…continued from Part One

One day during the Summer, I met with Mike again for lunch. We met at a Chinese place in town and Mike shared with me his dream and what he felt God calling him to do in this region. As I listened to him, I remember thinking, “this man is clearly being led by the Spirit.” Everything he was saying was right in line with what I believed God wanted to do through me as well, but it seemed literally impossible for it to happen in my life. It was during this time that Mike laid out an informal invite for me to play some type of role in the startup of this church. He also mentioned that the name “Vertical” had been decided.

I left and went back to work. I called Nikki on the way and told her what Mike and I had talked about, and Nikki flat out told me, “No.” See, we were both realists, at least in the sense that we believed going to a church with no pay was, honestly, a stupid, irresponsible decision. I mean, we had 3 kids, could barely pay bills as it was, and were constantly stressed out as it was. Dropping my income? Not gonna happen.

During this time, Brandon (Vertical’s Student Pastor) began talking to me about how the team was praying for me to be a part in some way. During the early Fall, I met with Mike for lunch again (funny how a lot of this involves food) and he laid it out on the line. He and the other pastors had prayed and were ready to bring me to Vertical as Worship Arts Pastor.

I can’t really describe the emotions I felt. I mean, I was in a comfortable job position at another church. I had job security. I really enjoyed what I was doing, for the most part. I really enjoyed the people there. I had made some amazing friendships. My entire life I’d been in that church. My dad was on staff at that church. The more I thought about it, the more crazy and scary it seemed. I told Mike that I’d continue to pray and seek the Lord on it, but I knew in my mind that it was just too crazy for me.

I literally told myself in my office after that meal, “There is no way I’d ever end up doing that. It’s just not possible.”

Stay tuned for part three – the final in this blog trilogy.

I’ve been Worship Arts Pastor at Vertical Church for 7 months now. That’s CRAZY! In 2011, I’ve held 3 full-time jobs, whereas in the past 4 years, I had only one full-time job. I think it would be good to go back and recap how this all came to be, complete with a timeline, if only for me to be able to recount God’s blessings on my life. So, in a series of posts, I’m going to go back to when this whole Vertical Church thing started for me and take you along on what has been nothing less than a supernatural move of God.

It started, actually, in early 2010. I was still working for my previous church as Director of Youth Ministries and Assistant Music Director. In fact, I was in the middle of one of the most fruitful ministry years I’d ever had. But I was starting to feel something very odd – something that didn’t really make much sense. I felt that God was calling me to be involved, in some capacity, with the church on a different level. That was about all I knew. I didn’t sense a call to something “greater,” just something “different,” while still within the context of the local church.

I first met Mike P many years back when I was around 13, but hadn’t really had much conversation with him. In fact, I’d guess that there were roughly 15 years or so that we’d not even spoken. However, I had heard that he was involved in ministry and I knew that, like me, he was a musician. So, that being said, I decided it might be cool to invite him to lunch. So we met for lunch at Two Guys Grille. We exchanged pleasantries and began talking about ministry. I learned at that time that God had placed a unique desire on his heart, which we both had in common. I learned that Mike was feeling a call to church planting, and instantly I felt God’s desire for me, but in the interest of convenience, I tabled it for a while.

We left our meeting and I told Mike I’d hit him up again sometime for lunch. Maybe we’d do Chinese next time.

Stay tuned for Part Two.