ministry we often hear and say "I'll be praying for you" but as I was already discovering here at Grace that simply doesn't suffice! Just like one of those little things we throw in the box and don't pay attention too when moving only to need it and not know where it is. 

I opened the book and began to read it immediately!

If you do not have this book, I would love to buy you one! Please let me know! It is that important! 

Our first weekend here Grace hosted a city wide 50 continuous hours of prayer and praise service with several other churches in Katy leading two hour sessions. Grace has devoted space in the facilities where this is going on almost 24 hrs a day and soon will be seven days a week. Then this past Sunday Jim, our senior pastor, preached about prayer. ( you can watch it here)

VIDEO PODCAST 02-03-13.mp4 from Grace Worship on Vimeo.

Prayer has been one of those things I truly believe and know the power of. But something I have so often taken for granted. This is the first thing of many God has begun to challenge me in.

As Kim and I launch into this new territory God is calling us into He is calling us to be more devoted to prayer and to being covered in prayer! Not that our prayer life was anemic by most standards before, But God is wanting us to go deeper and become more dependent.

This is the purpose of this blog. This will be a newsletter of sorts for those whom we feel God wants to be a part of what He has called us to do here through prayer. So if you would, pray and ask God if He is indeed calling you to be a part of our prayer shield. We will be posting regular updates and prayer requests here so keep checking in!

Thanks

Jeff, Kim, Max Joshua and Tate