B E H I N D / T H E / B A R

There is somewhat of a method to my madness here at Behind/The/Bar. I try to mix it up a little with personal stories, updates, and encouraging words.   I try to do this consistently while attempting to not bombard you every day with my banter.  Today was supposed to be an off day, but I felt like I needed to call in some reinforcement to help me pray about an issue facing our church right now.

Will you help us pray for an open door?  When we started Saturday Church ten months ago, we nearly filled up the 1500 square foot space almost immediately.  We’ve known for a while that we needed a bigger space. Cadence Coffee Company has come to the end of its lease in its current space, and is planning to relocate to a great new space just a couple of blocks away.  While this space will be great for more intimate groups and Bible studies,  the new layout will make it very difficult for our larger Saturday night gatherings.  We need a new space.

I have explored other options in our area of downtown and am waiting for an answer.  Problem is we have one more Saturday after tomorrow, in our current space.  After that, well. . . . God knows.   We need a space bigger than 1500 square feet.  We need to be able to worship and eat a meal together in that space.  We also need space for our kids to gather in a safe environment as well.  We need it to be downtown, and we need it in three weeks.

I struggled with posting this today. As a pastor, asking for prayer for your church is humbling. You want people to think things at your church are blowin and growin. That everything is perfect, exciting and wonderful. This post is forcing me to swallow my pride a little. I’m learning that RiverChurch isn’t MINE it’s HIS. He’s just asked me to lead the congregation. That’s a tall order in times like this. I want to lead us to the place He wants us to go not necessarily where I want us to go.

So maybe what I should be asking you to pray for is that I would clearly hear His voice behind me saying “this is the path walk in it.” That I would see the doors open and paths to clear knowing, with clarity where He would have us go.  

We do church out of the box at RiverChurch.  There really is no script, manual or model for us to follow except what He has shown us in His Word. We’ve moved away from traditional Sunday morning services, out of a church building, into a coffee shop on Saturday nights and opened our door to people on the streets, and now our congregation looks really different than it did, a year ago.  Lots of people have celebrated our efforts and encouraged us along the way. Now I’m asking those same people to lock arms with us in prayer as we stand at a Red Sea moment in the life of our church.

It’s in these 11th hour times of life, that God does His greatest miracles.  I want you to know the need, ask you to pray, so when the answer does come, you will know just how big of a miracle God has done.

God isn’t finished with us yet.  We’ve already seen lives changed.  We are seeing His Kingdom coming to earth as it is in heaven. But there’s more.  We want to see what “more” looks like.

So thanks in advance for praying.  Let’s see what God does.