Yesterday on Twitter and Facebook I let everyone know that I am officially starting a new job on Monday.  I will be the Community Relations Coordinator for Earth Fare in Columbia!   I know that some of you are thinking…”Wait…I thought you were going to start a church in Columbia?  Are you still going to be doing that?”  Absolutely!

When we moved here 3 years ago, I had a plan in place of exactly what I wanted to do in starting a church.  But I quickly realized that my plans were not the plans that God had and I needed to step back and take some time to really get to know the area and what God’s heart is for a new church here.  For the last few years, I’ve come to a far greater realization of what it means to be a Christian and what the Church should be.  I won’t go into all of the details on this post, but basically what I had grown accustomed to for “Church” and it’s people was oftentimes a far cry from what I see in Scripture.  I constantly see verses like James 1:27 & Acts 2:45 that talk about a faith that makes a difference to those the lives of the broken, whose primary focus is not merely a Sunday morning worship service.  Sure, that may be a part of it, but point blank…I see a church that broke down racial, socio-economic, and physical barriers & made a lasting impact in their community at all times.  (I’ll elaborate on this more in the coming weeks on here).

As I alluded to in a post last week, I saw a major problem when churches use an astounding majority of their finances on staffing and a facility that sits vacant throughout the week.  Meanwhile, people in need & everyone in general only see the church in passing or with an invitation to join on Sundays.  I decided that I don’t want that to be my story.    So, I came to the conclusion that the best way for me to live out my calling was to earn my income from another job (& preferable one that I believed in) so that the money we raise for the church can actually go towards impacting our community.

We are moving forward with laying the framework for a new church in the coming months and get this…the money that we end up raising for it will actually pour into our community to make an impact!  Not only that, I have the incredible opportunity to work for a business whose focus is the physical health of people (which is part of the Gospel by the way), is a business I believe in, and I actually be out in my community  getting to know people here in our city and make a difference in their lives.

In the month or two, I’ll be laying out some endeavors that our church, Venue Church, is going to be investing in here in Columbia and I ask that you pray for us, and also pray about financially sacrificing to see that Venue Church makes a lasting impact in our city & beyond.  The things that God has placed in our hearts is far greater than we can accomplish…and that’s the point.  We expect to be a part of something far greater than we could have ever come up with or accomplish on our own.