The Journey Part 11: The Pieces Fall Together

Upon resigning from Christian Hills Church, Grace and I took an extended sabbatical/vacation. We worked on getting our house ready for sale, listing it and making our plans to move to Jacksonville. Our house sold in 2 and 1/2 weeks even though it was in a rapidly weakening market. During that time we connected with old friends, said goodbye to our church family and I took advantage of some preaching opportunities that were made available to me.

So we loaded up the truck and moved to Jacksonville, Florida. Colleagues, friends and family thought we were crazy, or at the very least going through a mid-life crisis. Nothing could be further from the truth. We felt a sense of destiny. Although we had no real clue where we were going or what lay ahead we were confident that God had spoken to us and obedience was not an option.

Logos had plenty of work that needed to be done, but as with most non-profit religious organizations, insufficient financial resources to pay us. Since we knew God wanted us in Jacksonville, and we knew no one else but Dr. Travis, we agreed to work for Logos on "deferred compensation." It wasn't a hard choice as we believe very strongly in the Logos ministry.

In the meantime we set about looking for a church to call home. I'm a firm believer in the church. Whereas many claim that the church is inconvenient, or irrelevant, or even outdated, my understanding of the Scriptures is that Jesus is coming back for the church as His bride. I agree that the Church has many different manifestations and expressions, but it is the Church that Jesus loves, and if He loves her, so do I.

Not wanting to be presumptuous we decided to visit a number of churches of various denominations asking God for discernment as to where he wanted us to fellowship. We wanted more sacramental/liturgical components in the next church we would commit to, but we certainly were not going to compromise our evangelical and charismatic roots.

We visited Presbyterian, Methodist, and Lutheran congregations. All different, but excellent churches. We were warmed by the ancient and yet modern expressions of liturgy. We liked each congregation, as we saw a genuine Christian community of people who loved Jesus. Our appreciation for the traditions that have survived the test of time grew as we went from church to church. After 7 weeks of visiting churches, we decided to once again visit where it had all begun in February of 1999.

At the Church of the Messiah we were greeted with an Ancient-Future reality. God, as he had been worshipped for centuries was present in the incense, pagentry and symbols. The worship music easily drew us into the presence of the Lord. There were multiple instances of tongues, interpretation and prophecy. The Word of God was preached with anointing and prayer for the sick with the anointing with oil was offered. And the people were among the friendliest we had ever met. We were ready to settle in, but something wasn't clicking.

Grace and I discussed it and decided that the Lord wasn't giving us peace about settling in at Church of the Messiah. In one sense we were somewhat bummed out about it because we really liked it, but we were at the same time excited because that meant God had another place for us to find, and I like the journey as much as I like the destination.

During the ensuing week one of my co-workers asked if I had visited Christ the Redeemer in Ponte Vedra where Daniel Williams is the lead pastor of the congregation. I had never heard of Christ the Redeemer or Pastor Williams, but I was told that it too was a convergence church. Convergence is an embracing of the Sacramental, Evangelical and Charismatic streams of theological and historical expressions of being the church.

Christ the Redeemer Church in Ponte Vedra is a bit out of the way from Logos and where we live. The weather is beautiful in North Florida, so the ride isn't bothersome. We decided to give the church a visit. We pulled up to a modestly beautiful, new church building and walked in to participate in the service. It didn't take us long to realize that we were in a special place.

The church decor was simple, but beautiful. The worship music was great, the preaching was very good. Even though the Pastor was out of town, his Assistant Pastor spoke and did an outstanding job. The congregation engaged in every aspect of the service. When it was time for the Communion celebration, there was a time of communal prayer for forgiveness and we partook of the elements by going forward to the altar. God's presence was very real.

On the way home, we discussed our experience and both agreed that we would come back. We haven't gone anywhere else since. The missing piece of the puzzle had been found and it fit. I scheduled an introductory meeting with the Pastor. After speaking with him it was obvious that the main reason for us coming to Jacksonville was to learn about Convergence ministry, and Daniel Williams was the one we were to learn from

Grace and I couldn't be happier. We've had some financial curve balls thrown at us since we've been here, but we know that it is just an attempt by the Enemy to try to get us to doubt. It has only served to solidify our resolve. We are as confident as we can be that our move to Jacksonville was ordained by God. We look forward to our growth as Christians and development as ministers in the work of God as we learn how to facilitate three streams of God's move within his church. The beauty of the Sacramental, the spontaneity and power of Holy Spirit through the Charismatic, and fulfillment of the Great Commission through Evangelical heart and preaching.

We couldn't possibly be more content or fulfilled.