I feel like my blogging has just taken a back seat for the last 3 months. There has been a reason why, and now I can share the story.
God has called us to be part of Mars Hill Bible church in Grand Rapids, MI.
My wife and I have followed Mars for several years, keeping tabs on what they are doing around the world. So we decided this year that we would take a vacation in May to go up to Grand Rapids and spend a week in the life of their church.
Of course, I'm sure they get these requests all of time, and we were told we could not meet with any of the staff while we were there. They told us just to show up and meet people at the Sunday service.
So we did, and what happened afterward is mind-boggling still to this day.
We were sitting in the first service, and at the end we were asking God to help us connect with some people to talk to. We wanted to hear the stories of things behind the scenes, of what really makes this group of people tick. We ran into Keith, who was sitting 3 chairs down from us. We introduced ourselves and vice versa, and Keith asked what we were doing in GR. We told him we were on vacation at the church, which he was puzzled about. We have a friend who used to live in the area, and connected us with the church (he was a youth pastor in Grandville at another church), and we told Keith about this. He asked us what his name was, and we told him we're pretty sure you don't know who he is. He asked anyway and so we told him. Ironically enough, he did know him, quite well, as he was a former pastor at his church! Keith then introduced us to a couple of other staff members, and by the time the service was done we had appointments with two staff members (Keith is a staff member too!).
Later that day we were grabbing some literature and ran into someone named Tim, who was raising money for inner city kids to go to camp. We found out he was a real-estate agent. We talked about Mars and his story, and went on our way. Throughout the day, we kept running into him in random places. We would chat every time we saw him for awhile. It was just so weird. At the time we thought nothing of it.
The next day we talked with one of the Community Life assistants that I had corresponded with through e-mail. We wanted to put a name with the face so we popped in to say hi. 2 hours later we left. She told us not to get wooed by Rob Bell's teaching and the size of the church. We told her we really didn't care about that (don't get me wrong, we love Rob's teaching, but we wanted to hear what was making the church tick). She was greatly encouraged. So were we.
The next night my wife went to a women's worship event at the church building. I was trying to look for her through the crowd, where a woman was standing asking me if she could help me. I told her our story and she said she would sit with Julia. After the event was over, the woman came out (her name was Amy) and said, "You're wife told me your story, I gave her my card. If you need anything give me a call." I was thinking..."What story did she tell?" I had no idea what she was talking about.
Julia was sharing our journey and where God has been leading us these last 4 years or so. The woman asked what Julia did for a living, and she told her that she was an accountant. Amy then pulls out her business card and says, "My dad and two brothers are CPA's, if you need anything, give me a call." Julia tells me this and was thinking, "REALLY weird." So then we staring at each other, rewinding the last 3 days or so, and I finally asked, "Do you think God is trying to tell us something here?" We were serious about it...it was more confusion than anything else. We continued talking that night and praying about God was trying to say.
The next morning there was a "Covenant Members Meeting" at the church building. They were restructuring membership and talking about the vision of the church and where it is going down the road. We had nothing else to do so we showed up. We were still talking and praying that morning of why this place was special to us, and asking God if He was trying to tell us something more. We asked if He would make clear after the meeting of the direction He was leading us with all of this. We started talking about what we thought they were going to say, and prayed right before the meeting started, "God, make this crystal clear to us." Right after we pray that, Tim, the real-estate guy, sits right in front of us! We just looked at each other and him for awhile. I tapped him on the shoulder, and chatted for a little more. Rob Bell and Don Golden (the lead pastor) get up and explain who Mars Hill is and where they are going. They said everything we had talked about the night before and morning of the meeting. Most of it almost verbatim. By the time the meeting was over, I was bawling and overwhelmed. I couldn't believe it...God was actually telling us to move to be part of Mars Hill.
There is more to the story, but it's already been too long. I am not taking any staff position (obviously), and we don't know of all of the reasons we are going, but we know He has called us. And when He calls, we go. We are in process of moving there at least by the end of September. There is much more I can talk about, but I'll have to space it out with future posts. For now, I just wanted to share the story with you and ask for your prayers as we continue to follow God's lead.
