After almost 30 years of ministering together, God gently told my wife and I to close the doors of the church we were pastoring.
What? Why would God want you to close down a church?
Well, the bottom line was we were never called by God to pastor that church in the first place. Long story short- pastoring the church was a really good thing to do, but it wasnt a God thingfor us. So on Sunday, December 30th, 2001, we had the greatest service we had ever had. It was so good, in fact, it made us wonder if we had heard God correctly. But we stayed true to what we knew was right, and we shut down City of Life Christian Church.
After that the two of us sat before the Lord and asked him, What now?
Then as clear as a bell, we heard him say, Practice Worship NOT music, but worship.
It wasnt a lot of instruction, but it was enough.
So God tucked us away in our home and we began to worship him just the two of us. Thursdays had been our worship practice night in preparation for Sunday service, but now we didnt have a Sunday service to practice for. Instead, we set this time apart to simply worship God.
A month or so later, a couple of our friends found out what we were doing and asked if they could come over and join in. It was awesome. Its been six years and I cant begin to describe how much our lives and our hearts have changed.
One of our amazing adventures, weve had along the way, happened two years ago. It was another incredible encounter with the Lord. My wife felt strongly that we needed to go to IHOP-Kansas City. She didnt know why, but felt like it was important. I thought it was pretty random, but somehow, dragging me along, we found ourselves in the IHOP Forerunners auditorium being prayed for and anointed for new music. That seemed pretty weird, but very cool. Whatever you want to do, Lord Bring it on. Since that day, my wife has had a constant download of songs from the Lord resulting in one or two new songs every week.
There are other stories to share, but they will have to wait.
Our formula (if you can call it that) is simple press into the presence of God, express your love to him from your heart, and try not to leave there too quickly. When you do that, a multitude of things happen (at least it does for us).