Gathered for a Movement

Fifty or so people gathered on a hill tonight, ready for whatever God had in store. You know what I think? This community, where I am considered elderly at 31, is destined to impact the Kingdom in mighty ways. How? I have no freaking idea, and that there is the beauty of it all. It's frightening and exciting all at the same time. Heck, we don't even have a name yet. Maybe we'll just use a symbol or simply call ourselves "new church." We have no real place to meet, and to be honest no concept of what that place is supposed to look like. So here we are, a gathering of people with no real definition other than the fact that we possess hearts for God and love for the communities surrounding us. All we know is that this is where we are called to be; many of us required to make sacrifices to get here, to leap over hurdles, to leave things behind, to take up our cross and follow Him.

After tonight I know that it's worth it. Being at camp, a part of camp, I knew I was part of something so much bigger than me. But tonight I had the distinct sense that I was part of a movement, and one that I get to embark on with my entire family and not just myself. Admittedly I shed quite a few tears tonight because the sacrifice was evident to me. I gave up a whole heck of a lot to be there, and the reality of that came crashing down on me several times through out the evening. To some people, church is where you go on Sunday mornings, a place you belong to like the YMCA. Through this whole ordeal, I've come to learn that the Church is the body of Christ plain and simple. It's purpose? To build up believers so that they can be light in the world. For us, church is our community, our family, so much more than where we go on Sunday mornings (or in our case evenings).

If it were just about attendance, I probably would have made a different decision and gone to Grace mornings. At least that way I could have stayed with camp. Sure, if I viewed church as simply a place to worship, I could have kept pursuing my passion, but it's not that simple. I'm honestly not sure what would have been harder, to leave camp or to leave our community at Fusion. Seriously.

Tonight was our first official meeting as a church plant. We met up around 3ish at a park in Ellicott City, then divided out and stormed the communities of Catonsville & Elkridge with prayer warriors, walking the very streets we hope to see God work in and through. Neil and I had the opportunity to walk with Tanya around our very neighborhood. How convicting that we've lived here over a year and this was the first time we'd prayed for our neighbors. Yikes. We even managed to pray all the way to Opies, a popular neighborhood ice cream & sno-ball joint.

After the prayer walk, we met back up at the Pavilion was a bit of worship, sharing experiences and stories with one another. What are we excited about? What struck us on our prayer walks? What are we looking for God to do? And then we worshipped, and boy did we worship. Sitting up on this hill that overlooked the very areas we hope to reach, storm clouds rolling in, we knew God was there.

The future is foggy to me, not sure what it holds. Where can I serve? Where will God use me? I have no freaking idea, but I know that He will, and I'm excited (and terrified) to find out. And I'll let you know when I do.