Refreshing Faith

I encountered two amazing discoveries today. The first discovery was found while looking on the net for places to hike with the family. The second I stumbled into while frequenting my wife and I's favorite coffee house (The Serene Bean).

Every week I find new reasons to fall in love with Georgia. While surfing on the net I discovered that North Georgia is full of beautiful waterfalls. The waterfall pictured here is the Falls on Raven Cliff Trail in White County. (For more falls check out: www.jjanthony.com/waterfalls/)

This water that falls with grace and beauty serves to refresh the pool of water below. It flows through every knot and curve of stone to make it's way to the awaiting surface. This image makes me want to find myself in it. Find a place that's cool and refreshing, a haven from the Georgian heat and humidity. I will find these falls!

The second discovery I had today was found flowing from a young girls heart. It was her faith that poured out and around every bit of her being. She like so many in our area came here from far away. Over the past five years she's dicovered that Jesus is her source. Like a river flowing His grace, mercy, comfort, strength, hope, health, encouragement...life has made it's way to her. All of this flows in and through her, like water over the falls. Her life isn't the source, but she allows Jesus the source to flow over, through, in and out of her. A visible expression of grace and beauty. not her's, but His. That's all she wants people to see anyhow...Him. What a refreshing discovery on my journey through life today. She told me how right now she's sort of checked out of the conventional church scene. She and three others get together in a house once a week to have church. She like many have found church today too busy with busyness. A waterfall is simply refreshing and today she helped me discover a new that faith in Jesus can be refreshingly simple. What's important isn't that you attend three services a week, are involved in four different ministries, and play softball on a church team in a church league. What's important is that you have found the reality of Jesus as your source. He can be the refreshing flow that brings life to you and life to those that view His presence flowing over the hard edges, curves, and knots that make up who you are.

I could visibly see that she could not hold back what Jesus has meant to her over the past five years. As I prayed for this twenty year old young woman I felt honored to have rounded a turn in my spiritual hike through life and had stumbled upon such an amazing discovery of God's creation and interaction. What an amazing discovery...what a refreshing faith!



Psalm 78:15-16 "He split rocks in the wilderness, gave them all they could drink from underground springs;
He made creeks flow out from sheer rock, and water pour out like a river."

The Big Big House

The Wiseman's are finally settled. We found a house to rent in Woodstock so we are no longer living in a van "down by the river." No really when Amie and the kids came we settled into our pop-up camper in the back yard of Jared & Charla's apartment. This was just a temporary 3 week experience and now we hate camping. Anybody want to buy a camper? The house we've rented is amazing. We weren't looking to rent in this neigborhood we were just out looking at neighborhoods deciding where we'd like to buy once our home in Ohio sells. Anyway we're on the backside of this lake community and there's this huge stone-cape-cod-looking lodge of a home on the end of the lake with two decks, cathedral ceiling, blah, blah, blah....wow! This lady is working in the yard and says she'll show us around. There's no way this is in our price range. God is so good! The lady says she doesn't usually rent to people with children, but for us she would make an exception. She throws out a great figure, says we don't need a deposit, and now we are living in the Big Big House!! In the last week I've fished off of my back yard 3 times. We even have a beaver....cool! I guess I am just really thankful that God provided us a home with a country feel and a back porch made for quite times with family and with Him.

It's Good to be Home!

The past two months have been the hardest of my life. My wife and I decided that it was best for me to go to Georgia so that I could get housing lined up and a job before the family came down. So our worship pastor and myself moved here in April. Before this move the longest I had been away from my family was 10 days while speaking at a retreat in Nairobi. That would in no way prepare me for the 55 days of being away from home.

In April I saw my family every two weeks. Then there were 33 days that we were seperated. I have never experienced loneliness like that in my life. You know the kind of loneliness where people can be all around, but you still feel cocooned in a sense of isolation and seperation. I went home last week and brought my family to live with me in Georgia. This week I have felt whole again; "it is not good for man to dwell alone."

I love Georgia, but it wasn't until my family got here that I felt at home. I guess home isn't a location, but a sense you feel when you are surrounded by those who have celebrated victories with you and also haved loved you consistently in spite of your faults. Everybody needs a sense of family. For some family means your wife and kids, or mama & daddy, for others family is that group of friends that have stuck close to you through thick and thin, either way life is richer when lived together. Right now my babies are in bed and Daddy is truley feeling blessed. It's Good to Be Home!

Loving my Father's Day,

-ross

Why Plant Another Church Plant?

The following is my response to the question "why [plant another church] so close to other church plants?" ::

Thank you for your response. I'll try to be brief regarding why we chose to come to Woodstock. I was the Sr. Associate Pastor at a church in Ohio for nearly 11 years. I loved it there and actually was back preaching this last Sunday at there three morning services. I really thought I would stay there until the pastor retired and I succeeded him. Everything was perfect nice house nice church etc....but God began to speak to me about coming to the Atlanta area. For over five years I wrestled with this because Atlanta has enough churches. Last summer I knew that I had to take the step and do what God was leading me to do. I did a bunch of research on several counties in the metro area of which Cherokee was not one of them. In August I brought my family to Stone Mountain to camp and everyday we would take off into the areas I researched. we would drive and pray and just try to focus in on what we sensed God leading us to do.

One night we had dinner with an old youth pastor of ours that currently lives in Cherokee County. When we got into the Woodstock area my wife and I both felt like God was up to something. For four days we never said to each other what we were sensing. To be honest I thought we would be closer to the city, if not within the perimeter. When I finally told my wife that I believed Woodstock was where we should be, she expressed her sense of calling to this area as well. Please understand at that time I had not done one demographic study, growth analysis, or searched for church saturation statistics. I just knew that this was where God desired us to be. When I got back home and began to study this area I was blown away by the growth that has occurred and is occurring in Cherokee County.

To leave a successful ministry was not an easy choice, but to not follow the leading of God would be the greater loss. I am a very kingdom minded pastor who celebrates the victories of my fellow pastors. This area is definitely a growing community and it will take many dedicated church plants to successfully reach the people flooding into our neighborhoods and developments. Back home we had 135,000 people in our county and there were a few churches that were over a thousand people in Sunday morning attendance. To be honest I was glad for every church plant that began in our city because even though we had grown to be a fairly large church, I knew we couldn't reach everyone. When one church that had a different style then us related to someone of similar style and they began their journey with Christ that was a victory for "team Jesus". It would be arrogant for me to think that I could reach everyone. We are all doing our part and I believe in that the masses can be reached and God will be pleased.

One of those church plants back home started about 8 years ago. They located themselves less than three miles from us. At that time we had grown to around 350 people. Fast forward 8 years and our Sunday am attendance is between 900-1000. The other church has grown to 2000. Does that mean they are twice as successful and if they would not have planted we would have added a great portion of that number to our rolls? No, we have had people visit us that fit better at the church plant and we have recommended them to check it out. They have done like wise for us. The kingdom expands exponentially through the labors of a variety of churches as they can reach out to a variety of people.

You asked, "why so close to other church plants?" #1 God led us to be here and #2 This is one of the fastest growing communities in the country and it will take us all working together to successfully bring in the harvest. I hate to switch metaphors on you, but here I go. When a boat comes into a harbor all the other boats in the harbor rise. I believe that God has a special plan for this area and with the variety of churches coming into this harbor together we can all expect to rise higher. Lets be faithful to God, faithful to each other, and faithful in our pursuit to reach others so that Jesus will rise up before us and the people of our community will be drawn to Him not any one particular church plant including mine.

"with you on the journey"

-ross

To Blog or Not to Blog

To Blog or Not to Blog that is the question. I set my blog up a few weeks ago and have failed to yet journal, expound, declare, promulgate, ponder, pontificate, or publicly peruse my innermost person so this will be my inagural blog.

As with all blogs frequent visits to this site will help you better understand the journey of another. Somehow when we begin to see that another person has similar fears, questions, experiences, concerns, discoveries, and things that make you get the warm fuzzies it makes our life's journey a little easier to navigate.

I hope that this will serve to be a forum that we can use to navigate life together. For some of you I'm your pastor to others a friend, and for many just a stranger throwing thoughts out into cyber space, but whatever our connection with a cup of hot cafe au lait with hazelnut (my favorite coffee) in my hand I raise a toast to you and say "here's to the journey ahead!"

"with you on the journey"
-ross