What's Next? - Part 1

After a weekend of God making Himself known, it's good to look and ask the question: Based on what we've seen, what is God wanting us to do next? What's next? God has a plan for our church, and He's showing us glimpses of it, but what's next?

So, let me share three ways we're seeing God show us He's working and that there's something coming from Him:

• The Opportunities: We saw the opportunity to share Christ thru the madatchurch.com series, and took it. We saw the opportunity to help a family with the house project, and we took it. We saw the opportunity to move our small group ministry forward, and we took it. We saw the opportunity to go to New Orleans, and we put it out there to challenge people to go. God is putting opportunities in front of His church, and they are leading us to what's next.
• The Responses: We keep putting the opportunities in front of people, and people are responding. The opportunity to start following Jesus saw 20-25 people accept Christ during the Easter season. The house project has prompted dozens of volunteers to step up and serve like Jesus. The small group ministry challenge has produced excited people, folks calling and emailing to get into groups. And the mere mention of going to New Orleans has more than a dozen people either preparing to go or preparing to give to those who go. God's Spirit is stirring in His people!
• The Distractions: This is hard to write, but the distractions are powering up. God never said that doing His will would be easy, and between God wanting to strengthen our faith and dependence on Him, and satan trying to get us off mission, we will have hurdles to jump over to get where God is taking us next. They almost always fall into the same basic categories: money distractions, time distractions, relational distractions, and doubt. None of them go away from being ignored; they need to be met head on and proactively. But just because something is hard doesn't mean that God is saying don't do it. There's a book on my summer reading list this year called Do Hard Things. Can't wait to get my butt kicked.
  

When God is moving His people, there will be opportunities, there will be responses, and there will be distractions. That's both individually and corporately. Look for them, pray for them, then attack them with the faith and courage that Jesus gives!