The Community Center project has received a powerful shot in the arm in the last few days as our local congregation (aka “society”—a holdover from our earlier days) voted pretty unanimously (29 votes for moving forward, 2 against) to keep walking through open doors as God directs us. If you think that this is a pretty big step for us to be undertaking, you’re right. It is. However, we serve a God of big dreams.

Many times the dreams God gives us create the opposite reaction that He meant for them. Rather than trust and obey, our reaction is to fear and cower. I’ve seen it takes a remarkable church in our day and age to actually “just do it.”

We’ve been talking quite a lot with our congregation in the last five years about the generous heart of God. We have taken on that mind-set; in the last five years we have begun to open our building for some incredible opportunities.  
 
We had a burden to see our building used more than just a few times a week; we prayed, and eventually saw the opening of a small Christian school. We sought a way to “break into” the Latino culture that has moved into the neighborhood; we just couldn’t seem to connect. God gave us the burden, we prayed. God brought us a wonderful pastor who is reaching those that we cannot. They are a year old next month, seeing people won to the kingdom of God, growing—and very soon, sending.

And most recently the ache, burden and prayer was to know God’s heart for the two and a half acres of undeveloped land the church owns just west of our building. For almost 50 years (since 1961) it has sat idle. Granted, our neighborhood went from rural to urban over this time. We had a few ball games on the property, but nothing that purposely advanced the kingdom. So we went back in to the closet and began to pray.

Simultaneously, our Spanish-language Pastor Salomon began praying about the burden he was carrying for reaching the youth of our city experiencing life at the crossroads of decision: do I adopt drugs, crime, and gang life as my family. Or are there other options?

For kingdom’s sake …