A Job Too Big

"When you have a job that is too big for you, you're in the right place." A sister in Christ, Joanne, said these words to Stacy and me earlier this evening. Continuing, she said that believers with tasks that seem far to difficult to accomplish are just in position for God to do something great. When the only one who can do it is Jesus, God is most honored because the victory belongs to him. Look to Jesus, she said. Look and keep looking, and obey whatever he shows you. 

Her encouragement was inspirational, particularly in light of its ironic backdrop: "Look to Jesus. . . and obey." Joanne is nearly completely blind. She lost her eyesight in 1997, when she suffered from retinal detachment in both eyes. Despite the trial, Joanne remained faithful to the Lord and even took her ministry up a notch. Now she leads a contemporary service at her church, and she focuses especially on prayer. 

Which leads to the power of our encounter tonight. 

Joanne is part of a short-term team that'll be doing construction work for a church until Sunday. Seven out of this group are staying with us here in Vision House for the next few days, and Stacy and I were waiting on them when they arrived around 6:00. Their arrival came on the heels of a huge realization for me and Stacy because the weight of our task-and our responsibility in planting this church-has become more evident over the past two days. Kevin has made it clear that we're not just college interns helping to plant a church. We are an integral part of the core leadership team for Barnabas Church (BC). 

So, from 1:00 until the team arrived, Stacey and I brainstormed mission statements and tag lines. We tossed around ideas about logos, mission statements, methodology, and tried our best to really define who we are as BC and what our mission is. We prayed, we read scripture, we began Francis Chan's Forgotten God, we took coffee breaks. . . and we realized how inadequate two college kids are to face a city of darkness and lostness and expect to actually make a difference. Prayer, the Spirit's work, and obedience/faithfulness are ALL we have. And just when it all began to really sink in, Joanne and the team showed up on our doorstep. Our God has a way of timing things just right.

They heard our ideas and listened to our vision. And then they encouraged, exhorted, and most importantly PRAYED. They took our hands and lifted us up in prayer. They lifted up the future Barnabas Church in prayer and the people of the city in prayer; they praised God and interceded on our behalf. Feeling the undeniable and overwhelmingly strong presence of the Spirit has only truly happened a handful of times in my life. But tonight was one of them. To again quote Batterson in The Circle Maker, the encouragement was "just enough, just in time." 

I would love to tell you more about Barnabas Church and our role in this very unusual church plant. And I will tell you more, but this post is long enough already and the hour is late. I'll just give one teaser until Friday. The core values of Barnabas Church include: (1) encouragement, (2) simplicity, (3) authenticity, and (4) equality. I'll explain them more later.

In the meantime, please pray for this target area that we prayerwalked today. West Side Market , 1979 W 25th St, Cleveland, OH 44113. 

Please, please pray. God bless!            

P.S. Barnbas Church is launching Sunday, June 1st.