I had a question from a member of our Facebook group page as to how exactly this new church came about, so I thought I'd blog this so people can really see the hand of God on this church.

When I resigned from LakePointe Church October 2008, I believed that the Lord would bring me to an established church where I could get some training, mentoring and coaching to become a lead pastor within a few years, Lord-willing. I met with 2 churches in Illinois and while both meetings went extremely well, the timing wasn't quite right for the one church (due to a hiring freeze) and the other church wasn't where the Lord wanted me either. I was more than a bit discouraged as I was really jumping at the chance to work with either church (both are just awesome) but I knew that God had other plans - before I met with the 2 churches a pastor from a church near Twin Lakes had approached Dave Graff and I and had told us of his desire to use his church to reach the community and had we thought about starting a new church, possibly using his building. At first, the idea sounded great but didn't smell of much reality, plus honestly, I was really wanting a real, normal, consistent paycheck for once in over 2 1/2 years. Again, God had different plans and was going to make them crystal clear.

In the beginning of January, Dave and I met with the pastor and the church members and presented God's idea about using their building for Saturday night services and left them with our Philosophy of Ministry and 10 Values of Faith Statements and the church voted to meet 2 weeks later to vote. The 18th came and they voted unanimously to not only allow us to use their building, but to have no financial obligation as well....we were totally blown away. The 2 biggest hurdles in church planting are this: 1 - where are you going to meet & 2 - how much will it cost you?? In less than 2 months, the Lord lined up both hurdles, 'split the Red Sea' so to speak, as if to say, "What are you waiting for now??" Dave and I knew it would be a sin NOT to obey and here we are - starting our bi-monthly informational meetings and anxiously waiting on God to see what's next. This is wild...within two months, we were incorporated, attained 501c3 and tax exempt status, had a dedicated church phone number and a fully functional website - only God can do that. On the 28th of March, we started meeting weekly and by the grace of God, He's been growing His church.

To be completely honest - I feel extremely inadequate and disqualified much of the time, but have been told that's where the Lord wants people to be before He uses them. Here's another encouraging statement a good friend told me and hopefully it will be of encouragement to you - GOD DOES NOT NEED ANYONE ELSE'S PERMISSION TO WORK IN AND THROUGH YOUR LIFE. He does NOT need someone else to sign off and approve what He's going to accomplish in you and your life - just continually humble yourself, confess and repent and walk daily with Jesus and He will take care of all the rest.

Dave and I have really no idea what we're doing and we've come to not only embrace this, but just wallow in it like 2 stoked pigs in a pile of mud - but the even cooler thing is this: GOD KNOWS what He's doing and that's all that matters. He's been leading us and providing in nothing short of miraculous ways and He'll show, tell, give, provide and take away everything we'll need and not need. But let me make this very clear - we are and will continue to be in desperate need of your prayers and your support, prayers and encouragement are vital and we cannot thank you all enough and we want to extend a 'continual invitation' to each and every one of you to come see what you're a part of up here - you are helping to expand and further the kingdom of God - nothing short of awesome!

Hopefully this will encourage each of you and it does us and we are humbled and blessed and count it a privilege to be serving the Lord alongside each of you. God bless you guys and we cannot wait to all that God will do!

In His service,

Dav