Waiting in Expectation
Several years ago I met a precious Christian woman named Carolyn who used a phrase that struck me as a great definition of faith and expressed her genuine trust that God was up to something. Whether or not she could visibly see God doing something at the time she would always tell me that she was “waiting in expectation.” I love that phrase.
Those very words are found in Psalm 5:3. “In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait in expectation.”
That is exactly where I believe we are at Perimeter Pointe. We see God working. We have paid off all of our debt. God is moving among some of our families. I feel as if we are all restless and excited for God to begin the next chapter. But we are waiting. However we aren’t waiting impatiently (well, at least not most of the time!). We aren’t waiting with frustration, either. We are waiting with great anticipation of what God will do. Our plans are to re-launch our church in Alabaster with a new name and new passion to make disciples.
As I pray and seek God’s vision for what that will look like I have been thinking in terms of three actions. Gathering, Growing, and Going. Gathering will allow us to celebrate together, hear Biblical preaching, learn about opportunities to become involved, assemble resources, and challenges our house churches to keep the vision before us. We will gather corporately to worship and as home churches during the week. The growing environment will provide shared teaching, accountability, community, opportunity to deepen our discipleship, and encouragement to go as workers into the harvest. We will also continue developing and multiplying Life Transformation Groups. The going portion of our model will equip disciples and encourage them to serve those in need and take the good news to our communities and the ends of the earth.
As we wait in expectation of all this, we also wait on the people that God will send our way. We are trusting God for 4 more things before we launch:
1) A location – We desire to find a place in Alabaster we can gather corporately that will cost little or nothing so we can spend most of our resources on ministry. We don’t expect to find a permanent or 24-7 location, but simply a place we can use on Sundays.
2) A worship leader – We are praying for a volunteer worship leader who has both a passion for worship and for leading others to worship
3) A children’s director – We are trusting God to send someone who loves children and has a vision for family discipleship who can lead our children’s and preschool ministry.
4) An administrative volunteer – We need someone to take care of the administrative details and logistics so Pastor Mark will be freed up to teach and lead.
Is this a lot to ask or expect? Maybe. But we believe God can do it. And we are waiting in expectation for Him to do just that!