Why Plant a Church…Again… and Why in Portland?
“So, you’re tired of having your girls ride horses on the beach by the lake?!”
That’s what my friend asked me when I told him we were thinking about planting a church in Portland. He had a point!
The last couple of years have been filled with greater blessings than we would have ever dared to ask for. In many ways, we’ve been living in the middle of the good parts of Psalm 23.
So why in the world would we trade living on a river, in the peaceful surroundings of nature, with friends and family that we love dearly – for a hurting city where we don’t know anyone?
And that, to plant a church?! Didn’t we already do that? Didn’t it turn out to be more complex and painful than we had the capacity to bear?
What in the world are we thinking?
Leaving Milwaukee Broke our Hearts
I don’t have words to describe how devastating it was to leave our church family, and city. We invested nearly half of our adult lives in Milwaukee, WI.
Our kids learned to ride their bikes there.
They grew this much!
We fully intended to spend the rest of our lives in Milwaukee. Our hearts were shattered when God made it clear that was not His intention for us.
At times, the pain of that experience made it feel like our hearts were broken beyond repair.
We weren’t sure if we wanted anything to do with a Western church model that we had come to know, ever again.
Our faith in Jesus and love for His people, though, only deepened. God used the love of His people to invite us into deeper healing and restoration than we knew we needed.
The Humbling Path of Healing
We were received by our friends in New Richmond with so much compassion. When our hearts could bear it, we were invited to face our pain in counseling, in prayer gatherings, and among safe brothers and sisters in the authenticity of each other's living rooms.
Kristy and I had each been to counseling before, but this was on a whole nother level!
We spent months inviting Jesus to meet us in the deepest places of pain, woundedness, and sin we had experienced.
The Holy Spirit empowered us to forgive, confess our sin, and trust Him to bring the healing and restoration needed.
It’s one thing to believe that “God is love.” It’s another to have the love of God meet the most tender places of pain and shame in your soul.
Jesus is faithful to His Word – He has been restoring our souls.
Not Just Victims, but also Convicts
God’s kindness leads to deep, full, and joy-filled repentance that leads to abundant life – without condemnation.
Kristy and I had no idea how much we had been wrestling God for His job. In different ways, and me more than her, we wanted to be a god in people’s eyes.
We make terrible gods.
For years, I exhausted myself trying to prove my value through being accepted by people. Specifically, I felt most valued when I thought others thought I was unquestionably wise and impenetrably strong.
I’m neither.
But you already knew that. It’s just taken me a minute to catch up!
I willingly gave my heart to these false and cruel lovers – acceptance and achievement. They betrayed me. I let them.
Jesus revealed the depths to which these strongholds were strangling the life out of my soul. And graciously invited me to repent.
Recalibration without an Agenda
Do you have any idea how much you can learn when you don’t have an agenda?! It’s wild! I feel SO cheated out of so much wisdom and goodness.
Let me explain.
I started regularly preaching at around 24 years old. There’s something that happens when you feel like you have the answers to life’s most important questions.
By 31, I was serving as a lead pastor and preaching every Sunday. This sent me down a path of feeling like I needed to consistently defend and articulate biblical positions on all kinds of issues.
But when we stepped back, and I didn’t have anyone to answer to, no denominational company lines to maintain – God blew my mind again and again and again….
The most significant shift was seeing God's kind, loving, merciful, beautiful heart in every passage of Scripture. Jesus is amazing. We can’t hold it back.
The second biggest shift was realizing that Kristy is smarter than me! Except for when it comes to reading retention, I’ve got her beat there.
But otherwise – my goodness – Lord, this woman you’ve given me….is incredible!
We’ve been learning what it looks like for Kristy to be fully released and empowered to step into the ministries she has been created to flourish in.
She’s so beautiful….
Holy Discontent
After October 1st of 2022, we felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to end our season of restoration, repentance, and recalibration – and to take steps to engage in intentional ministry again.
We have loved the season God granted us both working jobs in the world. I’ve spent the last two years ghostwriting for multiple companies. Kristy has continued to do amazing work through her interior design company.
But we just can’t shake the sense that God designed and called us to invest our lives in caring for His church and spurring her on, living in Jesus's life-giving presence, worshipfully overflowing, drawing the world around us to His beautiful heart.
And that, in ways which might seem odd to some.
Our whole family feels more at home in the city than in the country. One time, when we were leaving the Walmart in New Richmond, I asked Elijah what that experience was like for him.
He replied, “Dad. These people think this is normal. But it’s not normal. There are no black people. Everyone speaks English. This is so weird!”
While there are issues of brokenness everywhere, it tends to be more pronounced and prominent in the city.
And when we look at where and whom Jesus spent His time with, we are convinced that He prioritized the crowds on the margins, who were desperate for healing, forgiveness, and love.
Through an odd string of events, this stirring led us to connect with the Expand Northwest church network. We have fallen in love with their deep commitment to prayer and relationship.
Sean Thome, the executive director, walked with us through processing the various paths we could consider. From staying in our current situation to candidating for a lead pastor role to serving on staff at a church in an associate position.
Expand graciously sent us to a church planting assessment to help us thoroughly examine how God has wired us and how that could impact where He’s leading our family.
It was clear. We can’t stop starting things. Church planting is the path the Holy Spirit is inviting us to follow Jesus on.
The Road Ahead
Things have changed. I don’t mean only for us. Things have changed for everyone. There’s no going back to the way things were before 2020.
We shouldn’t want to.
“Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?”
For it is not wise to ask such questions.”
God is doing a new thing. Revivals are breaking out. An entire generation is standing up and saying they are desperate for something genuine, authentic, and aren’t going to settle for religious forms or traditions in place of the real thing.
The world wants Jesus. They – we – want to encounter Him personally. Powerfully. Intimately. He won’t settle for less.
We are eager to step into a new way of doing church. Kristy and I intend to co-lead this church plant. As equal partners, serving together, better together, stronger together.
Our entire ambition is to abide in Jesus’ love – and love others out of an overflow of His love. We are eager to contribute to a culture where intimately engaging with God’s heart is the goal.
We are taking Him at His Word which has proven trustworthy. We believe that as we remain in His love we will bear much fruit.
We believe that God is love. His love is better than life. He so loves this world that He would send people to tell people about how much Jesus loves them.
To be Continued…
So here we are. I never thought we’d be back here again. Selling everything, leaving safety and stability, leaving infinitely important friends and family – to follow Jesus as He leads into this new thing.
Again.
Things are different this time, though.
While we have concerns and worries, our hearts are bursting with worship and thanksgiving because we know that we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken.
In the days ahead, we’ll share more. We also intend to use this platform to inform you about how God is revealing more of His heart to us as we follow Him to Portland.
If you want to be kept in the loop, you can sign up here.
If you are feeling led to pray for us, this will be where we communicate prayer requests. We would love it if this weren’t a one-way conversation. Please let us know how we can pray for you.
If you believe God wants you to support this new work financially, we would be honored and humbled to partner with you. You can safely give tax-deductible gifts here through Expand Northwest.
More than anything, we want you to know more of God’s great love. No one and no thing is better. May the love of God captivate your affections and overwhelm you with mercy and goodness all of your days!
