All We Need Is Just A Little Patience

We moved to Las Vegas thirteen months before we are “officially” starting our church. And people told us that was nuts. It was too long. We would bore our Launch Team, we would go through a year of salary with little or no results to show for it, we were being dumb.

But we did it because of today’s reading — John 1. The first 18 verses tell of Jesus moving from Heaven to Earth. (And you’ve got to believe the U-Haul expenses for that were just ridiculous!) I like the way Eugene Peterson translates verse 14, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” So Jesus moves to earth in 1-18, and then waits 30 years before verse 19, where He shows up and starts doing ministry!

Why? Ever thought about it? Well, I’m not sure of the reason, but I suspect that He wanted to spend some time being human before He teaching and ministering to humans. That He had moved into their neighborhood, but wanted to experience their experience.

And that was our thinking. Let’s not move to Vegas, and start the same church we did in Virginia Beach. Let’s move into the neighborhood, get to know people, experience their lives and culture, and then start teaching and doing ministry (and probably with a lot more authority).

I’m not a patient guy, and that is a very patient strategy, but we’re ten months into it, and I am so glad we chose it.