…and the Lord added to their number

Posted on November 5, 2008 by Carl

Today I sat around the building all day to have a follow up inspection on the toilet seat, to verify that it was now open face. The zoning inspector stood me up for the second time, so we’ll try to reschedule that one again. Tomorrow the fire department comes out to do their inspection now that the power is on. So once the zoning inspection is done, we’ll be fully signed off on.

Today was an amazing day. I decided I would go “fishing” today while I waited on the city inspectors. I set up a two folding chairs on the sidewalk. One was for me and the other for whoever wanted to come along. During the day that chair was filled with another pastor, Mike and my wife. Mike and I had the opportunity to visit with two of his co-workers, who both expressed enthusiastic interest in what we were doing.

When I got home this evening I learned of 5 more people who had been contacted in divinely appointed conversations during the day. Each of them also expressed a desire to be a part of the ministry that God is establishing through us. Throughout the day the Lord continued to remind me of the following verses:

Acts 2:46-47 (NASB)
46 And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
47 praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

This afternoon I completed a video overview for churches and individuals who are praying about partnering with us in our ministry. You can view this video at Godtube

Tonight we launched our second Organic Group that will be meeting at a local coffee shop. It is neat to see how the Lord moves with each group.

The Power of Simplicity

Posted on November 4, 2008 by Carl

Tonight we held our first Organic Group at my house. There were 10 people gathered together representing 4 families. We began by praying and asking the Holy Spirit to be our leader this evening and then went where He led.

Before the evening was over, we had seen profound truth come from the mouths of a 7 year old and an 11 year old; tears flowed as the living Word of God moved into our hearts and as the body was edified by the ministry of its members.

We ended our evening gathered around the Lord’s table as we partook of the bread and cup “in Remembrance” of Christ.

My wife summed it up best…”I could feel the spirit of God moving in our interactions tonight.”

It’s been one of “those” days

Posted on November 4, 2008 by Carl

Tonight is our first Organic Group here at my house. I’m excited about where the Lord may take us this evening as we enter in to this time. It is also easy to tell that today must be an important day spiritually, because everything that could be an aggravation has been there.

I started the morning off with Carol attempting to leave for school when her van wouldn’t start. You could hear the starter clicking, but no contact (it had run moments earlier when she went to vote). So I head up to the church to meet with the fire inspector for our city permit….one problem, the power was not turned on yesterday as had been scheduled. After much turmoil with the electric company, we find out that the city never sent the electrical inspection to the power company. I also learned that I get to spend all day at the building again tomorrow to wait on the backflow inspector to sign off on the new toilet seat and the zoning inspector to “perhaps” come by this time. We are hoping to have the electricity on in 24-48 hours, but will just have to wait and see.

Enough gloom and doom though. The Lord provided for the toilet seat through some dear friends who are getting ready to return to Mexico as missionaries. Carol’s vehicle is back up and running with a new battery (the front a/c blower is still out and the easy fixes didn’t work, but hey it runs). The building owner is giving us a lighted sign free of charge and even offered to put our logo on it for me.

So even though life has its challenges, God is still showing himself faithful.

That’s what it is all about

Posted on November 3, 2008 by Carl

As I mentioned before, the highlight of our first service was knowing that a 4 year old little boy was having his first encounter with the body of Christ. Today my highlight was hearing the impression this contact made on the young man. The following is an excerpt from an email I received from his grandmother today:

Little Jason and I went on to see his Dad and he was so excited, he kept telling his dad he went to Church and the Pastor made him Big..You may not realize but you are the only positive male influence this child has ever known.

We are called to be the body of Christ. Jesus wants to be love others through us with His perfect love. It is amazing what He will do if we will simply get out of the way.

Today Mike and I attended a pastor’s prayer conference where I spoke with about my journey with the Lord this past 2 years. The Lord was moving throughout the day and continued to bring us back to the themes of simplicity, lordship and His renovation of the American church. Several of the pastors were moved by God’s presence as He illuminated each of our lives.

What an amazing day

Posted on November 2, 2008 by Carl

What a thrill it was to see the vision God gave me so many months ago come into reality today as Simplicity Church – Corpus Christi held its first service. We had the joy of ordaining Mike into the gospel ministry. We got to welcome a 4 year old boy to his first church service ever.

There was an excitement among the people. They were there because they wanted to be. No expectations, no traditions to uphold…we just went where God led us. I can’t wait for our first Organic Group on Tuesday.

A little easier to find

Posted on November 1, 2008 by Carl

Simplicity Church - Corpus Christi

Yesterday, I bought some 2″ white vinyl letters and numbers, so people could find us a little bit easier. Of course, when it was all said and done the lettering was off-centered. Oh well, I’ll fix it up in the coming weeks.

Tomorrow is our initial public worship celebration and I can hardly wait. Getting to ordain Mike will be one of the highlights of my day. It has been a thrill watching him grow in his walk with Christ over the past 22 months. Tomorrow will also be memorable, because we don’t have electricity until Monday.

Hoops, hurdles and miscellaneous red tape

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Carl

When I opened my investment firm in 2001, I signed a lease on my office, transferred the utilities in my name, installed the phones, moved in some furniture and hung the sign. Of course that was Great Bend, Kansas and nearly 8 years ago. In Corpus Christi things don’t work quite as easy in the year 2008.

I started the day off by shopping for an electric service provider. The first provider had a good price, $.o96/kwh; however, the $400 deposit was a deal breaker. So I moved on down to the next provider also at $.096/kwh with no deposit. Now we’re talking…sort of. Since Texas is a choose your provider state, the electric companies are required to provide a 3 business day right of rescission, which means no electricity until Monday. Ok, I can live with that. Sunday morning 10AM the first weekend of November won’t be oppressively hot and our storefront has large windows…no problem. Then came these words, you will need an inspection from the city before we can connect the meter…say what?

Needless to say the city of Corpus Christi has a nice little thing going with the power provider. If commercial service has been off for more than 24 hours, it requires an electrical inspection for $76.88. Well okay, that is the price of doing business in the big city…so I bebop on down to the city development office and tell them my need. I fill out the form wait for 20 minutes and then meet with the friendly fellow behind the desk. He asks me where we are moving the church from and I tell him, we are not this is our first location. He then informs me that we don’t need the first piece of paper I had filled out, but instead we needed a certificate of occupancy, which by the way would cover the electrical inspection. So $211.15 later I leave the development office with 5 appointments scheduled between 8AM and 5PM tomorrow. We have to be mechanically, electrically, plumbing, vector, fire, health, etc… inspected….remember all I wanted to do was sign up for electric service and turn the lights on. Then next Tuesday I’ll wrap up with the fire inspection…barring any unforeseen inspection issues.

The landlord had the building re-keyed today as well. When I went by to get the new key, no one was in the office and there was no expected time of return. My calls to the contact numbers were unsuccessful. So hopefully I will be able to get in tomorrow for the inspections.

On a brighter note, I met with my favorite group of pastors today and they laid hands on me and prayed over me as we get ready to launch. This was a real boost for my spirit as I was feeling pretty drained after everything else today.

Watching God Work

Posted on October 28, 2008 by Carl

Today was an amazing day. This afternoon I received two emails through the website inquiring about where to find Simplicity.

One of these emails led to a phone call that allowed Jesus to use me to speak words of peace. What a blessing! That’s what Simplicity is all about, experiencing the person, presence and power of Jesus in all of life’s seasons.

I also received an email from a friend in Pittsburgh, who was thrilled about the work and gave me great encouragement.

We signed the lease on the building today and picked up 75 folding chairs from the church that I have been serving. What a blessing those chairs are to us.

One week and counting

Posted on October 26, 2008 by Carl

It is hard to believe that we will actually hit the ground running next Sunday. Every day we see how the Lord is bringing things together for us.

Yesterday we got confirmation of our 501(c)(3) group ruling. Today we were given 75 folding chairs by the church where I have been serving as pastor. This was such a great blessing for me as it is not only a material provision, but also the blessing of those I have been serving as I follow God’s leading.

This week I will be writing press releases for the the local newspaper and television media; signing the building lease; and spending a large amount of time alone with the Lord.

Hearing God’s Voice

Posted on October 24, 2008 by Carl

Today started out as a bit of an emotional/spiritual crash day. I received an email this morning that twisted the things God has placed upon my heart and took dead aim at my obedience to His leading. Being misunderstood is never easy and Satan doesn’t miss the opportunity to exploit these occasions either.

I was reminded of an event early on in Jesus’ ministry that seemed to mirror my experience this morning:

Mark 3:21 (NASB)
And when His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”

God is good, He doesn’t let me wallow in self-doubt very long. This afternoon I had lunch with a close friend who allowed himself to be God’s vessel. As He spoke God reminded me that my life is lived out for an audience of One. The understanding, support or approval of anyone else must come a distant second. Later this afternoon, I prayed with a group that I meet with on Thursdays and the conversation turned to our ability to hear God’s voice. One of the men in our group made this statement that I found to be very dead on: “Our ability to hear God’s voice becomes much sharper, the further out on the limb of faith we go.”

On a different note, I finally got the lease to look over and will be formalizing it tomorrow or Monday.

This weekend I will also be putting up some additional pages on the website for both the Simplicity Network and Simplicity Church – Corpus Christi. My wife will be out of town this weekend, so I will be PTA dad tomorrow.

Journey To Simplicity