Although we haven’t literally walked on water, the past few months have been full of miraculous steps. God has been moving all of the pieces into place and we are amazed at the picture we are beginning to see. Since January, God has been speaking so much to us. We have been filling up journals with all of the words and scriptures and dreams He has been giving us. In June we had an opportunity to leave our four kids (with capable babysitters, of course) and escape to the mountains for a week of prayer and fasting and seeking God for vision. He faithfully showed up in that cabin in the mountains and downloaded the name of our church, the vision (the why), the mission (the how), and the values on which God is asking us to build the church (the what).
One of the coolest miracles is the story behind our name, OneLife Church, and the way we received the vision and mission for the church. In college, when Jon was really wrestling with the call to be a pastor, he read this poem by CT Stubbs, “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” When we first moved to Colorado, I was teaching math in in a junior high/high school. We felt God calling us to help the students start a Christian club after school, so we started a 501c3 and called the club OneLife. When I had our first son, I quit teaching and we put all of our time into our church and our youth ministry. Because of that, we didn’t do anything with our OneLife 501c3. Fast forward six years and we are in the mountains asking God to give us the name for our church. Every time we asked God a question, we would hold hands, ask Him to speak, and then sit there in silence, and God would just start speaking. Jon heard God say that just because we had used the name in the past, does not mean it wasn’t what God wanted to do in the future. I had a vision of the process of seeds taking root and growing to become future seed-bearing trees. That ended up being the four-step mission of our church. We closed our eyes again and prayed for the vision, and God spoke this exact sentence, “We exist to receive and give God’s love.” Before our wedding, God gave us a life verse: 1 John 4:19, “We love because He first loved us.” When we start with knowing how much God loves us and receiving that love, we are able to love in return. The NKJV says that we can love Him when we’ve first received His love. The NLT says that we can love others when we first receive the love of God. We belive our church will be a place where ONE moment experiencing and accepting the love of God can change our lives forever. We will be a place where every ONE person feels valued and loved and important, because even Jesus taught that we should leave the 99 to go after the one lost person. And lastly, we are a church that sees things in the perspective of eternity. We have ONE life to live and only those things we do for Christ will last and matter at the end of our lives.
After our week away, the miracles started happening more and more. We met with our pastor and he could see the hand of God moving everything along. With his blessing and guidance, God spoke to all of us to confirm the timeline of when we are going to launch and the location for OneLife church. God began to speak to people about joining our launch team and even giving financially.
Stepping out of the boat was definitely hard, but more worth it than we could ever say. Stay tuned to hear more about what God is doing in our lives.
