Nine Years Ago

Nine years ago, nearly to the day, I tried to sketch on a single page the vision of a new church plant. A core team of families had been meeting since February, praying and planning toward such a vision, aiming to have something worth sharing with others by the fall. This late-August sketch was basically what came out of that time, soon to be tested, questioned, and refined by a larger founding team on Saturday mornings in the basement of Bethlehem Baptist Church. 

There were some tweaks made — you might even notice in the drawing — but it was nothing drastic. We launched with this dream in our hearts the next January, and, just like that, God birthed a church who is still here. She calls herself Cities.

Pastor Kevin recently ran across this old sketch and sent it to me. As I looked over it, one thing stood out to me. It’s one thing that I think matters more than anything else. Where are the names? 

There is only one. 

D.L. Moody famously said, “The world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to him.” And I wonder: what might God do with a church fully consecrated to him, a church that doesn’t care about any name but Jesus?

God, let it be.