How We Started
At age 16, I sat at the breakfast table where my father announced he would be resigning from the church he had pastored for 13 years. Recently saved 3 months earlier, I was struggling to be a follower of Christ. Much more than just a church to me, it was all I knew. I had attended there since I was 3 years old.
To say I was angry would be a complete understatement. I never told my dad, but I’m sure he sensed it. I thought that was the dumbest decision a person could make.
With two kids in private universities and one in high school, all I could think about was, “Where would the money come from to support the family? How would we survive? Who would take care of us? And shouldn’t he think of us first?”
There was no other church calling—not even the prospect of another! The only leading was a sense of discernment that God was calling him away and a desire to obey God’s call.
I had no idea of the work God did in me that day.
Our Story of Call
Our story begins in the fall of 1994. Married for 14 months, Christin and I had just moved to Fort Worth, Texas. I entered Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and she entered the elementary school teaching world. With our future wide open, I began to hear about this thing called church planting.
I’m not sure when I first heard it, but it must have gripped me from the start. I know I had been dealing with it for some time because when I found my earliest journal entry referencing it—January 1995—my thoughts had already developed into what kind of church plant I wanted to participate in.
In spring of 1995, I enrolled in spring evangelism practicum, a semester class designed to teach church planting techniques and expose you to one week of on-the-job experience. Our experience was bad!
Four more times by spring of 1997 I tried to pursue church planting. Nothing.
In June of 1997, we moved to Huttig, Arkansas, to begin a pastorate. While pastoring I sensed God stirring my heart again. I contacted the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, set up appointments, and was tested, assessed, congratulated, and released. Confused and frustrated, I finally decided to put it away from my mind. God’s will could not be this hard.