I cannot believe that we have been planting The Pathway in Tacoma for 5 years now. Unbelievable. What an epic journey Jesus is continuing to take us on. It was actually 6 1/2 years ago that God called our family to help plant churches in the Pacific Northwest. How young and crazy we were! We came to Seattle for the first time in the fall of 2007 and by January of 2008 we had loaded up everything in our double-wide, jumped in the cab of our U-haul... me, Kelli and Addie (our then 2 year old pup) and began this incredible adventure.
No kids. No fear. And no clue what we were doing!
After a year and a half internship helping to plant Lifepointe Community Church in Snoqualmie, WA, we once again packed our things, this time just a 2 bed-room apartment worth of belongings, and headed south to Tacoma. We still had Addie (and still do), but this time there were 2 little babies in Kelli's big ole' tummy!
We thought we were being so smart, so on the ball, and so prepared by moving November 1st. After all, the twins weren't due until January! Can anyone say "naive?" Two weeks after spending our first night in Tacoma, Jagen and Rylan decided the womb was no place for them. Looking back, we had no idea how crazy things were. Kelli's water broke while we were spending the night at a friends apartment back in Snoqualmie. We made the 45 minute drive from Snoqualmie, to the hospital a mile from our house in Tacoma, not knowing that was where we would be spending the next 6 weeks of our lives! The kids were tiny, they were 9 weeks early, and we were just going with the flow.
We began our time in Tacoma with a vision. It was based on Roman's 10. In vs. 1 Paul writes... My hearts desire and my prayer to God is for their salvation. I just remember that verse being the anthem of my life. There was no denying that God brought us to Tacoma. There was no arguing that he had called us to plant The Pathway church. Everything in our hearts were beating for life change. We fully understood, and still understand, Paul's heart in writing that particular sentence. Everything in us wanted to see salvation for a city full of people that we did not know. Not just that we didn't know everyone in the city. We didn't know anyone in the city. But we loved them. We still do.
Later in Romans 10:13-15 Paul writes... Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him in whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without someone preaching? How will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful our the feet of those who bring the good news!
From this passage of Scripture flowed a vision statement that has carried us for 5 years.
We want to be a church with beautiful feet, committed to walking with our city down The Pathway of life by:
Serving our communities intentionally
Sharing the gospel with those we serve
Showing believers how to grow and
Sending ordinary missionaries to start new Intentional Communities
and new churches in Tacoma and beyond.
It's been amazing to see this vision become a reality. We've literally have learned to walk with our city through life, learning who they are, becoming a part of the city and learning what their needs, desires and beliefs truly are. We've served our tails off any and every way we know how. From meeting tangible needs, to throwing block parties, partnering with local non-profits and getting our hands dirty with our neighbors. We have seen a church grow with a passion and resolve to serve selflessly no matter how we are treated in return (Philippians 2).
We've grown tremendously in sharing the gospel. We've seen God change lives because of the hope of the gospel. We've seen the addicted find recovery. We've seen the recovered find purpose. We've seen the nominal Christian find intentional mission. We've seen the lonely and isolated individual find family in Christ. We've seen the gospel infiltrate our city, by God's grace, through the hands, feet and mouths of our church. Unbelievable.
We've seen believers grow. Sometimes I get so frustrated and feel like so much more should have happened by now. But when I step back, breathe, and get some perspective, I think... WOW! Look what you've done Lord. We've seen disciples make disciples. We've seen people who had never heard John 3:16 learn it, believe it and share it. We've seen people who did not know sex outside of marriage was less than God's best decide on their own to honor God through repentance and then marriage. We've seen folks who never thought they could lead or teach, lead and teach. We've seen so many people grow in so many different ways.
Make no mistake... all of this is by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone!
We've even been amazed to see God allow us to raise up and send-out ordinary missionaries (by ordinary I mean folks just like you and just like me). We've launched new Intentional Communities in multiple neighborhoods committed to serving and sharing the gospel. We were even a part of launching a new church focusing on University students in Seattle called The Way. The church plant ended up not making it, but it was an incredible act of trust in the Lord on the part of all involved. Lessons were learned, faith was grown and you better believe we're not done planting churches. We were even able, by God's grace alone, to send 3 ordinary missionaries to South Africa last year to partner in sharing the gospel with a people who so desperately need good news!
It's been an amazing ride and it is so incredibly far from over.
We believe that God has accomplished the original vision he gave us for planting the gospel in Tacoma. We believe he's done that and we believe he can do so much more! We've learned, we've grown, our faith has been tested and our God has remained faithful. As I've prayed and sought God's direction over the last several months and really even the last year, one word has continued to come into my mind and heart as God has provided a fresh vision and a renewed passion. Its the word on the graphic at the top of this post... Reproduction.
This Friday and Saturday is our Leadership Retreat. Please pray for the leaders of The Pathway as we cast vision, ask questions, pray, dare to dream big and more importantly dare to put our faith in a God who does big things! Pray for unity, passion, direction and resolve to see Reproduction happen. Finally, please pray as we launch our vision series the first Sunday in November and cast this new, fresh, gospel-centered vision to our church. It will be an exciting time.
Please pray that people show up, bring family and friends, get excited, take action and begin to Reproduce for the glory of God!
I can only imagine (Ephesians 3:20), if the Lord has not yet returned, what we will be celebrating in October of 2019!
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