First Steps

Genesis - First Steps

We have stumbled onto something pretty beautiful.

Well I can go back to when we started out in the early 1980’s, but they may bore you. So let’s jump in to around January 2017. The inner stirrings to creating a new Jesus community began in me.

Now we all know that church planting is a “thing”. But we also know that it is a thing for the young, the vibrant, the energetic, the creative and five years ago we would have said for the “hip”.

So you could imagine the total surprise when the quiet whispers of the winds of eternity began to blow through my old rusty mind. Based on all the creativity needed above, I was obviously not your man. Yet the gentle nudging persisted.

However my prophetic curiosity was piqued. “Ok” I uttered with fragility “please don’t ask me to get a school hall and a band, rent a crowd and seem successful. Is there another story? Can we create another narrative? Can we find a way to bring home those who have fallen out of love with the church?”

You see dear reader, I love Jesus and I love his bride. Of course I have been bruised, butchered and beaten by an emotional, fragile church. But I am still only trying to live, love, lead and feed this beautiful bride. I certainly have not died for her. How could I walk away for such beauty, mystery and brokenness?

In this urgent yet patient space came the repeated cry “Prepare a way for the Lord”. So is there another renewal, reformation, revival or heavenly visitation coming? Could I be part of it again? Could we create a community that would have DNA stakes in the ground that are flexible, fluid and foundational enough to flow with the new wine when it is poured out?