Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Do ya thing, God.

Yesterday I was reading in 1 Chronicles 28. King David was getting "old and full of years" as chapter 23 puts it, and was making preparations to hand the kingdom over to his son Solomon. David had long before wanted to build a temple for the Lord but God told him that he wouldn't be able to do that; instead, his son Solomon would be the one to do it.

As I was reading it, verse 19 really stuck out to me because of where I'm at in life:
"All this," David said, "I have in writing from the hand of the LORD upon me, and He gave me understanding in all the details of the plan. - 1 Chronicles 28:19

I'm in charge of leading up and launching our first off-site campus of Del Sol Church. I'm the campus pastor and that means I'm responsible for this campus. I spend most of my days thinking about, reading about, and studying up on things like leadership, how to do multi-site, how to lead teams, how to do church in our North American context, sound systems, trucks, trailers, church systems, kids ministry, budgets, salaries, raising support, and on and on and on ...

This is a HUGE endeavor. I get home after being at the office all day and my mind is exhausted. See I like tangible things. I like to start something and see it done a little while later - that's why I like yard work because you start working and a couple of hours later, it looks totally different. Right now I'm in the research phase, so to spend pretty much all day everyday doing such mind-taxing tasks is a really big stretch for me. I pray a lot that God will help me synthesize everything I'm reading into something that makes sense.

So when I came across this verse, I was just stopped in my tracks. I feel totally overwhelmed and under-equipped to lead this campus (which is a good thing because it keeps me humble). I can't even imagine what it would be like to be the king of a nation and to make plans to build a temple for the living God Almighty, the God of all Creation, Who would dwell in that place for hundreds of years. If I think I've got a big job, I can only imagine how overwhelmed David must have felt.

But this verse was so encouraging because it reminds me that this is a God thing. Just like God was the one who gave David understanding in all the details of the plan, I know God will do the same for me. I'm claiming it as a promise for me.

I claim that He'll give me understanding about budgets. I claim that He'll give me understanding about team members. I claim that He'll give me understanding about systems. I claim that He'll give me understanding about leading teams ...

I claim that He'll give me "understanding in all the details of the plan" - not some, not a few, not the biggest details - ALL of them. I believe that God is passionate about the multi-site church revolution because it is a movement that's bringing many people into a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ - and I know that if He's passionate about it, then He's responsible for it.

Do ya thing, God ...do ya thing.



What are you believing God for today? What promise from His Word are you claiming?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ariel,
I'm in a similar situation as you. We're laucning our first satellite campus in the suburbs of Detroit this fall. I'd love to connect via e-mail and exchange ideas. bdharvey@northridgechurch.com