Part 9

The news of our contract not being renewed (again) was different this time…when I told the congregation it was like that had already prepared for this.  Even though I was terribly uneasy about the situation I was in, our people were not.  I felt as though they were pastoring me during this time.  I received comments like:

"This is exactly what we needed…this is the best news I’ve heard…this same thing happened to the church that I just came from and they are now a church of about 6,000 people... I believe that God wants The Bridge Church to be more than a neighborhood church.  He wants our church to be a regional church which goes about transforming lives in this region for His glory...We believe that Jesus Christ has large plans for our church which will require a large building"  

These really helped me and really lifted my spirits during this uneasy time in my life.

We started getting busy planning our next move, but more than that, I became busy praying and seeking the Lord during this time.  Again, I became passionate about begging God to speak to me.  This is why I was uneasy.  I desperately wanted God to speak to me about what to do next.  Were we to become a Saturday night church?  Where could we do Sunday mornings?  Where was a building with adequate parking that could hold a church our size?

I didn’t want it to be left up to me.  I confessed that I wasn’t wise enough or smart enough to figure all of this out.  I didn’t care where we were went, I just had to know that God was leading us to a new place and that we weren't leading ourselves. “Please speak, Lord” became my prayer over and over.  With tears in my eyes, I reminded God that He created the world in 6 days and I reminded him that we had 6 weeks until we had to be out of LNS.  We had to hear a word from God.  I was desperate.

At the time, we had been in discussion with a man who owned a very attractive piece of property.  (We still are).  In the early stages of talking to this man, it just seemed like walls were falling down all around us.  

"I will rent you the land...I will rent it to you for 3 to 5 years...I will make whatever we agree to in price for a monthly rent all go to the purchase price of the property (100%).   

We then started researching temporary structures that we could immediately put up and do church in.  If everything sailed right through, we were looking at being in our own building in 6 months or less!  It was looking like God was truly opening doors and giving us new, creative ways to think about doing church...until we met up with 3 giants.