When a kid jumps in the pool for the first time, her heart wonders if there will be someone to help if she need it. When you start a church for the first time, your heart is every bit as anxious.
It’s a small taste of the miraculous when you see the flood of willing friends who take on the work of children’s ministry, accounting, hospitality, check-in, room set-up, publicity, and everything else that needs doing, and they do it not for a salary, but for...
It’s just a gym on a normal Sunday morning. Floor seats or Bleacher benches. The air is bursting with excitement. An anticipation coupled with a yearning for something different. I sat with my family on the bleachers. Our first church service in a Glendora middle school gym.
As the gathering was about to start, an influx of last-minute arrivals showed up. They were people who were...
At the end of July 2016, a couple friends invited Jim to speak at a "Bible study" that unintentionally exploded into a small church. It was that day that it became clear God wanted to do something new--something exciting, scary and definitely messy. But for those of us there, we knew we had to answer the call, because it was a call to love everyone.
That morning in the park, Jim outlined a vision of three things we were called to do in learning to love everyone we could: be accepting, be authentic, and be transformed.
I remember when I was asked to lead a Bible study during my sophomore year of college. I had joined a Christian fellowship group that really believed the things the Bible said, and really wanted people to learn it well.
"We need you to lead a Bible study," my Pastor told me, holding out a Bible ceremoniously to me.
"I don't know what's in it," I confessed.
"You'll learn," he said, and pushed it into my arms.
