WOW, where do I start?!!

WOW, where do I start?!! So much has taken place, both in my life and within my heart during these past 5 or 6 months that it’s sometimes difficult to grasp. Maybe the thought, idea, or vision to what I believe God has now called me to do, has always been around in the back of my mind or has at least crossed my thoughts before but never has God told me to do it…….....until now! And I am so sure that He has. I should mention I have spoken at summer Bible camps for over 20 years; spoken at weekend retreats for church groups; filled the pulpit many times for different occasions; spoken at banquets; taught Wednesday night Bible study for months; taught Sunday school for years; and even preached one revival and two funerals (my precious Momma and Daddy). Still I don’t think God had called me to do what I am about to do until He called me now.
Maybe it got a little more close to me about a year or so ago in the summer of 2006 when my former pastor Greg Naude announced he was leaving the church to go and plant a church in Northern Virginia. He invited me to go with him one day and meet Tony Inmon who helps folks who want to plant churches to do just that and was helping Greg to plant one in the Haymarket area. So I went and talked, and mostly listened, but just didn’t feel it was what God wanted me to do at that particular time. Then Greg left about 6 months later at the end of December to go to the Haymarket area, (I even got to preach for him the last Sunday, December 31, 2006) and I started the new year, 2007, trying to keep up a couple of things God had led me to do at the church and the church started the new year without a pastor.
As the months grew on, I tried to fill in where I could (mainly doing Wednesday night Bible study for a good while) and continued with the “Monthly Movie Madness” on the last Saturday of the months and also with Stage II, a contemporary style service we had also stared about a year or so ago on the last Sunday night of the month. I can still remember one Saturday night in the summer when we had almost 50 people come to our movie night, when we showed it outside on the back of the church wall, sort of like a “drive-in” without the cars. With good hotdogs, snacks, praise songs, and a time for devotions, I felt God blessed, and the evening seemed to go real well despite the rain that caused us to move the event inside for the last portion of it. As the fall months came, things seem to change somewhat and at times get tougher, and I felt God starting to speak to my heart about doing something else.

Headed where HE wants us to go

I should also mention that as these few months passed that God continued to encourage me by letting me read great books like Jim Cymbala’s: Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire! and his other similar book, Fresh Power! Both reminded me and encouraged me to step out in faith and to depend on prayer and power from on high or else I couldn’t do anything. These books were great reminders for a person looking to start a church and to look for God to do a mighty work, beginning in my own heart! My wife Ginny was reading the books too, and Ashley had brought these into the house, reading them herself, so it seemed God was gearing us all up to a special work.
I shared my vision with a few folks, including my former pastor who suggested that I contact Tony Inmon, (the person I had met almost 6 months ago) and tell him what God had put on my heart and to ask him to help me further my intentions of starting a church. This meant leaving the church we were attending, so exactly one year, (isn’t God amazing?) as to when my former pastor had left the church, the Moser family left the same church. I had missed the first meeting planned with Tony (I was at VA Tech with “Hokie” on that tough November morning) but was able to finally meet with Tony the second Sunday in January. He was very encouraging and more than willing to help me in any way he could so I was glad we were able to finally get together. We had started the New Year off by visiting a couple of different churches and seeing how they conducted their worship services so with the meeting with Tony on the second Sunday of the new year, it seemed God was already working greatly to show me we were all on the right road and headed where He wanted us to go.