Part 5

I remember exactly where I was when I got the news. It was on Monday, the day after our incredible worship service and concert, at about 5pm.  I was at my house.  Carol, our Church Administrator called me and told me the news.  "I just got off the phone with Laurel Nokomis School.  They are not renewing our contract.  We have to look for a new place to worship."  We were supposed to be back in the school in two weeks.  As I sat there shocked, I asked her how much time we had.  She said that we were allowed to go back to the school and that they would give us a one month grace period.  6 weeks was all we had left.  I had an already scheduled meeting at the office that night. I don't even remember what it was about.  When the meeting concluded at 8, I went back to my office and closed the door.

The only thing I knew to do was to go to my bag, get out my sermon from last night and go over it once again. "Who was our enemy and what were we facing?"  We were losing the lease at LNS and we did not know the Lord's will for the next chapter in our life.  Just like Jehoshaphat, I reminded God of who He is--You are a great God and there is nothing that is too hard for you.  I reminded God of what He's done--"You called me to the be the pastor of The Bridge Church.  I didn't initiate this.  You called us to Nokomis and to LNS.  Is our time there over?  Are You moving us from that place?"  I reminded God of what He said--"Call upon Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you do not know (I love that verse).  I reminded God of what was going on in our situation just as Jehoshaphat did in his. 

Tears came to my eyes that night as I began to confess, "You are our leader, not me.  My shoulders are not big enough to carry this load.  I am looking to You.  I don't know what to do.  Are we grieving You in any way as a body?  Is there anything we've done or are doing?  Lord, I'm scared of the unknown.  Please speak clearly .  You spoke to Jehoshaphat and told him exactly what to do.  God, I need you to speak to me in that way.  Speak so I can worship and shout and sing once again.  Speak so that it is unmistakable and confirm it when you do speak.  Speak, Lord, speak.  Your servant is listening. "

As I lay on the floor of my office facing heaven with tears in my eyes, I felt the Lord say these words to me, "What do you want?"  I picked up the piece of paper that I was writing my thoughts down on and wrote these words.  "Lord, we want, we need a permanent home.  We have fasted for 21 days about a permanent place.  We have constantly brought that before You in prayer.  Our prayer has recently been, 'Give us a place to house your glory'."  And then I wrote these words.  "We want land in Nokomis by I-75 by LNS.  We want a building." 

At about 10pm, I felt compelled to call a dear friend of mine who does not attend our church.  I asked if he could talk.  He came and picked me up at my office and we went to a restaurant in town.  He started brainstorming with me.  "Matt, are there not any buildings in Nokomis that you could rent or use?"  The only building I could think of was the shopping center off of Laurel Rd past the Interstate right next to the BP station.  When I told him my idea, he said, "Let's go look at it."  So we did.  We drove over to the shopping center.  The place was virtually brand new.  Most of the building had never been rented and had never been built out.  As I looked at all the space, I started to get excited.  "This could work."  My friend agreed.  "Matt, this could definitely work for your church." 

He drove me back to my office and to my car.  I drove home and tried to go to sleep.  By this time it was almost midnight.  But, I couldn't sleep.  So, I went back over to that building and sat in the parking lot and doodled some design ideas on a piece of paper as my headlights shined into the empty parts of the building.  I was praying and trying to wrap my mind around what we could do with that space.  I don't think I slept a wink that night.  The next morning, I told my staff that we needed to take a field trip.  So, we all piled into the church van and went over to the shopping center.  "What do you think?  This might be our new church home."  As we looked around together, we all started to feel a little sense of hope.  What was God up to?  Is this the place He wanted our church to be?  I didn't know the answers to those questions.  But I did start to feel like God was answering our prayers for a permanent place.