…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.

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.

It started with me

Posted on October 2, 2008 by Carl

The journey to simplicity, began with me.

I had been at a regular time I have with some local pastors. During our conversation, the senior statesman of the group told us a story from his life. Warren is 85 years old and still touching lives with the hands of Jesus. In the late 70’s he was attending a conference with several key church leaders from around the United States. Warren had achieved “success” as a pastor, leading one of the largest churches in his denomination. During the conference, Warren felt the Lord pressing in on him with this question: “Am I the Lord over every kingdom of your heart?” Warren, immediately responded by acknowledging the Lordship of Christ over every kingdom of his heart. Warren, said his answer was not sufficient and the Holy Spirit continued to press in on him with the question. Warren said from that day forward, he never looked at scripture the same again, he was no longer bound by his training and experience, but walked each day a new with the Lord.

As I left our meeting, the Lord turned the question on me. As much as I wanted to tell the Lord that He was the Lord of every kingdom of my heart, I also knew He wouldn’t be asking if that were true. As I drove along, I asked the Lord to truly become the Lord of every kingdom of my heart.

For the first 3 months, the Holy Spirit would point to situations in my daily life and ask…”Can I have that?” He also showed me that I was keeping a protective barrier around my heart. As I allowed Him to remove the barrier and surrendered kingdoms, I found myself entering into a new level of intimacy with the Lord. This new level of intimacy was most noticeable in profound visions and revelations of truth in things I was seeing. I also began hearing the Lord’s voice at a much deeper level than I ever had.

Around March of this year, I was praying when the Lord first gave me an overview of Simplicity. I was preparing to make a return trip to India at the time. The Lord began to point out some things to me in my observations of the Indian church. It was through these observations that I realized that the power of Christ was so visible in these churches, because of the simplicity of the structure. There are no youth trips, choir specials, etc… The Indian church service is made up of prayer, proclamation of the word and worship that is led from the heart not from a songbook. This thought was profound and was reinforced during my return trip to India this spring.

It was also during this time that the Lord began to move me to the next level of His refining process. The Lord impressed upon me that I had surrendered all to Him, that I would surrender of my own volition. Unfortunately, there were still kingdoms in my heart that I did not even know existed and others, that I would not willingly surrender. So the Lord posed this question to me: “Will you let me lay down the unconquered kingdoms of your heart in my strength and power.”

During this time, others spoke word of a calling on my life at a new level. This prophetic word was spoken over me on 7 different occasions by 7 different individuals on 2 continents. As the Lord conquered kingdoms in my heart, He also began to ask me if I would surrender to this new calling. One morning as I was praying at our church, the Lord came to me with this question: “This is the last time I am going to ask you, will you accept my call or are you going to forfeit it?” I was horrified by the question, but afraid of a call I didn’t completely understand and couldn’t verify in my experiences. I didn’t want to forfeit, so I said “yes, Lord.” Immediately the Lord led me into an extended period of spiritual warfare under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Within a few days, my partner pastor from India sent me a report of testimonies from his church that more than validated God’s call on my life.

Upon my return from India, the Lord moved me out of a teaching “mode” into a role similar to an Old Testament prophet. For nearly 6 weeks, the Lord was having me call the people of our church to brokenness and repentance. I watched week after week as only about half of those before me would respond, other would watch and others simply walked out the back door. At the same time, the Lord took me another level deeper in my journey with Him. The Lord showed me that there were no other Kingdoms in my heart requiring His Lordship, but there were things in my life that needed to crucified and destroyed. The Lord asked me this question: “Do I have permission to put to death those things in your life which are not of the Spirit?” I said yes. The last part of May was miserable, I ached and didn’t know why. I told the Lord that I regretted taking this journey, because it hurt so bad. Fortunately for me, God was there every step of the way. Through a co-worker He made this statement to me on May 27th (my actual birthday): “You gave me permission to perform a heart transplant on you. When I was cutting your fingernails you didn’t mind, but now I have your chest spread apart and I am removing your heart of flesh and replacing it with the fullness of my Spirit.” As I heard these words, I knew I could make it. Two days later the Lord gave me a message letting me know that the heart transplant was complete. He affirmed this message by allowing me to be His vessel in 12 different instances of divine healing over 6 week period. The result of these healing miracles was a doorway to discuss the power and presence of Christ with friends and family who had been unwilling to acknowledge to Him in their lives.

The power of simplicity was now a daily reality for me. It wouldn’t be long, before God shook up my context.

…to be continued

Journey To Simplicity