My Worship Revolution

Is mindedness even a word?  Well, it is now anyway.
In a culture that can often be all about ourselves and taking care of number one, it’s refreshing to see churches finding tangible ways to express unity and work together.

Several months ago I got an email from my friend Sean.  He’s the pastor of another young church here in Santa Cruz called Antioch Church.
The reason for the email was to let me know about a gathering on July fourth.  Antioch, Faith Community, Gathering By The Bay, and Trinity Covenant – all very different expressions of the church and all fairly young – gathered together on that Sunday morning at the Rio Theater.  As part of the liturgy they were having a commissioning time where they wanted me to come and share our story and allow them to pray for Missio Dei Community as we get started.

I have a heart to work alongside other faith communities and model unity as we help each other in accomplishing God’s purposes, so I was stoked for the opportunity.  Of course, I had already committed to teaching at a church in San Jose that is part of our Converge network, an opportunity I was also stoked about.  So, after tossing around a couple ideas, Rachel and the kids ended up going to that gathering to represent us while I spoke in San Jose.

As I was driving back over the hill I talked to Rachel on the phone and finding out how things went there.  She started to tell me about how they had 4 boxes up front for people to give to their particular church if they wanted to, BUT…the offering being passed that morning was a love offering to go to us!
As she told me, my eyes welled up with tears.
Check out this video Christal took for us from the service:

We had no idea they were gonna do that.
For four other churches to be willing to do that for us spoke volumes to us about those churches and those leaders.
For churches to be ‘Kingdom minded’ like that and even be willing to sacrifice to some degree to bless us was awesome.
I can’t wait to get to do this for someone else someday.  To share that level of generosity even when we don’t have a lot ourselves.
And I’m even more stoked than ever to get to work alongside these churches and others in Santa Cruz County to be Jesus to our community.

Yesterday I got a check for around $1350 from that morning.
Thanks you SO much to each of those church bodies.
We are excited to be a part of whatever God is doing right now in this city.
And this is just the beginning.
Can’t wait to see what’s next!