Well, the cat is out of the bag and the Tucker's are moving to Wylie in a few weeks! (For all of our non-Texas peeps, that's about 45 minutes SE of where we are now). Had you told me this 6+ months prior, I would have bet my life against it. I mean why would we? We were completely happy being on staff at a church in the McKinney/Prosper area doing what we love from worship to special events, youth and everything in between, with incredible relationships, a wonderful ministry and looking forward to the new year. God had given us a mandate to support His endeavor which is the whole reason we moved cross country with our pastors in 2008 anyway. God expected immediate obedience to the call then and He expected obedience to the call now. We are firm believers in Revelation 3:8 which says "I have set before you an open door that no man can shut." So if the door shuts on a season, then God is the only one that could do it. It doesn't mean it isn't devastating or inconvenient or that we even understand it, but it does mean that we choose to trust Him regardless. We'd been in ministry long enough that we've learned when things beyond man's control occur, it's time to take a step back to ask God what the heck He's doing. So that's exactly what we did. We, in agreement with our pastors, took three weeks off to seek His face in January. During that timeframe, Jeremy and I both received prophetic words, dreams, direction and confirmations. On a sidenote, we also fell in love with a new community in St. Paul/Wylie called Inspiration, but we weren't really sure where or how that all fit in the plan.
Here's what we DID discover over the course of those first three weeks:
1. God lead us to discover a church in Allen we'd never really heard of and knew nothing about. I mean what is Eleven32 anyway? Who names their church after numbers??? {Cool story actually...it comes from Daniel 11:32 which is to know God, be strong and do great exploits. Know. Be. Do.} Anyway, we watched online for the first time and the pastor spoke right to us and didn't even know it. We went the following Sunday and cried the whole service as we sensed God's direction co-mingled with the tearing away of what we knew would be an extremely difficult decision for all of us. We are loyal even to our own detriment which is why the Lord was ultimately going to have to be the One to do it, and He did.
2. It's also important to note that our current lease in McKinney would be up in the summer, so we needed to make some decisions soon. We felt a peace about moving to Wylie, but curiously, why not Allen? I mean that's where the new-to-us- church was going to be, right? This was already an about-face from the subdivision we were originally looking at in the Prosper/Celina area. Still, we followed the peace.
3. Toward the end of the first week, God began to speak to a couple of our friends who were unaware of our situation. One called us with a dream and the other with a word of knowledge. This lined up exactly with what God began to show me in His Word.
4. By the second week, we attempted to sit inconspicuously in the dark back corner of a very packed youth service and instead was called out to receive a prophetic word from someone that had never even met us. He was spot on. Again, we wept, but he also let us know things were about to move VERY fast. And boy did they ever. Keep reading...
5. During one of the "Encounter" services on week three, we listened to a guest speaker, Michael Maiden, prophesy some amazing things over the lead pastor at Church Eleven32 where he assured him that God was already bringing the leaders in to accomplish these goals...and there we sat. "Hmm, interesting..." was literally the thought that went through my head. Nothing more, nothing less. I was still just watching and listening, but my interest was definitely peaked and my heart started to pound a little faster.
6. On the heels of that, I was reading a phenomenal book a friend felt compelled to give me. In it was something so precious to me that it was like the words leaped off the page. I knew God was speaking directly to me again. It was about a woman in the Bible I had never even heard of before. Then I went to another "Encounter" service later that night, and the speaker felt lead by the Spirit to teach on that same Bible story. I had NEVER heard it preached prior to that night and I've been in church my whole life...Bible college included. OK. Yes, Lord. I hear you.
7. At the end of our commitment to prayer and more confirmations than we could count on one hand, Jeremy circled back with our pastor who agreed that our "assignment" had been completed and supported that a new one had been given. Regardless, we are all one team with one goal and that is to make His name known. That meeting happened just days before the membership class at Church Eleven32. Woah. Can we slow the train? No? ok.
Fast forward a few months and now we know why. After stepping out in faith, we've watched God reveal his plan one page at a time, but before I've even had time to process the previous page, the next one is already turning. Coming from someone who likes to read the end of the book first, this has been slightly unnerving to me. I think Jeremy enjoys the thrill of the surprise though. Lucky duck. Anyway, one of those pages unfolded in February when we were sitting in the "Vision" service. They revealed plans to open a Wylie campus this year. The light bulb went off. Ok, God...I see where this "could be" going. But when? Several weeks later, the announcement was made that it would actually be this fall. After promising ourselves we would never do another church/campus plant, guess who's on the launch team? Shocker. God began (quickly) preparing our hearts and we've been running full steam ahead! We've had to adapt to a new "culture" that already seemed quite familiar and have watched God open doors faster than we can walk through them. I can now look back and see His hand, His protection and His provision that has already supernaturally unfolded this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment