Angie and I have spent ten years talking in hypothetical terms about planting a church. We’ve spent the last several months gathering with a group of dedicated launch team members talking about the biblical foundation and core values of Grace Hills. And we’ve spent weeks preparing for our first preview service. All of this is, of course, preparation for our Grand Opening on January 15, 2012, but today wasn’t merely a “practice run.” It was the real thing… and God showed up to answer our prayers.
On July 5 of this year, I endured that twenty minutes that church planters have to survive just after you’ve finished setting up and you’re waiting to see if anyone shows up. Since that time, God has brought together a group of people who are beginning to share the vision of a new church in northwest Arkansas. Today, I faced that twenty minutes of anticipation again.
I showed up at the theater just before 7:00 a.m., in time to see the crescent moon still perched over the building and the neon “tickets” sign glowing through the darkness. Moments later, close to a dozen dedicated volunteers were covering the building like worker ants putting together a nursery, a kids’ worship area, and a mini-cafe to serve our guests. At 9:30, we prayed one last time for the Father to be at work.
People showed up – as did the Father. We ended up seeing 81 people in this first preview service including twenty kids and six babies. Our guest worship artists, Neil and Lauren Greenhaw and Joshua Mitchael, led us in an awesome encounter with the Creator and Savior of the world. I preached my heart out from Genesis 37, the life of Joseph, about how we need to dare to be a dreamer.
We came home in sweet exhaustion. The mental and physical energy poured into today were immense, but at the end of the day, we had to trust the message I was preaching – that if you have a God-sized dream, it will be bigger than the present possibilities. It will be tested. It won’t come together easily. God’s ultimate dream for us is that our lives and our influence go on forever.
That’s why we’re really doing what we’re doing. Northwest Arkansas is a hungry place. People are searching for that fresh movement of God’s Spirit and, along with other great churches in the area, we want to meet the need. We dream of gathering a community of people who are coming to know Jesus and serving others for the global glory of God.
Today… was just a preview.
Don’t miss the real thing.