The Woman Behind The Scenes

The reality is that planting a church is time consuming. As with any church planter, I spend time doing what God has required of me. I spend time in prayer, diligently study of the Scriptures, developing strategies to fulfill the vision that God has given Gospel Outreach Community Church, preparing bible study lessons and much more. I did not express all of that in order to get pity or even complain. I painted this picture because even if you had seen me doing all of that, most people do not see what Alicia (my wife) is doing behind the scenes.

I am truly blessed with a wonderful wife. Alicia is watching our son when I am meeting with people, going to the neighborhood leadership meetings, or preparing lessons. She is constantly praying for the church, community, her family and for me. Alicia takes on many roles of operations in the church because we're in a prelaunch phase. Did I mention that she is five months pregnant?

I give God all the glory for blessing me with an angel in Alicia. God has given her the talent, patience and love to do the work in the ministry, love on her son and husband, handle the gift of pregnancy and have a full-time job. As she goes to bed early to rest from her long week, I am reminded that God placed the right person in my life in order to fulfill the vision that He has given us. He knew that I would need her and that she would need me. What a God we serve.



Your Walk...Our Journey!!!



Gospel Outreach Community Church (GOCC) has a tagline "Your Walk...Our Journey". The reason we believe this tagline was God-given is because of the truth that it holds in our evangelism focus. In our church start-up phase, I realize that everybody that GOCC reaches out to is at a different level in their knowledge of Christianity and their desire to know more about God.

We could talk to someone who has a clear understanding of Christian doctrine one minute and then talk to someone who does not have an understanding at all. However, both of them are looking to fellowship with GOCC. We could talk to someone who has a new found zeal to serve God and learn more about Him but we also could talk to someone who might not have that same level.

So, about the tagline. The Church (the people) has the responsibility to minister to every individual regardless of "membership" status, knowledge level or maturity level. This equates to everyone being in a different place in their walk. They have their own weakness and strengths. They have their own struggles and victories. They have their own WALK. In knowing that, GOCC has to make every effort to meet people where they are in their walk and then walk with them. They do not have to do it alone. We work through the struggles together. We learn together. We rejoice together. We grow together. We reciprocate that to others. In doing this, we JOURNEY together.

To WALK is their responsibility but the JOURNEY is shared. Your Walk...Our Journey!!!


God must be the focus and trust must be developed for this to function properly. What else do you believe should exist for this relationship to function?

Good Pastors Still Exist

 

Titus 1:6-9

 



⁶ An elder must live a blameless life. He must be faithful to his wife, and his children must be believers who don’t have a reputation for being wild or rebellious.

⁷ An elder is a manager of God’s household, so he must live a blameless life. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered; he must not be a heavy drinker, violent, or dishonest with money.

⁸ Rather, he must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must love what is good. He must live wisely and be just. He must live a devout and disciplined life.

⁹ He must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught; then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it where they are wrong.

 

There use to be a time that being a Pastor was looked upon favorably by most people to include non-Christians. As indicated in Titus 1:6-9, the character of those who walk in this calling were without question.  They were people that finding fault in them was difficult or impossible. They were blameless (free of wrong-doing).

 

Fast forward to 2014, being a Pastor is looked upon unfavorable by most people to include Christians. It's true. Because of the few that have purposefully or deceitfully not lived up to the expectations set by Titus 1:6-9, the consensus is that there are no good Pastors. Here is why:

 

1. Bad Is Visible: The few Pastors that have turned out to be deceitful get the more publicity than the many Pastors living a righteous life and following the path that God has set before them.
2. All-Inclusive: Similar to #1, if one is wrong then all of them are wrong. I've had horrible managers and I've had some good ones. I've had great leaders and I've had some not so great leaders.
3. Broken Trust: Some Pastors have hurt some people in a very bad way. These individuals prefer to conceal the hurt than to let it heal. I hope and pray that they will find their healing.
4. High Pedestal Pastor: When we put Pastors (or they put themselves) on a high pedestal, their fall could damage our whole perception on Pastors as a whole. Pastors may fail to meet your expectations but God will not.

For whatever reason that we believe that there are no good Pastors, that belief is not factual. There are plenty of good Pastors out there. They care for your well-being. They are practicing what they preach. If/When they fall short, they are sincerely going to God in a state of true repentance. They preach the Word of God without compromise or fear because they care for your soul.

 

As I walk into this calling, I took the time to reflect on the individuals that have shepherded me. I have been blessed with quite a few good ones.

 

I thank God for the following Pastors:

• Pastor Frank Marshall (New Vision Revival Center)
• Apostle Virges Pearson (Charity Church)
• Pastor James Pitts (New Zion Tabernacle)
• Pastor Tom Bailey (Victory Temple Missionary Baptist Church)

Take time to reflect on your previous and current Pastors. Appreciate the good ones and pray God allows you to forgive the bad ones if you haven't done so already.





Faith + Works = Results

James 2:14-18

¹⁴ What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?

¹⁵ Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing,

¹⁶ and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

¹⁷ So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

¹⁸ Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”

I have to admit that I did not know that starting a church would take so much work. That does not mean that I have no appreciation for how hard it is to start a church. It does mean that even at the level of difficulty that I had imagined, reality has revealed that I still fell short. Keep in mind that God has blessed me with a great support team. There are other Church Planters who are doing this without a support team. I count my blessings and I thank God for it.

Just like this calling to start Gospel Outreach Community Church (GOCC) requires a lot of faith and action, we as Christians need to be people of faith and action. As James 2:16-18 states, we can't simply pray for the needs of someone without also seeking how we can meet that need.

I attended the 2014 Prince William County (PWC) Neighborhood Conference. This conference revealed plenty of areas of need within PWC community. It is not enough for GOCC to pray that the needs be met. We have to support with our prayers and actions. We will pray in faith that the littered streets will be clean and we will volunteer to be part of the clean-up days. We will pray in faith that seniors and low income individuals will be able to get important maintenance done on their homes and we will volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.

There are plenty of activities that we can pray for and work towards. James helps us to understand that praying does not release us from working and working does not release us from praying. Let us show our FAITH by our GOOD DEEDS. Faith without works is dead. Faith with works equals results.

Is there anything that you are praying about that you need to be working on at the same time?

Mistakes That Count

As I defined the direction to take with the "Journey With Me" blog, it was easy to decide to share the positive aspect of this journey of starting Gospel Outreach Community Church. However, I quickly realized that you will not be journeying with me. You'll be watching the highlight reel. To journey with me, I must not erase the mistakes out of pride or public opinion. I need to share the whole journey. As you guessed, deciding to share this side of the coin took a little longer.

The acceptance of sharing my mistakes took me down the following path:

• Mistakes Could Make You Better: We all have a choice to allow our mistakes to tear us down or build us up. We could become depressed or more determined.
• Mistakes Convert To Lessons Learned: We must learn from our mistakes to minimize the possibility of making them again.
• Mistakes Help Others: I was taught that experience is the best teacher. I now know that the experience of others are better teachers. Why should you fall in the same pit that I fell in? Let me tell you that there is a pit so that you could walk around.
• Mistakes Cannot Be Eliminated: We can minimize mistakes but we cannot eliminate them. Creating the appearance of being perfect can increase the hurt felt by us and those who love us when something exposes that we are not.

Find the positives in your mistake. If/when you make them, make it count. It will make you better, help you to make better choices, help others and manage the expectations of having to be perfect.

What other ways can we make mistakes count?

Do You Even Care?

Mark 2:15-17

¹⁵ While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

¹⁶ When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹⁷ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The religious leaders during this time questioned why Jesus would eat with those whom they considered morally wrong (tax collectors) and spiritually wrong (sinners). These leaders did not associate with tax collectors or sinners. In an effort to maintain their spiritual purity they isolated and avoided those they deem impure. Then came Jesus.

Jesus knew His purpose. He knew the people He was supppose to reach. He knew the method He must use to reach them. Isolation and avoidance was not effective tools to use in fulfilling His purpose. Jesus had to show that He cared. He had to break down the barriers that prevented Him from effectively showing that He cared. What are those barriers:

1. Location: Times have changed where non-believers are breaking down the church doors to give their lives to God. You have to go and get them where they are. Jesus went to Levi's house. He went to where Levi was comfortable AND to a place He did not feel like He was compromising the prime objective of ministering to Levi. We might have to go to the prisons, bad neighborhoods, someone's house, or meet them in a resturant in order to effectively minister to them.
2. Discrimination: Souls do not have a gender, religious preference, sexual preference, ethnicity, social class or anything that we could use to decide who should or should not receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ from us. Take every opportunity to witness and be a witness. Witness through your words and deeds. Tell them about Jesus Christ and show them Jesus Christ.
3. What Other People Think: Jesus allowed Himself to be ridiculed by the religious leaders in order to gain the heart and soul of those He ministered to. His status among their ranks did not matter. Getting invited for a preaching engagement did not matter. Receiving a pat on the back did not matter. What mattered was winning souls for the Kingdom of God.
4. What We Know: Jesus knew that people did not ONLY want to know that He was knowledgeable of the scriptures, they wanted to see Him put it in practice. They wanted to see that He cared enough for them before they would even care enough about what He was preaching or teaching. Just because we can break the scriptures down upward and downward does not mean anything if we do not genuinely care for the people.

Break down the barriers that prevents you from being an effective witness. Follow the model that Jesus has set before us. Jesus said that He did not come to call the righteous but He has come for the sinners. We have to spend more time reaching out to those who need Christ in their lives.

What would you change about yourself to make you a better witness for Christ?

Willing To Take The First Step

I went skydiving for the first time in June 2013. While standing on the edge with the wind beating my face and looking at the ground below, the tandem jump instructor asked me if I was ready to jump.  "What am I doing", I thought to myself.  I was "ready" when my feet were planted on the ground but now I feel some extreme hesitation as I stood one step away from free falling to the ground where I once stood.  Am I really ready to take the first step?

As I embark on this new journey that God has set before me, I reflect on this first step that I will have to take. This particular step carries a lot of weight. It is a very small step but it is a defining one. It is less about my readiness and more about my willingness. 

Like the instructor, God made sure that I had the proper equipment on and that it was working properly. The instructor made sure that I knew the instructions prior to me taking that step. He packed the parachute himself (thank God!). He also made sure that I was latched on to him. God does the same. He gives us instructions, equips us for the task ahead and does His part to keep us connected to Him.

As I reflect back to the jump, the instructor was asking me the wrong question.  He should have asked me if I was willing to jump instead of asking me if I was ready to jump.  He was the one that needed to be ready because I was latched to him and he was leading me to safety. However, I had to be willing:

- Willing to follow the instructions given to me

- Willing to trust in his ability

- Willing to go when the time arrived

- Willing to do my part 

When God is ready, we need to be willing.  We need to listen to His instructions, trust in Him completely, believe that His timing is always right and carry out the work that we need to do.  God has given us everything we need to accomplish what He has set out for us to do.  Are you willing to take that first step?

*By the way, I was willing to take the first step in skydiving :)