The Call

     As I visited the Northeast with my wife for the past few years, my heart grew increasingly burdened for our family and friends living in the Northeast.  Many friends we attended college with from the Northeast struggled to find true gospel-centered churches and fellowship with other devoted followers of Christ after graduation.  In January of 2010, I started to become restless as I thought about the need for gospel-centered missional churches in the Northeast.  This was the time Kristin and I began to pray about our future and God's desire for us whether it be remaining in Northern Virginia or going to the Northeast.
     Fast forward to June 2010. I was preaching at our annual Beach Week Summer Camp for our High School ministry.  The theme of the camp was "Upside Down" and we had been teaching students about the radical cost of following Jesus and how living for Christ is contrary to the message of the world but more satisfying than anything else.  One evening, I was preaching out of Luke 9:57-62 about how there is no such thing as a "but first" mentality when we say we are committed to following Jesus.  In Luke 9, there is a man who tells Jesus he desires to follow him, but then says "but first let me bury my father." In the context of the passage what this man meant by saying "but first let me bury my father" is essentially, "Lord I want to follow you but first let me wait a year to collect my father's inheritance, at which point he will be buried, and then I will come follow you."  Jesus doesn't desire us to say I will follow you as long as I have... Jesus was communicating that he is worthy of us following him immediately, right now!  As I encouraged and challenged the students to follow Jesus now, knowing He is worthy, I felt an overwhelming sense of conviction.  I am always preaching to myself as I share God's word with others, however, that night I found it hard to even finish my sermon.  It was in those moments, that my mind was filled with thoughts from the Lord, for one of the few times in my life I clearly heard the Lord say to me, "Mike you are not doing what you are teaching all these students to do. You are saying "but first." But first, let me finish seminary, but first let Kristin finish graduate school, but first let us earn more equity on our home, etc., etc., etc." Somehow I was able to finish my message.  Dazed and convicted I went to find my wife.  When I found her I told her we needed to talk and she turned to me and said, "I know, we have to go." What?! Goosebumps filled my arms as my wife began to share with me that as I spoke she also felt the Lord saying we needed to follow him wherever he would leave and stop saying, "but first."
     The day after we returned from camp I knew we had to do something, call someone, look up churches in the NE online.  I asked my wife who reminded me that our friend Justin Pearson had a buddy from college who had planted a church in New Brunswick, NJ (near Rutgers University). I looked up his church, Jacob's Well, online, found his contact information, and told my wife I was going to email him.  This is the point at which Kristin looked at me and said, "If you're serious about this you should call him." What a godly wife I have.  So, I called.  I left a scatter-brain voicemail about how my wife and I felt the Lord possibly calling us to the Northeast and how I would like to talk with him if he had time.  My wife and I went for a run and when we returned I had a voicemail from him expressing great excitement in hearing our possible call to the North. The next morning at 5am, Kristin and I were in our car headed up to NJ to meet with Reid in his living room.
     After meeting with Reid, we knew two things. One, I knew my desire was not to parachute plant a church.  Two, we knew we needed to continue to pursue the Lord's call to the Northeast.  At this point we began to pray specific prayers:

1. God make clear to us the place you want us to go
2. God confirm your call for us to go
3. Lead us to a church that has a heart to see gospel-centered churches in the Northeast
4. Lead us to a church we could be connected to that would provide training and resources for us to plant a church

     Reid has mentioned in our time together that there was one other church with Pastors who had a heart to plant churches in the NE he had been connecting with monthly, called Emergence.  A few weeks after our meeting with Reid, Kristin met her friend Sheryl for breakfast.  As we talked to Sheryl she shared with us about an incredible church she was a part of.  When I asked her the name she said it was called "Emergence." Lightbulb. Kristin and I began to share with Sheryl our story thus far and how we felt God was calling us to the NE.  She invited us to church that Sunday.  When Sunday morning came I woke up early and told Kristin I was going to drive 45 min. north of where her dad lives to visit Emergence.  I went to the church and after the service met Ryan, the lead Pastor.  I shared with him the burden on my heart for people in the Northeast and he turned and said to me, "I have been praying since January for God to bring us young men who have a heart for church-planting in the NE area." He said he didn't know if that it meant I was the guy, but we should continue the conversation.
     As we continued to talk it became clear that Emergence was the church God was calling us to partner with to plant a church in NE New Jersey.

     So here we are preparing to follow God's call to take the gospel North, and we couldn't be more honored and excited to have been called for such a time as this to do God's work.

Taking the Gospel North

Taking the Gospel North, is a blog we created to stay connected to all of you!  Thank you for your friendship, your prayers, and your support as we prepare to move to Northern New Jersey in a few short months to follow God's call on our lives to plant a gospel-centered church and live missionally in the Northeast for the glory of God! We look forward to sharing prayer requests, updates on our family, stories about what God is teaching us as we seek Him through this experience, and stories about all the amazing things we expect Him to do in the lives of those we meet in Northeast New Jersey.  Our hope is to update this blog on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to share our hearts with you.


As we prepare to walk in obedience and follow God's call North, we encourage you also to prayerfully consider Jesus' calling on your life as a follower of Christ.


Let these words in Luke 10:2 & Acts 20:24 encourage and challenge you.


Luke 10:2 "He told them, "The Harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."


Acts 20:24 "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord has given me - the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace.


"Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God" - William Carey


With love,


Mike & Kristin