GracePoint

After our time with Jeff's family, we headed to Wichita to visit GracePoint. GracePoint is the church we got involved with while we were in Wichita, between ministries. It holds a very special place in our hearts. Now we only went to GP for 5 months but that 5 mos. God used in a big way.

A little history... we came out of a very hard ministry, where we were torn down in a big way. Jeff resigned in November of 2005 from a small town, traditional church. The basic gist of things was, where he wanted to go and where the elders wanted to go, were two different places. God had instilled, in Jeff, a vision of how He wanted us to "do church". Jeff thought that we would find a new church within a month. Now we had several churches call us and wanted us to come but we knew that God's given vision would not be fulfilled in those churches/towns.

So Jeff started up his carpentry business once again. From January until May he did carpentry in this small town. I was fine with staying in this town while we had our own home but once we sold our home, in April, I was ready to move back "home" to Wichita. Jeff kept dragging his feet because of his carpentry. In May, we were going to fly out to Bakersfield CA, and when an elders wife found out, she made a "snide" comment to Jeff about his ability to pastor a church that size. After that Jeff was also ready to get completely away from that town. So when God made it clear to us that Bakersfield was not the place, we decided to move to Wichita. We were moved less then two weeks from the time of that decision.

Once we were in Wichita we tried some different churches, some of them mega churches, trying to find the kind of church who was doing ministry like Jeff envisioned. We found none. In the meantime we had gone to Oklahoma City for a wedding, so we decided to visit a church we had heard about from several different people, LifeChurch.tv. This was the first time that Jeff saw an actual church doing what God called him to do. This visit to LifeChurch was a very monumental time for Jeff and I. The message was on Bitterness, and at the end they were talking about forgiveness. At that point and time Jeff and I both laid our bitterness and unforgiveness down at God's feet. We forgave the elders, and all they had done to us. That is where the healing began.

Then one day Jeff was meeting with our financial advisor and he was talking to him about what kind of church we were looking for and wanted to do, and his assistant overheard and said, "Hey, I go to this church..." We visited her church, GracePoint, and LOVED it! (You can't say that wasn't a God thing.) We knew this is where we were going to go during this "off" time in our lives. This church became my home church. This was the first time in our whole married life that we actually got to go to church as a family! I had always compared myself to a "single" mom on Sunday mornings. It was totally me who had to get all the kids around, and get them to church and in their classes. At potlucks, it was me trying to get food for five and keeping an eye on the kids by myself. In twelve years of marriage and four kids later, Sunday morning worship was a family thing.

There were so many lessons and ways God worked in us during this time. A big one was going through 40 Days of Purpose as a church. The ultimate picture shown to me is, this was the time that God instilled in me, the same vision He gave Jeff. We were now on the same team, the same path.

A little over a year after Jeff resigned, we were hired on by New Hope. A church, when looking on paper, was sunk, especially financially. It could have been a scary situation to step into, and if God wasn't behind it, it definitely would have been scary because there were too many areas to fail in. Only by God's leading would anyone step up to lead a church in the situation New Hope was in. All He needed was a willing body, to be used by Him, so He could do what He wanted to do.

God has definitely shown us His power, and the miracle doer He is. We have seen miracle after miracle since we've been at New Hope. From our finances turning around, to the decisions made weekly, to our attendance more then doubling. And all of this done with Jeff being the only paid pastor. Church statistics say that if you don't hire a second pastor, you will never go over 150. We are now averaging over 300, and on Easter of last year we had over 500. I'm not sharing this to "brag or boast" but to show you how AWESOME our God is! Only God!