What is the Next Assignment?

What is the assignment? We all have an assignment. Sometimes those are for a season, some longer than others. Jenny and I have been taking time to lean into God for His heart for our next assignment. Wow! It is like God is all over this!! Speaking to not only us, but throughout the Body of Christ, that the mission of the church is not to be embodied by a group of elite chosen leaders who declare vision at the head of the charge, but servant leaders who have vision to serve the body — that they may see and know Jesus, discover their callings, come into maturity, and be launched into what God has called them to.

This is the end-time Bride that is being made ready! There is just too much work in the days ahead for an elite few to try and disciple and raise up the masses. It requires all of us passionately seeking Jesus with all of our hearts and being obedient to what He has called us to!

There needs to be and there is going to be a fresh wave of Jesus-centered, discipleship-making, multiplying churches to the nations as we have never seen before! This is on the heart of God! That is where EQUIPPING comes in.

If you haven’t heard already, next week we will start an online 5-week course entitled “What is Church?” We have two groups to serve the different time zones, one geared towards the United States and the other in Europe. We are excited to explore discipleship and church in the context of the life and ministry of Jesus and the early church. We are believing that as we go deeper, it will spark in all of us “next steps” in being salt and light with lasting fruit!

I am writing this blog from a restaurant in Manitou Springs. You may have read how God put this community in ours hearts. Sometimes it just looks like showing up and being somewhere, even when you don’t have “the plan.” In Matthew 10:7-8, Jesus said that “as you go,” and that is what faith often looks like. Obedience, even when it does not necessarily make sense, knowing that as you take a step in the direction of God’s leading, He will tell you what to do next.

“Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left” (Isaiah 30:21).

If you have felt useless, on the sidelines, or frustrated…I can confidently tell you that God is not done with you! This is just the beginning!! God is looking for people with fresh ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. People are in need of relational connection and the gospel lived out and displayed in a way that makes sense to the many complexities of life. For such a time as this (Esther 4:14) , you and us…we are here! Not just taking up space trying to survive, holding on for Jesus to come back, but leaning into the mess of this world that we live in with the love and presence of Jesus!

Again and again…we are thankful for YOU…the family, friends, partners, prayer warriors, and those on your own journey who have felt for some reason or another to be connected to and follow our journey! It is our hearts desire to live in a way that provokes you to go deeper with Jesus and tap into all that He has for you, your family, and the community around you.

There is so much more that God has been speaking to us about the future, but in this moment and in this space, we live! And we are excited about what He is doing and saying and how we can walk with Him!

Piece of the Puzzle

4:30am. June 19 (wide awake)

“Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” - Genesis 12:1-3

I wish that it could look more glamorous than it really is: Faith. There was no fanfare the day Abraham stepped out in obedience in response to God’s divine interruption and promise, that God would bless him and he would be a blessing to the nations. Some days faith has a confident declaration with an attached vision, but on most days, it is getting out of bed in response to the “call of God,” consistently day after day, going deeper in our trust and knowing of Him. It is the “raw and the ready,” and the older we get, the more we understand how little we know and that the safety we tend to cling to is actually holding us back from what God has for us! Often God gives us those BIG PICTURE moments, only to have us take several steps backwards to focus on just one piece of the puzzle.

4:45am. June 19 (still wide awake)

Much of the past months have led to THIS moment. Today, June 19, is when Jenny and I get to focus our FULL attention on what it means to be in “full-time” ministry together! Sure, we have discussed it and dabbled in it, but up to this point, we have been on a journey of testing the waters of relationship, getting to know each other, getting married, blending families, Jenny finishing up her five years working as Communications Director at Woodland Community Church in Florida, and moving house (which involved several moves).

Instead of painting for you a picture of perfectly understood vision, we invite you into our journey, not unlike Abraham and his. For years he wandered through the Negev region within the Promised Land seeking out the Promise Giver and His promises, growing and learning and being prepared. His life of faith accomplished much more than what he ever saw in his lifetime, deeply impacting every one of us who call ourselves a follower of Jesus.

We all have dreams and promises we sense that God has given us. A bigger picture. A God-sized dream that encompasses not only our lives, but we see it as spanning generations. Something bigger than just us. To read ours, click here, and you will see the vision God has given us over the past months that we sense will define the ministry of Grassroots International Ministries. So where do we start? We sense it is church planting.

Our vision for church planting is to plant communities that disciple followers of Jesus to know Him passionately, live out their faith practically, and commit to multiplying locally and globally. It is going to look a little different than perhaps what most people are familiar with. We are passionate about seeing a new wave of church planters, particularly amongst the younger generations coming up. For us, this is primarily in the context of micro churches (not just for one church but for churches). You may ask, “What is a micro church?” Micro churches are small, intentional communities of believers that emphasize community, intimacy, and disciple-making in often non-traditional church settings (such as homes, storefront, or online digital communities). A significant focus of the vision is on equiping the saints (Ephesians 4:11-12), multiplication of and the planting of other similar Jesus-centered discipleship communities. That is a lot like what the apostle Paul did. He planted churches; discipled, taught, and encouraged; raised up leaders; and moved on, supporting those in leadership and returning to help keep them healthy and strong.

The next questions is going to be: Where? And perhaps followed by: What about Ireland?

First, we still have a heart for Ireland. God has not yet made it clear how Ireland and Europe fit into the overall vision God has given us. In all honesty, Ireland and Europe is where we would love to be, but in this season we are here in the United States, based in Colorado, and the Lord has made it clear to us time and again to be faithful where we are at. To offer ourselves unto Him, like the boy whose lunch Jesus multiplied to feed the masses, the five loaves and few fish we have, and that if we do that, He will do the same with our own lives and this ministry (as with yours as well).

As for the “where,” we cannot say for certain, but that God has been speaking to us about an unusual community called Manitou Springs. Manitou Springs is tucked on the edge of the mountains, on the border of Colorado Springs, is about 20 minutes down the pass from where we now live in Woodland Park, which is where Charis Bible College is located. It is an artistic town, heavily influenced by the New Age. Rumors speculate that Anton LaVey (founder of the Church of Satan), wrote the Satanic Bible there (while there is no hard evidence to support that). Talk show host Geraldo Rivera onced called Manitou Spirings the “devil worshipping capital of the world.” We are feeling the Lord’s heart for this community specifically.

Jenny and I speak time and again, specifically after going through deep loss, we have an even greater compounded longing to have our lives matter. As our spouses, Robb and Rachel, lives were cut short, we want to see the enemy pay! Not by an act of our own strength, but through a deeper surrender and bringing of the life and love of Jesus to those difficult places (those places that we as the church have often tried to avoid). Life looks different when you face death in such close proximity, and you view life more from the vantage point of eternity and wanting to see as many here set free with the hope of Jesus!

As we turn the page to the next chapter of our lives, it is both vulnerable and exciting. This is what faith often looks like—fear present as you step into the unknown—BUT fear does not need to define our obedience or our passion in following Him! We want to encourage you as well to continue to step into the uncertainty and unknown as you seek to follow Jesus and know Him more!

So many of you have walked along with us through the years! We are so thankful for you! We continue to need you, and want to emphasize three areas we need help:

1. Prayer. Nothing happens without prayer. We are looking to establish a family of prayer warriors who will regularly intercede for us and with us as we seek to fulfill the mandate God has given us (BIG DREAM), as well as the “piece of the puzzle” that is before us, which is church planting. people around the who will help us pray through this church planting movement!

2. We need people who will donate one-time donations to this project. In 1 Chronicles 29, King David organziaed a campaign to collect materials and finances for the building of the Temple, a project that his son Solomon would do. In the New Testmant, we read how we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinithians 3:16-17). It is for that Temple, that we are asking you to be part!

3. We need monthly partners. You can read more about Partnership towards the bottom of the Home Page of our website: www.grassrootsim.com.

Grassroots International Ministries is a registered 501(c)3

Thank you for being part of this journey! We are excited for what God is about to do! There is a fresh wind of His Spirit blowing across the world, and we can hear His invitation to be part of this next wave of revival! That invitation is for you as well! Let’s run after Him and what He is doing together, that we can serve faithfully in our generation and lay a foundation for generations to come of His Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven!

These next few months will involve a bit of travel. Besides visiting and connecting with people, we have a few speaking engagments, and appreciate your prayers as we step into this new and next season of God’s Redemption in our lives:

• June 25: Brookside Church

• June 28: New Life Church (Seminar on Loss & Redemption)

• June 29: New Life Church

• July 20: Life Church Portlaoise (Ireland)

• July 27: Kilkenny Community Church (Ireland)

Building Tents and Pitching Altars

The life of Abraham is one that the Lord has brought Jenny and me to over and over. His faith in the promises of God has linked us to the provision of blessing and to be a blessing through the Seed of Jesus. Paul mentions Abraham more than any other Old Testament figure, and for that, there is a reason.

I have mentioned before how this season of transition has been being downloaded to us moment by moment, week by week even. And I find myself back again in the story of Abraham. Genesis 12:1-3 holds the promise that encompasses the journey and remainder of Abraham's life.

Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Those words of promise thrust Abraham into his life calling. Then the journey of faith began, and in those early verses of chapter twelve, we see Abraham as tent traveling itinerate, searching for that homeland promised to him and his generations.

PAUSE.

Sound like a familiar season? It is to us, and we find it with so many others. It is like God has pulled the carpet of security and predictability from under so many. Things that worked before are no longer working. God is leading us to trust and be led by His presence and guidance, much like He did with Abraham and the children of Israel as they wandered through the wilderness.

In verse seven we read, "And there he built an altar." In verse eight, just west of Bethel, which means "House of God," which holds significance as a place of Worship and Divine Encounters, he built another and called on the name of the Lord. Throughout the Genesis account of Abraham's life, we see a pattern of Abraham building altars to the Lord His God. There are six accounts where God visits Abraham either through a vision or in a literal "face-to-face" experience!

Altars are places of worship, sacrifice (surrender), and remembrance throughout the Bible. They signified a searching, longing, and intimacy with the living God!

Most of us remember King Saul as the first King of Israel because of his rebellion towards God. Before the Kingdom was taken away from him (not in his death, which was years later, but in a spiritual sense) after he had disobeyed God by not killing King Agag and saving the spoils God told through the prophet Samuel to destroy (Saul had already been reprimanded and told his reign would end with him because he offered an unlawful sacrifice because he feared the people more than he did God - 1 Samuel 13). Many who read King Saul assume it was his disobedience that God hated most, but I believe there is something deeper revealed to us in 1 Samuel 14:35, where it says, "Then Saul built an altar to the Lord. This was the first altar that he built to the Lord" (italics mine).

If we look at what we studied already on altars and their significance, this speaks to us about the content of King Saul's heart and the urgency, or lack of urgency, in His seeking of the Lord for worship, surrender, and remembrance of the goodness of God. It was David's heart for the Lord, first developed in the lonely fields and hillsides while tending to his father's sheep, that paved the way for his kingship, and a promise that he would always have an heir on the throne, ultimately being fulfilled as Jesus came through the line of David!

In Exodus 33:11, we see why Joshua was God's choice to replace Moses when his stent of leadership over Israel had been complete, "So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle." Ministry is never the focus of God. It is the overflow of intimacy with Him. At least that is and has always been His intention.

I want to finish these thoughts by taking one last look at the verses we started with about Abraham and jumping forward into the New Testament. The title of this blog is "Building Tents and Pitching Altars." Psalm 91 and John 15 are counterparts that reveal that the key to the promises of God is the person of God. If you require healing, do not seek healing but the Healer. If you need provision, do not seek the provision but the Provider. These sections of Scripture speak to us of abiding and remaining in the constant flow of intimacy with God. It is the key to EVERYTHING!

But we tend to pitch temporary altars. We dip in and out of God, depending on our busy schedules. We seek Him just when we need something, or are struggling. God becomes part of our story as opposed to our EVERYTHING! That is not what Abraham did. He BUILT ALTARS, and there is a permanence to that! When he did leave those places, they did two things: They stood as a testament to God for all the world to see and they were places of Divine Encounters that he could return to in the future.

Now let's move to Matthew 17:1-8, where Jesus was Transfigured (the earthly veil lifted and Jesus manifested His eternal glory) before Peter, James, and John. In verse four, Peter says to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." In this instance, the glory of Jesus is revealed, and Peter wants to stay in that place and build a church (so to speak). He wants to camp out in the glory, not understanding what Jesus had already said in Luke 17:20-21:

"The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you."

Is that not our tendency as well? We want to stay in safe places where nothing can touch us. We do not want to live in temporary dwellings like tents where we have to depend on God for each step of the way. That would require us to lose our grip of control.

BUT...God is calling us to step out of comfortable and safe. That is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. I think a lot of invitations for people to become Christian, or "born again," missed that part of the message. Jesus never did. The invitation has always been to intimacy and total interdependence.

In Jeremiah 35, God asks the prophet to speak with the Rachabites, for they had remained pure in heart in their devotion to the Lord. When questioned by Jeremiah, they shared that all these generations they had honored the command of their father (one of those who came into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua), that they would abstain from wine and dwell in tents, as temporary citizens of the promised land lest they get sucked to the lustful lifestyle of the inhabitants, pursue the pleasures of this world, and forget the Lord their God.

God's response to this family is that they would escape the pending judgment that was coming upon the people of Judah.

There is a lot packed into those few verses about Abraham, being one who "Pitched his tent and built altars."

God has clearly spoken to Jenny and me, that though there may be a "place" where we build a ministry, and along with there being nothing wrong with owning a house, our trust and focus needs to remain on Him. Let me finish with these verses from Hebrews 12:28-29:

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire."

As you step out in things God has got you, it may feel shaky, but there is One Thing that will not be moved…Him!