Things are going well here in Annapolis.  Every day that we draw closer to the launch I feel more and more confident in God’s call for us to move here.  God has given us a great team of people who are committed to Revolution and for that I am eternally grateful.  It is amazing to see the passion that so many people have to see this church grow and continue to have a greater impact on the city of Annapolis and especially to lead people into a revolutionary relationship with Jesus.

One of the things that I have enjoyed the most is watching the bands come together.  That’s right I said bandS. Revolution has been blessed to have a volunteer worship leader, Matt (check out his blog here) who has done a phenomenal job of putting together 2 bands (so far).  I have been blown away to watch this happen.  Most church plants hire a lead church planter and then a worship minister.   For some reason we didn’t feel that was the path that God wanted us to take.  And God has proven very faithful in that guidance.  God is bringing together musicians who are talented and passionate about worshiping Him.  The best part about it is that other than praying… I can honestly say I had nothing to do with it.

It is amazing to me how God builds His church.  A few months ago I was really worried about the size of the launch team and the location and yes even the bands.  I had a conversation with a good friend who told me, “Josh, God is rarely early, but He is never late.”  Those words have rung in my ears over the past few months.  It has been amazing to watch God bring together a group of people who are truly passionate about seeing more and more people come into a relationship with Jesus.

Tonight I am grateful to get to be a part of Revolution Annapolis.  Thank you God for blessing me with great friends and co-laborers who love you more than anything!

The past week has been crazy and amazing!

• Last Friday, we signed a lease with Loews Annapolis Hotel to begin holding public services there October, 24th.
• Last Saturday we delivered food to 75 families in Annapolis.
• Last Sunday we had our first pre-launch church service at the Austin Grill. We worshiped together, had a message, talked about our city, and took communion for the first time as a church.  Then we had a block party in the evening off clay street.
• On Monday we had our first staff advance… we don’t retreat we advance! Which proved to be quite an adventure (pictures attached above).
• Thursday Sarah, Savannah, and myself moved to our new house.
• Today we have been preparing for this weekend!  It is going to be another crazy one!  We have a mission team in town – tomorrow morning they are going to be meeting up with us to go serve at the Chesapeake Children’s Museum, then in the evening we are going to be throwing a block party in the Admiral Oaks Apartments in conjunction with the Boys and Girls Club.  Then on Sunday we are having church in the morning, and in the afternoon and evening we are going to be hosting a cool down station at City Dock in Annapolis to help people cool down after the 4th of July parade and leading up to the fire works!

This summer has been an active one so far but we have been enjoying every moment of it!  One of the great things has been having mission teams come in to help!  God has been so good to us and I am convinced that all that we are doing right now is beginning to cause a bit of a stir in Annapolis.  My prayer is that it would be the kind of stir that helps people see God’s love for them… maybe for the very first time!  Check out this article that was written about the church and what we are doing to feed families in need.

If you pray please keep us in your prayers.  There is a lot going on and we are working hard every day.  Please ask God to sustain us and to give us the discipline to rest.  Pray that God continues to guide and direct us and give us boldness to have the conversations He is preparing in advance for us.  Pray that He expands the launch team and that more and more people come to know the life that  Jesus came to bring!

Here are a few things that I learned today!

• People are astounded when you do something just to show them God’s love with no strings attached.
• Car washes really get people’s attention – we had at least 10 people tell us that they were interested in checking out Revolution.
• Having a staff person who is willing to stand on a corner and dance with a sign to get people to come get their car washed will get a lot of peoples attention!
• Interns are amazing.  It is so nice to have three summer interns.  I am very grateful for all that they are doing!
• Being able to articulate the vision of your church in one sentence is crucial when talking with people who don’t go to church.
• Being able to relate what you are doing to serve someone to the vision of your church will help them decide pretty quick whether or not they are ever going to attend.
• I am glad that we are starting to hold pre-launch services next weekend because a ton of people asked if we were meeting together already.

That’s it for now… more lessons as we do more experiments!

I just read the book Same Kind of Different As Me incredible book.  It is the true story of a wealthy couple (Ron and Debbie) that befriends a homeless man (Denver) who then ends up teaching them more than they could possibly have imagined.  You should totally read the book.  Here is just one part of the book that really captured me.  This is a quote from page 179-180.

The next morning Denver knocked at the kitchen door again. We sat at the kitchen table, stirred our coffee.  He dropped his head and paused a long moment, unhurriedly collecting his thoughts like shells on a beach.  Then: “God gives each person on earth a set of keys, keys to live this life down here on earth. Now in this set, there is one key you can use to unlock prison doors and set captives free.”

Denver turned his head just slightly so that the right side of his face was closer to me than the left.  He leaned in with his right shoulder and narrowed his eyes even farther. “Mr. Ron, I was a captive in the devil’s prison. That was easy for Ms. Debbie to see. But I got to tell you: Many folks had seen me behind the bars in that prison for more than thirty years, and they just walked on by.  Kept their keys in their pocket and left me locked up.  Now I ain’t trying to run them other folks down, ’cause I was not a nice fella-dangerous-and prob’ly just as happy to stay in prison.  But Ms. Debbie was different-she seen me behind them bars and reached way down in her pocket and pulled out the keys God gave her and used one to unlock the prison door and set me free.”

Denver pounded home those last words like eight separate nails, then sat back in his chair, sipped his coffee.  He put the mug down.  ”She’s the onlyest person that ever loved me enough not to give up on me, and I praise God that today I can sit in your home a changed man-a free man.”

Got me thinking who are the people in my life that I need to see the God potential in?  Who are the people whom God has given me the keys to set free and all I need to do is use those keys?

Savannah still has a pacifier.  I know, I know she should have given it up about three months ago.  (In our defense) She only uses it when she is going to sleep.  Still she needs to get rid of it.  So last night I decided to take it away.  To all you parents out there who haven’t reached this stage yet… Don’t just take it away on a whim!  Prepare yourself.  You can probably guess what happened next.  Savannah cried, and cried, and cried.  Then I tried to sooth her.  She kept on crying.  Then I gave her a paci that I had cut the tip off of (someone on the internet said this would work), she cried some more.  Finally, I gave her a real paci and she went straight to sleep.

All of that to say I finally relented and feel like a terrible dad.  This experience got me thinking…  Are there things in my life that I am clinging to that really are not the best thing for me, but I cling on to them anyway.  Unfortunately – I can’t reason with Savannah to help her understand that giving up the paci is all part of growing up and that it is healthy for her to give it up now.  But how many times has my heavenly Father been trying to get me to give something over to him that I have been holding on because it’s time for me to trust him with that and to grow up?

Right now Revolution is looking for rental space to meet in.  We still have not found a location that we feel will be the best possible fit.  We have looked high and low but still don’t feel ready to settle in.  Frankly, this has me pretty stressed out.  I have a tendency to get really focused on something and then worry about it.  Now, I am not suggesting that I shouldn’t be proactive in finding a location for the new church, but what I am saying is that worrying about it hasn’t changed a thing, and won’t change a thing according to Matthew 6.  I think there are times in our life when God asks us to give something over to Him and at that point we have a choice to make.  Are we going to make a big fuss about it or are we going to give it up to Him and trust that He can do a better job of ordering our life than we can.

What is your pacifier?  What is it that you keep clinging to that brings you temporary comfort that your heavenly Father is asking you to give over to Him so that He can give you something better?

(The cutest kid in the world! Unrelated to the blog, I just wanted to share it!)

I am sitting in the basement preparing for the up coming week – there is a lot to do!  But as I have been sitting here I have been thinking of all of the people who have made what we are doing right now a reality.  And I just want to send out a huge thank you!  To everyone who has prayed for us, supported us financially, and help set us on this path to starting this new church – THANK YOU!  You have no idea how much joy you bring to my heart.  Knowing that you are here for us.  Knowing that you are behind us and care about us…  it is truly amazing!

God is on the move in Annapolis.  Our launch team continues to grow.  We continue to meet with people who are not yet in relationship with God.  God continues to impress upon me that this baby church is His and not mine.  He continues to remind me that our job is to GO, and MAKE DISCIPLES.

Please pray for us.  Pray that we would have boldness, that the Holy Spirit would have full control of us at all times, and that the message of the gospel would be spread and take root in the hearts of people here in Annapolis.

Tonight Matt Murphy (the leader of our bands) and I went to New Life Christian Church and inventoried all of our “gear”.  We had a blast hanging out and talking.  It was great for both of us to spend some time together and to talk about what God is up to in our lives.  It was also great to get to see all that God has provided for the new church!  We have two trailers of gear that we bought from a church here in MD called Emanuel Church.

One of the things that I love about Matt and his wife Becky is that they are as passionate about this new church as I am.  They own the vision and can’t wait to see it become a reality!  I am so grateful to God to get to be a part of this church that He is starting here in Annapolis!

We had another revolution hangout tonight.  It went really well.  Had several people come for the first time.  I am really excited to see this new team come together.  One of my favorite parts was watching several people exchanging information so they could hang out again.

Tonight we talked about the vision of Revolution.  That we want to be the kind of church where faith and action are synonyms.  That we want to have the kind of community where life insurance isn’t necessary.  That we want to be the kind of church where people regularly experience God and are changed by those experiences.

I was stoked to cast this vision.  We had several questions asked and were able to have several great discussions.  It rocked!

I am so glad for the different people that God is bringing together.  I am glad that God is calling a group of people who are passionate about telling others about the great hope that we have in Jesus.  I get excited to think about looking back on these months five years from now.

The team is growing!  Want to join?

Will Mancini describes vision in his book Church Unique by using the metaphor of a leader standing on top of a mountain looking out at where he wants to take his people.  From the mountain top he can see what the journey is going to be like.  He can see what the hardships, the mountain tops, the plateaus are going to be.  He sees the journey that is coming.  Now he has to go down to the rest of the people and communicate to them where they are going.  What he communicates is his vision.

I thought it would be good to sketch out on the blog what I see coming.  So here goes:

• I see a movement of people coming to know the real Jesus.  Not the stained glass Jesus, or stoned Jesus, or girly Jesus, but the real Jesus.  The wild and passionate Jesus.  The Jesus who started such and uproar that it got Him killed.  The Jesus who loved and loves people deeply.  The Jesus who touched the untouchables and challenged peoples preconcieved notions of God.  The real Jesus!
• I see a church falling in love with Jesus.  Not just in word or in knowledge but in relationship.  I see a church that comes to know Jesus intimately and longs for more of Him.
• I see a church that loves each other.  A church where people are so open and generous with each other that life insurance isn’t necessary.  A church where people love each other deeply and live life together.
• I see a church that is all about bringing others into the family.  Who see people not as projects but as children of God, whom He loves deeply.
• I see a church who takes care of its community.  Who is known in the community as the church who believes what they believe.  Where action and faith/belief are synonyms.
• I see a church that people who don’t go to church love.  A church where people’s lives are changed deeply from the inside out.
• I see a church where socio-economic/racial/age barriers are non-existant.  A church where everyone has something to offer.
• I see a church that loves it’s community.  A church that serves without strings and without reseve.  A church that is known widely for it’s generosity.

Just a few things that I see coming!

For the last four months Andrew Hunter (a member of our launch team who moved to Annapolis to help us plant the church) has been preparing to lead a messianic passover service.  Passover is something that the Jewish people have celebrated every year since God delivered them from the bondage of slavery in Egypt.  Andrew grew up in a Jewish home and has participated in a Passover Seder all his life, but this year he decided that he would lead one.

The service was beautifully put together.  It had many of the familiar elements of a traditional Seder but moved beyond the Jewish traditions to point out Jesus as our Passover Lamb.  There were 23 people who attended this event, most of them dont have a relationship with Jesus and it was amazing to watch people understand for the first time how Jesus fulfilled prophecy from the Old Testament.  Throughout the night I heard many people make, “huh” and “ahah” noises as they saw Jesus in a new light.

I was really proud to be a part of something that so clearly pointed to Jesus as Messiah, and at the same time did it in a way that was not abrasive.  Andrew did a masterful job of tying scriptures together, allowing people to participate in the service, and clearly point to Jesus as our savior.

It was a great night!

Way to go Andrew!  I know that many people left last night resolved to investigate much of what you exposed them to!