It felt like destiny calling…

So this post is way overdue, but it has been a busy six weeks. I did want to fill everyone in on my weekend in Vegas. It was back in January, over the Martin Luther King Day Holiday. It was such an amazing honor to attend Student CPx Concnetrate(Church Planters eXperience) along with my friend Evan DeChant.

Student CPx is a collaborative effort from Campus Church Networks and several groups of friends from across the nation. It’s mission is to train, equip and release impartation to students to make disciples and launch simple churches centered on their campuses. Last summer, my friend Lee went to Lawrence KS for the 2 week training and came back telling me about how he felt so at home and connected with Erik and Jaeson and the rest of the CCN crew. Lee then invited me to go with him in Janaury to Vegas for a weekend follow-up. As excited as I was at the thought of going to Las Vegas with Lee and hanging out with a bunch of sweet Jesus loving people, I really didn’t think that would work out.

Then, in early November, I received a call from Erik Fish one night while I was making dinner. (It was a Chinese stir-fry in case you are wondering) Erik filled me in on the vision of connecting with others from across the nation that shared the same heart and calling for seeing the Kingdom go forward on campuses. He shared about how he sensed God raising up spiritual moms and dads to love, nurture, equip and protect student leaders as they were raised up and released into their destinies. I was now weeping in the kitchen, and no it was not the onions. I felt so connected to what Erik was sharing. Then he made a statement and extended an invitation. The statement went something like this: “Hey Bro, I have just been sensing that this is the stuff that is in your heart, and maybe God is raising you up in your region the same way that he is doing it with others.” Those weren’t his exact words, but that was the point, and it wrecked me. It felt like destiny calling…

The invitation was to come and spend the Martin Luther King holiday weekend in Las Vegas for SCPx. I told him I wanted to come and would ask God to make a way. Erik continued to call and lovingly pursue me about Vegas. I was encouraged and humbled by the phone prayers and text messages that let me know he was believing for God to provide for me to be in Vegas. Miraculously, God did make a way for me to get there, and from the moment Aaron Snow (who led the missional church that was hosting us in Vegas) picked us up at the airport, I felt a sense of belonging and connectedness to this special group of people.

The weekend was amazing, with more sweet stories than I could tell in this post. There were two things though, that were especially significant to me. One was the heart among the leaders to share life together and build spiritual family. Not a spiritual family with one of us at the center, but a family connected to the Father’s heart by our love for Jesus and the unity of the Spirit. Yes, there were spiritual fathers and mothers there, but we met as brother and sisters, and as friends. I was so encouraged, and in fact disarmed by the way that the CCN leaders expressed no desire to control or recruit people into an organization. There was an awareness that the Holy Spirit was not calling us to build a mega ministry, but rather that we would be a family of friends and a network of networks. For certain, there is much for us to learn and share together, but with freedom and support from each other as we each run our leg of the race. In a way, I feel like I have found “running mates”. Those who I can intentionally, but naturally share life together with as we pursue the Lord together.

The second thing that stood out was that this was a God thing. The word “movement” gets thrown around a lot these days, but often only in a hyped up way. (I remember Lee and I talking in November about how if a movement doesn’t move, it is a stationary.) This is definitely not the case with this crew. There is a sense of God’s breath and multiplication on this group of simple church planters, that it is both humbling and exhilarating. From watching students lead training sessions, to witnessing new birth and students baptizing and commissioning students and hearing testimonies of students who were planting churches in dorms, architecture studios and nearby neighborhoods, this is a movement that is moving… FORWARD.

From a personal point of view, I sense that God is directing us to spend more of our time, investing into student leaders in the Pittsburgh/ Youngstown region. Already, we are seeing students stirred up to see the Kingdom of God come on their campuses to the worship and praise of Jesus. We are believing that God is raising up a network of student led, simple churches that will bring the light of Jesus into our region in a way that pierces the darkness and reflects the face of God.

Yes, it feels like destiny is calling… I say “Yes, Lord… I’m in.”

Part of the family...

~ by bradriane on March 4, 2009.