The following statements have a good chance of being cliche and perhaps "over-theatrical," but I feel like I need to express this.
Exactly one year ago to the day I was in Master's Commission and we had set out on a two-week long road trip, our first destination: Charlotte North Carolina. We had just found out the Master's Commission was being shut-down. I was upset, confused, and certainly anxious. Questions raced thru my mind as I had hoped for more years to come at Calvary Orlando Master's Commission (A program that I had fallen in love with). So with that, we set out towards North Carolina... One day while we were in Charlotte, we stopped at a Panera Bread where I first met Pastors Mike Field and Sam Farina. At the time, they were strangers... Foreign to my association or acknowledgment. We'd known that Pastor David was going to be joining these guys in June to launch Hope Church in the fall, and it was nice to finally put faces to the names of which Pastor David spoke so highly of.
I sat in the corner of the back room of the Panera bread while Mike and Sam did a class with us... Currently, as I'm blogging, I'm sitting in that very same seat that I sat in one year ago... Continuing: After the class, I remember being fascinated and definitely impressed with them. I loved their intelligence, their passion, and most of all their faith... After the class, I didn't say a word personally to either one other than a hand-shake and a "thanks for the great teaching." I made a b-line for the door, and walked out into the parking lot with everyone else inside, and I dialogued with God. I had a strange curiosity going through my imagination; it was this... "WHAT IF i'm called to come here??" And when I asked myself and God that question, it was in no way revelational, or a deep inspiring moment where I think 'Now I get it!'... On the contrary, I was angry. Angry at God for allowing me to be as confused as I was. I sat down on the curb which I can see out the window next to me at this moment. I didn't get it... What was I supposed to do?
We ventured our way to Washington DC where we toured the city and visited Ebenezers Coffee House and National Community Church. Unprompted, I had become fascinated with the idea of Church planting... I had always dreamed of doing it (my dream is to do it cross-culturally) and now that Pastor David was involved in one, I saw it as an opportunity to pick his brain, nothing more, but I'd lie to you if I didn't tell you that I had explored possibilities in my imagination. One Sunday morning, Pastor David invited whoever wanted to go with him to a campus of National Community Church which was meeting in a theater. That morning, Ben Chase and I met him in the lobby of our hotel. We went to the theater and enjoyed an awesome service. I met Mark Batterson for the first time, he's a awesome dude... After the service, we made our way back to our bus that the three of us had taken to a train station. When we got on the bus, we jumped on the road and made our way to the hotel.
Ben Chase had fallen asleep, so it me and Pastor David were the only coherent one's on the bus, which gave me the chance to ask more personal questions about the Church plant that was to come. After going through multiple different aspects of the situation, Pastor David saw my fascination. He glanced over his shoulder at me and said "Dayne, your thinking about coming to Charlotte, but you aren't being direct, just tell me what your thinking." ... At that statement, one of which he read me like a book, he immediately 'printed a retraction' for fear that he might pressure or influence me. But at that time, I was a very passive person, and his nudging was necessary. The discussion ended when we got back to the hotel, the results were: I was interested, he knew it, and we tried to outline mature steps to test whether or not it was meant to be.
Once the road trip had ended, and everyone had driven back to their host homes from the Church parking lot, Pastor David and I stood by the bus and talked for about an hour about the possibilities. I know this sounds funny, but I was careful to notice how careful he was being, if that makes sense. My respect for him surged as I saw how much he really wanted the will of God for my life, and he didn't want to alter any of God's plans. But I felt free to dream about the idea. Although our first discussion on the bus in DC broke the ice, the conversation we had in the parking lot of Calvary Assembly was one that liberated me to really consider this opportunity.
Although the story is much longer and there are more loose ends that were tied in the coming months, here I sit. The same place I was precisely a year ago, then, I was a visitor of Charlotte... Now, I'm a resident. And I thank God for allowing me to be apart of his plan for this city. I love it here, the town, the people, and I love serving Hope Church.
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